Online braiding classes: how to pick one

What to learn, in this order

Each skill rests on the one before it. A good class follows the same order; a class that starts with knotless skips the hands you need for it.

1. 1

   Parting

   Clean, straight parts in a grid: boxes, triangles, bricklay. Every style after this is only as neat as its parts, and parting is most of the time a full head takes.

2. 2

   Cornrows and feed-ins

   Underhand braiding flat to the scalp, then feeding hair in a little at a time so the braid starts thin and grows. This is where your grip and your rhythm come from.

3. 3

   Box braids

   Adding extension hair at the root of a single braid and keeping every braid the same size and length, from the nape to the front.

4. 4

   Knotless

   Starting with the client’s own hair and feeding the extension in, so there is no knot at the root. It is box braids and feed-ins together, which is why it comes after both.

5. 5

   Sealing the ends

   Dipping in hot water, and when a style needs it instead, a knot or a curl at the end. A braid that unravels in a week brings the client back unhappy.

6. 6

   Tension and edges

   Firm enough to last, never tight enough to hurt. No bumps at the root, and a light hand around the hairline: braids pulled too tight there can thin a client’s edges for good. Learn this from the first braid, not last.

7. 7

   Speed

   Last, once the rest is clean. Speed comes from repeating a style many times, not from rushing it; a fast braid that has to be redone is the slowest one.

Ask these before you pay

Send these questions to the teacher, or find the answers on the course page. A class that won’t answer them is telling you something.

• What is taught, style by style? A list of lessons by style and step, not “everything you need to braid”.
• Mannequin or live model? A mannequin head is fine to start. You also need to see the teacher on a real head, with real hair texture, a moving client and edges to protect.
• Does anyone look at my work? The most useful thing a paid class can give you is someone who watches a video of your braids and tells you what to fix. Ask how you send it, who answers and how soon.
• How long can I watch the lessons? Lifetime access, or a date it ends. You will want the knotless lesson again in six months.
• What is the refund policy? In writing, before you pay: how many days, and whether watching a lesson ends it.
• Can I see real students’ results? Photos of students’ work, before the class and after, with the student named or tagged, not only the teacher’s own heads.
• What does the certificate say? That you finished this class. If the course page calls it a license, or says it lets you braid for pay in any state, don’t buy it.

Free videos or a paid class?

Free videos are enough for the basics. Parting, cornrows and a first box braid are taught well on YouTube by working braiders; watch two or three teachers for each skill and copy the one whose hands you can follow.

Pay when you need what a video can’t give you: feedback on your own braids, a teacher you can ask, and one course that takes you in order instead of a playlist you assemble yourself. If you can’t say which of those you’re paying for, keep practising with free videos first.

A practice plan

• Get a mannequin head with textured hair, and a clamp or stand that holds it at the height you’ll braid clients.
• One skill a week. Part the whole head one week, cornrow it the next. Don’t move on until the last set looks like the lesson.
• Time every set. Ten braids against a timer, the same size each time, and write down the minutes. Watch the time fall while the braids stay even.
• Film yourself from the side and from above. You’ll see the tension, the parting and the angles you can’t see while braiding.
• Then real heads. Friends and family, for free or for the cost of the hair, and ask them how it felt the next morning.

A certificate is not a license

Where a state licenses braiders, it asks for its own hours, course or registration, and a course certificate doesn’t replace them. Illinois counts only 300 hours at a licensed school; South Carolina asks for its own six-hour course and exam; Ohio asks for a registration. Others ask for nothing at all, like Texas, Georgia and Florida, so the class is for your skill, not your paperwork. What each state asks, in one table.

Questions braiders ask