Braiding tools: what each one does and which to get

Which tools for which styles

Start with what every style uses, then add only what your menu needs. The full shopping list, products and hair included, is the braiding supplies checklist; this guide is about choosing each tool.

One rule runs through every section below: a tool you can’t disinfect is a tool you can’t use on the next client. Metal and hard plastic go in the disinfectant; wood, fabric and natural bristle soak it up and stay damp. How to disinfect, and what the states ask, is in the sanitation section of the supplies checklist.

Parting combs

Parts are what clients photograph, so this is the tool to spend on. You’ll use two kinds, and you need two of each, one in the disinfectant while you work with the other.

• Rat-tail comb: fine teeth at one end, a long tail at the other. The teeth smooth the section, the tail draws the part. Look for teeth that are even and smooth at the tips, and a comb stiff enough not to bend when you drag the tail across the scalp.
• Metal-tail comb (also sold as a pin-tail or parting comb): the same comb with a thin steel tail. It draws finer, straighter parts than a plastic tail and keeps its point, which is why braiders reach for it on small knotless, stitch braids and grids. Choose a tail with a rounded tip, and a comb whose tail can’t work loose from the handle.

Stitch braid tools

Stitch braids are cornrows with short horizontal parts across each row, so every pass of hair added looks like a stitch. Each of those small parts is made with a fingernail, a comb tail or a finger parting tool: a pick worn on the finger, so the part is made without putting the comb down.

One example is the Braid Aid: its maker describes a hard plastic pick with a round pointed tip on an adjustable strap that fits most fingers. Whichever you buy, look for a smooth, rounded tip that parts without scratching, a fit that stays on through a whole row, and a strap or ring that goes in the disinfectant with the pick.

How to use it: part the cornrow rows first with a metal-tail comb. As you braid each row, use the pick to take the next small section from the side, draw it toward the braid in one clean line, and add it. Keep the stitches the same width from front to back: it’s the evenness, not the number, that reads as neat.

Sealing synthetic ends

Synthetic braiding hair is sealed with heat, so the ends don’t unravel. There are two ways to do it. Which fibres take heat at all is in Best braiding hair.

Hot water. You don’t need it boiling. Kaneka, which makes Kanekalon fiber, says its fiber sets curls and seals tips in hot water from 70 to 90 °C (158 to 194 °F). Dipping is also how scalds happen: Children’s Wisconsin’s burn program, which has treated deep burns from it, advises a waterproof cape with a thick towel over it, thick gloves rather than a towel to hold the kettle, and a cup or kettle with a handle. Bring the braids down to the cup, never the cup up to the head.

An electric braid sealer. Heated plates melt the very tip of each braid. StyleCraft’s LOQ Professional Braid Sealer, for one, is listed with plates that reach 430 °F, 3 minutes 30 seconds to heat and up to 3 seconds on each end, for synthetic braids, with a heat-resistant mat. The Hot Tools Braid Sealer #1180 is listed with a cone shape that cuts and seals in one step, for synthetic hair only. A sealer is faster on a full head of small braids and keeps hot water away from the client; it costs you a socket and a mat within reach.

Safety for the fiber. Kaneka says its modacrylic is flame retardant and self-extinguishes, and warns that some synthetic fibers that aren’t flame retardant melt and drip when they catch fire, which burns skin. So check the pack says what the fiber is, test a loose strand before the first head, and keep a sealer’s plates on the ends only, well away from the neck and scalp. Never use a lighter on fiber you don’t know.

To keep it clean, unplug the sealer and let it cool on its mat before you wipe melted fiber off the plates. The kettle and the cup never touch the client; the towel and cape are washed between clients.

Crochet hooks, latch hooks and loc tools

• Latch hook: a hook with a small hinged latch that closes over the hair, so it pulls through a cornrow without snagging. It installs crochet hair and faux locs, pulls a loose strand back into a braid and tucks ends. Hooks are sold by width in millimetres: a bigger one for bulk crochet hair and faux locs, a finer one for small braids and repairs.
• Loc crochet hook: a tiny hook, usually 0.5 mm or 0.75 mm, that pulls loose hair back into a loc. Daixi Dreadology’s guide puts 0.5 mm first for fragile roots and microlocs, and 0.75 mm for dense, mature roots, where it works faster.
• Interlocking tool: pulls the end of the loc through its own new growth at the root. Nappy N Happy makes its tool in five sizes, from micro mini for locs under 1/8 inch to large for 1/2-inch locs, and says the widest part of the tool should never be wider than the base of the loc.

A latch’s hinge traps hair, gel and debris; Nappy N Happy makes the point that its tool has no moving parts for that reason. Brush the hinge out with soap and water before every disinfection, and replace a hook whose latch no longer closes flat.

Take-down tools

Most take-downs need a pick or the tail of a rat-tail comb to open each braid from the end, and hair-only scissors to cut synthetic hair below where the client’s own hair ends. If you take down many heads, a take-down brush opens several braids at once. The maker of the Original UnBraider describes a wider side for big braids and a narrower side for small ones, and says to saturate the hair with a detangling conditioner first. Whatever you use, take the shed hair and buildup out at the root before you comb, and stop where it knots.

Edge brushes

An edge brush lays the hairline with edge control at the end of the style. Most have a small, firm brush on one side and a fine-tooth comb on the other: the brush sets the swoops, the comb draws the line. Choose nylon bristles and a plastic handle, which take a disinfectant, over boar bristle and wood, which don’t, and keep enough so each client gets a clean one.

Tension and comfort aids

No tool fixes tension: your grip does. Dermatologists name the signs a style is too tight: pain, stinging, crusts, or the scalp pulled up like a tent. If you see one, loosen that braid. What helps you keep tension even is the right hold, not a stronger pull: clips that hold each section off the one you’re braiding, gel for grip at the root, and a client seated at your chest height. What to tell clients about tension and how long to wear a style is in the braiding appointment checklist.

Questions braiders ask