Not all of us have the time or expertise to pull off a French plait or milkmaid braid at a moment’s notice. Even worse is when you spend a good 20 minutes attempting one and then another 20 untangling the knots you’ve matted in.
For those pushed for time (or feeling a bit lazy) we need something that’s low maintenance but looks amazing. Hence, the bubble braid.
It may not be new, but it’s having a resurgence on the ‘gram where lockdown has pushed lots of us to get more creative with our hair and experiment with styles that hide third day hair and slightly questionable roots.
@sandy.sarkisyan / Instagram
Bubble braids offer up a cool twist on simple ponytails or classic plaits and they only take a few seconds more to create. Basically, if you can do a ponytail, you can do a bubble braid.
Here’s how:
- Start by tying your hair into a ponytail. Do a high ponytail if you want more of a sporty look, or a mid ponytail if you want a casual look and a low ponytail if you want a sleeker look.
- Pull out any baby hairs and your fringe to make it feel more relaxed, or keep it tight if you want it to look neat and slick
- Take another hairband and tie it a couple of inches further down your ponytail.
- Using your fingers, tease the space between the first hair band and the second to loosen it into more of a bubble shape.
- Keep repeating this step another couple of inches down your ponytail until you get toward the bottom.
- Leave the chunk at the end loose to keep the braid looking modern
- Tease each “bubble” once more to make sure you have the shape you want
And there you have it, one very simple bubble braid. You can mix things up by creating two braids like pigtails or experiment by putting your own spin on things with some extra twists and flips within the bubbles.