So excited to be featuring braid #2 today, the Side French Braid Ponytail. I recently wore this in an outfit post, Pony Dress, but it is such an easy style to recreate that I find myself wearing it quite often.

The trick to making the braid look sleek is to only pull in three sections of hair on each side of the braid before finishing in a regular braid. This makes it lay a little more smoothly and creates a look that is a little softer. Don’t forget to pull on the edges of the braid to make it fuller to because really this makes the biggest difference.

Throw some curls into the ponytail as well; this takes the finished style up a notch and is always a must for me.

French Braid Ponytail

• Step 1 / With a side part, pick up a section of hair on the heavy side of the part and divide it into three pieces.
• Step 2 / Begin a french braid by crossing the side strands over the middle.
• Step 3 / Next, pick up a section of hair and add it into the right strand, cross both pieces over the middle strand. Now, add a section of hair to the left strand, crossing both over the middle. Repeat these steps once more on each side so there are only two sections brought into the french braid.
• Step 4 / Continue braiding the hair down in a regular braid.
• Step 5 / Tie off the end of the braid with an elastic band and gently loosen the sides to make it fuller.
• Step 6 / Sweep the rest of the hair up into a ponytail and remove the elastic from the braid.
• Step 7 / Take a small section of hair from the ponytail and wrap it around the hair band.
• Step 8 / Secure the end of the wrapped piece with a hair pin.
• Step 9 / Optional: To create a fuller ponytail, spray it with dry shampoo and gently back comb the hair near the hair band.