Braids, also called plaits, are hairstyles made by weaving together three or more strands of hair. People have used braiding to style and decorate human and animal hair for thousands of years in many cultures around the world. In some cultures, braided hairstyles show information about a person’s marital status, gender, social class, or age.

The most basic and common braid is a flat, three-strand design. More complicated patterns can be made using any number of strands to create different shapes. These braids are usually long and narrow, with each strand moving forward in a zigzag pattern through the others. Adding more hair as the braid grows, either from the head or from separate pieces of hair, can create styles like knotless braids or French braids. Small items such as beads or shells can also be added to the braid.

History

The earliest known example of braiding may be the Venus of Willendorf, a female figurine found in Austria. It is believed to have been created between about 28,000 and 25,000 BCE. Some people disagree about whether the horizontal spiral ridges on the statue's head show braided hair or a woven basket. Another example is the Venus of Brassempouy in France, which is about 25,000 years old and seems to show a braided hairstyle.

Braided hairstyles have been common in many cultures around the world throughout history. In the Indian subcontinent and China, braids of different styles existed since the Bronze Age. In Northern Europe, bodies preserved in bogs from the Iron Age were found wearing braided hairstyles. Later, braided styles were seen among the Celts, Iberians, Germanic peoples, Slavs, and Vikings in various parts of Europe. People in Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome also wore braids.

In some areas, braids were used to share information. By looking at someone’s hairstyle, people could quickly learn details about them, such as whether they were married, mourning, or ready for courtship. Braids helped show differences in social groups. Some hairstyles were unique to certain ethnicities or countries. Other styles showed a person’s position in society. Braids or hairstyles could also indicate a person’s community, age, marital status, wealth, power, social role, and religion.

Braiding is usually a social activity. Because braiding takes time, people often use it as a chance to spend time together. Elders teach younger children how to make simple knots and braids. Older children watch and learn from elders, then practice on younger children. This helps pass down traditions and creates connections between older and younger generations.

There are many types of braided hairstyles, such as French braids, corn rows, and box braiding. Braids can be used instead of or along with simpler styles like ponytails or pigtails. Braiding can also be used to add decorations, such as beads or hair extensions, as in crochet braiding.

Braiding by culture

Many braided hairstyles come from Africa. These include cornrows, box braids, twists, and locs. Each group and region has its own special ways of braiding and meanings. People like the Yoruba in West Africa, the Wolof, the Himba in Namibia, and the Maasai in Kenya have been braiding their hair for centuries. In many African cultures, hairstyles help people identify different groups. There are many types of African braiding styles. Braids were common in Ancient Egypt, and many styles were popular for both men and women. The way braids were placed and styled showed a person's age and social position. Cutting braids had special cultural meaning. Sometimes, braided hair was used in burial ceremonies.

In Black culture, braids are often made tighter than in other cultures, such as in cornrows or box braids. This helps the style last longer, but it can cause some discomfort at first. People manage this with pain relief methods, such as using pain medicine, letting the braids hang loosely, or applying leave-in conditioner. Some braiding styles, like knotless braids, use more of a person's natural hair and put less pressure on the scalp, causing less discomfort. In Black culture, braids are not worn all year. They are often changed with other hairstyles, like hair twists.

The way braids are placed can create different styles, such as mohawks, half-updos, and side-swept cornrows. Using different hair textures, lengths, or extensions can create styles like goddess braids, boho braids, and bora bora braids. Braids made with a person's own hair are part of the natural hair movement. Braids can also be used as a base for a sew-in, a style where hair extensions are sewn onto tight braids.

Many braided hairstyles are closely linked to African Americans, who brought traditional African hairstyles to the Americas during the Atlantic slave trade. For example, cornrows come from West Africa, but their name in English refers to the corn and sugarcane fields where enslaved Africans worked. Modern box braids resemble the chin-length braids of Ancient Egypt but became popular in a longer style through Black celebrities like Brandy Norwood in the 1993 movie Poetic Justice and later by musicians like Beyoncé.

