From 90s half up buns to textured ponytails, TikTok is our holy grail destination for all of the best-kept hairstyle secrets. Take the french plait hack for greasy roots, for example. It’s our new obsession and, best of all, it’s so easy to execute.
Greasy hair happens to all of us, right? You wash your hair and within a day it starts to look slick and shiny. Dry shampoo is a god send, but piling half a can on every morning to push back hair-wash day can lead to a fair amount of build up. It’s a catch-22, because you don’t want to wash your hair too much, but you don’t want greasy hair either. Plus, who couldn’t do with a break from the excessive washing and heat-damage cycle?
We couldn’t believe our eyes when we stumbled across this easy hack that conceals greasy roots and gives your hair a new lease of life between washes, all thanks to the humble french plait. The internet is freaking out over how simple and effective this technique is. It literally takes minutes. We repeat, minutes. So if you’ve always struggled to craft a traditional french plait, this is the hairstyle you’ve been on the lookout for your whole life.
Not to be confused with unicorn-style parting plaits, which pull new hair into each section from the side before it’s brought back to the centre, this hack allows you to do a simple loose plait. To be clear, it doesn’t bring in new hair from the sides, but with a little trickery, it manages to look like it does. Intrigued? Over to you, Sarah…
TikToker @sar___h1, who has over 26,000 followers, took to the video-sharing app to talk viewers through an incredibly handy hack for covering up greasy roots with a faux-french braid that we can’t get enough of. Writing over her video she penned, “Greasy hair? Can’t do french plaits?”
Here’s Sarah’s french plait hack for greasy hair
With her down and framing her face, she had her hair parted in the middle and two small sectioned off area of hair. She left a tiny section of hair out, which probably wouldn’t be suitable if your hair was mega greasy.
With her head down, she plaited the first small section of hair into a super slimline braid, which ended at the back of the crown of her head. Once the slim plait was complete, she then flipped it backwards, put her head up and using a small elastic, she attached the plait to the back of that section of hair. Repeating again on the other side.
Now for the magic, Sarah then loosened the plaits slightly with the tips of her fingers for a ‘dutch braid effect’. She loosened the braids and ruffled them up a bit, which gave the effect of a french braid – without any of the fuss.
Racking up over two million views and almost 200,000 likes, Sarah shocked TikTok users with her handy tutorial. Viewers flocked to the comments in awe at what they had just seen. With one viewer saying, “You’ve just saved me, wow.”
While another penned, “Hi, this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.”
And a third typed, “I can’t do french plaits, I’m so rubbish at it. Thank you for showing this. It will be much easier for me.”
We can’t get enough of this french braid hack for greasy hair and you’ll catch us skipping washes on purpose, just so we can get the satisfaction out of it.