How to Make a Cascade Waterfall Braid

Looking for a special hairstyle for a wedding or elegant occasion? Whether your hair is shoulder length or long, you can create a gorgeous cascading waterfall braid in no time.

Steps

1. 1
   Prepare hair for braiding. Hair braids best when it is clean and fully brushed before braiding.
   
   
   
   
   • Wash and condition your hair. Remove excess water using a clean towel. The braiding will be most successful if you don’t fully dry your hair.
     
     
2. 2
   Brush out any knots with a wide tooth comb. Brush underneath the nape of the neck to ensure no knots remain.
   
   
3. 3
   Part your hair in the middle.
   
   
4. 4
   Section off the top third of your hair. Begin sectioning from your forehead and part. Use the wide tooth comb to section off your hair and hold the section in one hand.
   
   
   • Divide the section into three parts.
     
     
5. 5
   Braid the hair toward the back of your head in a French braid style. After the first pass, begin working outside pieces of hair into your braid so that you're essentially French braiding your hair.
   
   
6. 6
   Create that “waterfall” look. When you’ve reached the last part of the first braid section, drop the last strand of hair. This will make it look like the hair is cascading from the braid.
   
   
7. 7
   Pick up a new strand of hair located next to the strand you’ve dropped to replace that strand. Continue the waterfall look by picking the next section of hair located beside the hair section you dropped and continue braiding.
   
   
   • Continue braiding by cascading the braid toward the middle of the head. Repeat the initial step by continuing the braid and then dropping the last section of hair, but then picking up a section next to the dropped hair section.
     
     
8. 8
   Secure the braid with bobby pins if needed. Keep bobby pins on hand to provide additional support or to keep errant hair in place.
   
   
9. 9
   Braid the remaining “tail” until you run out of hair. Complete the look a few ways by either finishing the tail in a normal braid or in a fishtail look.
   
   
   • Fishtailing is essentially braiding your hair in a “backwards” fashion (instead of wrapping hair over itself you go underneath).
     
     
10. 10
    Decorate. Finish with a small hair tie or clip that matches your outfit. Do not use a rubber band as it will get stuck in your hair. Depending on the event, you could either integrate a matching clip or hide the hair tie into your tail by choosing a tie in the same color as your hair.
    
    
11. 11
    Finished.
    
    
    
    

Tips

• Consider working with freshly washed, damp hair for ease and to create the smoothest braid.
• Mist hair lightly with hairspray after it’s been braided to hold your style in place.
• Use bobby pins that match your hair color for a more natural look.

Things You'll Need

• Wide tooth comb
• Hair tie or clip
• Any ornamental additions (optional)