Examples of oils or butters you can use to keep your hair moisturized and tangle-free are coconut oil, argan oil, jojoba oil, shea butter, or aloe butter products. Check the natural hair care aisle at a pharmacy or beauty supply store to find these products. If your natural hair is tightly coiled, you may also want to blow dry your hair before you start braiding. Blow drying will help stretch out your curls and give your cornrows a neater look.
If you don’t want a middle part, create 2 parts near the middle to make a row right on top of your head, then make more rows on the sides from there. Try to make your parts evenly spaced so that your rows are about the same size.
You should use both hands to do this, with 1 hand holding 1 section of hair, while the other hand holds 2 separated sections of hair. Before you start braiding, you may want to add a bit of edge control along your hairline. This will help you grip the hair easier, tame flyaways, and keep your cornrows neat.
At all times you will still have 1 hand holding 1 section of hair, while the other hand holds 2 separated sections.
If you don’t add more hair with each stitch, the braid will be loose and come out from your head instead of being in a cornrow style. Instead, you want to French braid each row.
The length of the end of your braid will depend on how long your hair is.
All of your braids should be braided to one side. Bring your braids either to your left or your right, whichever is your preference. These braids will end at various places on the other side of your head. Secure them with elastic hair bands just as you would regular cornrows.
End the curved sections of hair at the nape of your neck on the opposite side from where you first headed when you curved the lines. When you’re finished with each braid, you can join the braids together in a low side-ponytail if you like.
Feel free to braid the rest of each row, rather than cornrow it, so that your ponytail consists of braids. This style also looks good with different sized cornrows, so you can make it easier on yourself by simply creating and braiding rows 1 at a time.
You can combine this parting style with other techniques such as the side-swept cornrows, or keep it simple by doing only 1 or 2 zig-zag parts while the rest of your parts are straight.
