This 2-strand braid is also known as a fishtail, fishbone, or a doublet. It generally turns out fairly loose. The braid takes a long time to do, but it looks impressive and complicated when finished!

The 3-strand, or English braid, is the most commonly seen type of braid today. It is easy to learn and involves crossing alternating outside strands of hair to the inside. If the braid is gradually worked into the hair, as shown on the right, the result is called a French braid.  

Since this 4-strand braid is asymmetrical, the finished plait winds itself into a twisted rope pattern that looks a little like a DNA strand. This kind cannot be done well in a French style against the head.

The 5-strand braid looks like 2 3-strands interwoven with each other. The braid in this picture was done on hair of about average thickness. This is the start of styles that require explicit use of separate fingers to hold strands of hair.

The glamorous crown braid is tricky to do on yourself unless you can twist your arms in strange directions. It involves working a 3-strand French braid around the head instead of straight down.

This is one of my inventions that I call a Faux crown. The result looks similar to a crown (above), but it is very easy to do. It involves a 3-strand French braid and a normal English braid wrapped around the head. The braid in the picture was done on waist-length hair.

The headband starts out similar to a crown, except it uses a 3-strand Dutch style, and only pulls hair from one side of the braid. The end is wrapped around the head and pinned, and the result is a natural headband to keep hair back.

Minibraids are common among Africans, and rarely seen among Caucasian hair. They are easy to do, but very time consuming. The picture on the left took about 8 hours to do about 80 tiny, 3-strand English braids. The braids can stay in for 2-3 weeks with proper care.