Perfectly pretty plaits! Let Coco and I show you how to create beautiful french plaits...

Today we're up in my bathroom with Coco who has kindly agreed to model!

I've had so many requests to show you how to do a french plait. So, Coco's going to sweetly sit down and be terribly patient so I can show you exactly how to do it.

I had a doll with very long hair when I was a little girl. We had lots of long car journeys, and I would take my doll and hold her between my knees and practice plaiting her hair again and again and again. And you know what they say, practice makes perfect! It really did help me learn how to plait whilst also whittling away boring hours in the back of a car as a youngster.

I think it's a good idea to give your child something to play with whilst you're doing this. Sometimes Coco will read a book or play with something. It's a good distraction, particularly when you've got young children. They need to be distracted with something otherwise they get bored, and then they don't want to have their hair done!

The first thing you need to do is to make sure the hair is nicely brushed. Make sure that you are knot-free because you don't want to be pulling on the hair at all while you're plaiting, otherwise it's not much fun for the little person that's sitting there while you're doing their hair!

Use a comb to divide the hair in two, because we are going to do two french plaits today for Coco. Have a hairband as the ready, so you can pop one side out of the way in a hairband, and then you can't get that tangled in the other side as you're plaiting.

Take a little section from the front.

Divide it into three even pieces.

Put the right over the middle and the left over the middle. If you want a nice tight, neat plait you need to keep the hair quite taut. Then just take a section from the right and add it into the piece you're already holding on the right. Then take a small section from the left, and pop that into that left-hand section. Then place right over the middle and left over the middle. Continue, gradually adding more hair sections from the left and right as you go.

If you want a really big, thick plait and you would then go for bigger sections, or if you want a finer french plait go for smaller sections. Try and make sure that the sections are as even as you can get them to make a nice uniform plait.

Keep it taut with your hands as you go, pulling it towards you.

If you find that any areas start to look loose or baggy, carefully undo that section again and pull it a little bit tauter to neaten it up.

Have another hairband at the ready on your wrist. When you get down to the bottom just secure it with a hair elastic, and make sure it's really firmly in place because you don't want that elastic falling out.

Once you've got your elastic in place, tuck a ribbon through the elastic, and this way you're less likely to lose your ribbons if they're secured around the hair elastic.

Wrap the ribbon around to cover that hairband as much as you can, and then just tie it in a pretty bow!

Repeat with the other side! Try and get your hair sections to be as uniform as you can to the other side. It doesn't need to be perfect but just don't go for much bigger chunks than you did on the other side.

I hope that helps!

Love,