Close on two hands parting and braiding dark hair at the scalp in window light

Six ways in

Braids, pins, heat, no heat, curls, or a practice head

BraidingThree-strand, French, Dutch and fishtail braids. Needs nothing beyond the base kit, and it is where most people start.

Start here

Do a three-strand braid ten times in a row, then follow one French braid tutorial start to finish without pausing to restart.

Cute Girls Hairstyles tutorials

Updos and pinned stylesBuns, twists and chignons held with bobby pins. Also base kit only.

Start here

Tie a low ponytail, twist it into a coil against your head, and lock it with four bobby pins. Shake your head hard: if it holds, you have a bun.

Missy Sue updo tutorials

Heat StylingBlowouts, curls and sleek straight hair with a dryer and hot irons. The most gear and the most risk to your hair.

Start here

Mist dry hair with heat protectant, clip the top half up, and curl just the bottom layer in 1-inch sections, all turning away from your face.

Heatless CurlsWaves set overnight on a soft rod. Slower than an iron, but it cannot burn anything.

Start here

Tonight, wrap damp hair around a soft curling rod from the crown down, sleep on it, and unwrap in the morning.

Curly And Coily HairWorking with natural texture using wet styling and curl products instead of fighting it with a brush.

Start here

On your next wash day, rake curl cream through soaking wet hair, scrunch upward with a microfiber towel, and let it dry without touching it.

r/curlyhair beginner routine

Mannequin PracticeA practice head on a table clamp, for drilling braids and updos at eye level for as long as you like.

Start here

Clamp a practice head to a table at chest height and braid it where you can watch both hands, something your own head never lets you do.

Open a direction to see the first thing to do. Braiding and updos run on the base kit. The other four end in a button that adds their gear to the drawer: a dryer, a round brush, two irons and a heat protectant for Heat Styling, a soft rod for Heatless Curls, a curl cream and a microfiber towel for Curly And Coily Hair, and a clamp-on head for Mannequin Practice.

Your first week

A hand drawing a wooden comb down long straight brown hair — A comb drawn down smooth hair

Styles you can wear in your first month

Three-strand braid

The base pattern every other braid builds on, and wearable from day one.

French braid

One braid down the back that picks up hair as it goes, usually clean by the second week.

Pinned low bun

A twisted coil held by four bobby pins and no elastic, good enough for work or a wedding.

Half-up twist

Two front sections twisted back and tied, a five-minute style that teaches clean parting.

Loose waves

With a curling iron or an overnight heatless rod, the first style that changes your hair's shape.

Four skills everything else rests on

Clean sectioning

Straight parts and hair clipped fully out of the way. Messy sections are why a style looks lopsided.

Even tension

The same pull on every strand, from the scalp to the ends. Loose at the top and tight at the bottom is the classic beginner braid.

Working blind

Styling the back of your head by feel. Keep your hands close to your scalp and trust your fingers over the mirror, which reverses everything.

Prep

Second-day hair grips better than freshly washed hair. If yours is clean and slippery, mist it lightly with water or hairspray first.

Heat without the damage

Hot tools reach 300 to 450°F, hot enough to blister skin in under a second. Rest them on a heat-safe surface, never a towel or the bed, and unplug them when you finish.
Set the temperature by hair type: under 300°F for fine or bleached hair, 300 to 380°F for most hair, up to 410°F for thick or coarse hair. Start low and raise it only if the curl drops.
Never clamp an iron on damp hair. The water turns to steam inside the strand and it sizzles. Hair must be fully dry first.
Spray heat protectant on every section before an iron touches it, and hold a curl for 8 to 10 seconds, not 30.
With a dryer, rough-dry to about 80 percent with your fingers before picking up a round brush, and keep the nozzle pointing down the hair shaft.
Tight styles do damage too. A ponytail or braid that hurts is pulling on the follicle, and worn daily that thins the hairline.

Dermatologists on heat and tight styles

American Academy of Dermatology: healthy hair tips Dermatologists' free advice on heat, tight styles and breakage

What trips beginners up

What to expect

Your arms will ache. Holding both hands over your head for ten minutes is tiring until your shoulders adapt, so rest them on a counter between attempts.
The first twenty French braids come out crooked, usually because one hand grabs bigger sections than the other.
Curls that fall flat in an hour were touched while still warm. Let each one cool in your palm or a clip before you let go.
Styles shown on long, thick hair will not look the same on fine or shoulder-length hair. Search tutorials by your own length and texture.

Habits to drop

Stop using more product to fix a style. Too much hairspray makes hair stiff and harder to re-pin.
Stop brushing curly hair dry. It breaks the curl pattern into frizz. Detangle it wet, with product in.

A twisted bun held in place by a wooden hair stick, seen from behind — A twisted bun, seen from behind

Where to learn

Video is the right medium here, because you need to see hands move. Pick tutorials filmed from behind the head at real speed, and slow the playback to half speed the first time through. Watch the same tutorial three times instead of three different ones. If you have a friend with long hair, an hour of braiding someone else teaches the hand pattern faster than a week on your own head.

Close on a round brush rolled into copper hair during a blow-dry — A round brush rolled into a blow-dry

Free tutorials and feedback

How the kit is put together

The base kit is five cheap items that braiding and updos use every session, and it costs about what a single salon blow-dry does. A spray bottle and hairspray are the two extras worth adding early. Everything else sits behind the direction that needs it. Heat Styling is where the money goes, so buy the dryer first and add one iron only once you know whether you reach for curls or straight hair more often. A mid-priced iron with an adjustable temperature dial is safer for your hair than a cheap one with a single setting.

A silver hair dryer, a round brush, a pink comb and three scrunchies laid out on a white fur rug — A dryer, a round brush, a comb and scrunchies

A half-up top knot over a loose twisted braid in dark hair, seen from behind

Fill the vanity drawer

Every tool, with its options side by side

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The brush, comb, clips, elastics, pins, spray bottle and hairspray start in the drawer. Take out anything you already own. The lines marked as add-ons join when you switch on Heat Styling, Heatless Curls, Curly And Coily Hair or Mannequin Practice.

Tool 01

Detangling hair brush

Essential · Core tools

Every style starts with knot-free hair, and flexible bristles get there without snapping strands.

budget

Original Detangler Hair Brush, Black Frost, For All Hair Textures

4.7(78.7K)

$7.59

Hair Styling

Six ways in

Your first week

Four skills everything else rests on

Heat without the damage

What trips beginners up

Where to learn

How the kit is put together

Fill the vanity drawer

Detangling hair brush

Rat tail comb

Hair sectioning clips

Hair elastics

Bobby pins

Fine mist spray bottle

Flexible hold hairspray

Hair dryer with concentrator nozzle

Round brush for blow-drying

Curling iron, 1 to 1.25 inch

Flat iron, 1 inch

Heat protectant spray

Heatless curling rod set

Curl cream

Microfiber hair towel

Practice mannequin head with table clamp