Black American hairstyles have faced issues about respectability, racism, and cultural appropriation. In 2019, California became the first U.S. state to stop discrimination based on natural hair. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the CROWN Act into law, banning employers and schools from treating Black hairstyles like dreadlocks, braids, afros, and twists unfairly. Later that year, New York passed a law (Assembly Bill 07797) that also banned race discrimination based on natural hair or hairstyles.

Many North American Indigenous groups had braided hairstyles, with traditions varying by tribe. For example, the Quapaw tribe had young girls with spiral braids, while married women wore their hair loose. The Lenape tribe had women with long, braided hair. The Blackfoot tribe had men with braids on both sides of their ears. The Kiowa tribe wrapped fur around their braids, called a "hair drop." The Lakota tribe had both men and women with two braids, with men’s being longer. Some groups on the Great Plains also wrapped their hair in furs during war, leaving their hair unbraided as a sign of bravery.

Among the Maya, women had hairstyles with two braids, while men had a single large braid around their heads. In India, young girls and women often wore long braids at the back of their necks. Ancient texts called the Upanishads mentioned braided hair as a charm for female beauty. Today, braiding is common in both rural and urban areas. Girls often wear twin braids in schools, though this is becoming less common. Young girls usually have one long braid, while married women wear buns or braided buns.

In Mongolia, braiding was an important tradition. People believed the soul lived in the hair, and it was only unbraided when someone was near death. In Japan, samurai wore a high-bound ponytail called a chonmage, a style still used by sumo wrestlers. Japanese women wore braids called mitsuami until the late 20th century because school rules limited other hairstyles. In China, girls traditionally had straight bangs and braids called biànzi. Men of the Manchu group wore a hairstyle called the queue, which involved shaving the forehead and keeping a long braid at the back. After the Qing Dynasty took over in 1644, Han Chinese men were forced to adopt this style, which they saw as a humiliation. Rebels cut their queues to show resistance, including Mao Zedong. The last Qing emperor, Puyi, cut his queue in 1922, ending this hairstyle in China.

In Europe, braids have been important for thousands of years. In Ancient Greece, unmarried women wore their hair loose, while married women used braids in elaborate styles. Men also had long hair, sometimes braided, until the 5th century BCE. Statues of the Caryatids show women with two-stranded braids. In Ancient Rome, lower-class women wore simple buns, while wealthier women used braids in complex styles. Statues show styles like the three-stranded braid and French braids. Germanic cultures also used braids for centuries. A book from 820 AD shows women with braided hair. The braided crown hairstyle started in Europe in the 11th century.

Hairwork is the art of making jewelry or decorations from human hair. Braided hair was sometimes used in mourning jewelry as a reminder of the person it came from.

Braid-cutting

The cutting of braids holds special meaning in many cultures. Sometimes, cutting braids has been used as a way to punish people.

During the Qing Dynasty in China, cutting a braided queue showed disagreement with the Manchu rulers. Later, during the Republic of China, men were required to cut their braids.

In many Native American tribes, people cut their braided hair when they are sad about losing someone. In Canada, during the Indian residential school system, Indigenous children often had their braids cut to remove their cultural identity. Cutting braids has also been used to protest against taking Native and First Nations land.

In 2017, several attacks happened in northern India where people had their braids cut. No one has explained why these attacks occurred.

Older books about mental health sometimes mention people who cut braids for unusual reasons. For example, a Swiss psychiatrist named Auguste Forel wrote about a man in Berlin in 1906 who had 31 braids. Another psychiatrist, Richard von Krafft-Ebing, studied the idea of hair being a special object of interest in the late 1800s.

In psychological analysis of literature, writers have continued to discuss braid-cutting. For example, a story in Ernest Hemingway’s book For Whom the Bell Tolls has drawn attention. Sigmund Freud, a famous psychologist, wrote in his book Totem and Taboo (1913) that cutting hair could symbolize a type of punishment. Some later writers saw braids as symbols of masculinity, while others believed braids represented purity, and cutting them meant the loss of that purity.

In animals

Braiding is used to get horses' manes and tails ready for showing, like in polo and polocrosse. Braiding horse hair can be helpful because it helps keep their tails and manes untangled and prevents damage.