Slay Academy Episode 2: Tucking Knotless Braids

Hey y'all welcome in so, if you're watching this video, i'm going to start if you're watching this video after the live has already been finished, then welcome back. You are now tuning in to slaying it with ray um. I am cheraye. This is playing it with fray and we're going to be doing a slay academy segment and i just decided to go live with it. So that's what i'm doing right now. I still have the braids in from the first sleigh academy segment when i just show like the basics of knotless um. I really haven't touched this mannequin since then, but i wanted to come back and do the tucking, because i know it's been like long overdue. Hey hon, how are you so i'm gon na try to wait for a little bit more people to join in, but what i'm gon na go ahead and do is just get the hair ready. So do any of y'all already know like anything about tucking when it comes to knotless braids. Are you just like girl, you're gon na have to show me and not just knotless braids in general do y'all know anything about like tucking all together or what and excuse me y'all. If i got stuff like on my romper, because i just finished cooking - i'm just trying to do this - video before i wind down for the night, because it's well overdue okay, so what i like to use is um. Okay, you need more practice. Okay! Well, trust me: once you get this um once you get the hang of it down, then um once you get the hang of it, it's going to just start to flow easily, so my go-to braid here is the pre-stretched expressions like i always tell, and this is The brand that i like to use the outre brand um. I used this hair when i did the long. The long when i did the blonde braids on my channel. This was the hair that i used and it's the color 27. I don't know if y'all can see and excuse if y'all hear like extra noise. My husband is on the game. My kids are upstairs, so i'm just trying to hurry up and do this video for y'all, but this is the color of the hair that i'm going to be using, which is the hair that you probably seen in the video where i did the knotless braids that Were blonde, so i gon na be using this rack. If you don't know by now. I got this rack from goodwill. It is a clothing rack and i just use it for hair. If you want to, you can get one of those wooden braid racks or whatever you know whatever you prefer. This is just what i prefer. Oh, i think they have them in stores for like six dollars, they're all like under ten dollars yeah. This is the 54 inch i know um. I think this hair comes in, like 52 inch 47 inch, i think, but in my store they only have the 54 inch. So that's what i'm using okay, so i'm gon na start with a different section, because i'm not i'm not gon na. Take those braids out right now, so i'm gon na just start with a different section. So i'm gon na do something on the side. This time. Just to show y'all, so i'm just part off a little section over here, and that should be good enough. Okay and if you need um, um mannequin, hey hon, if you need a mannequin, i am gon na link this uh, the link to this uh mannequin that i found on amazon. It was real cheap. It was like 28 dollars, which is really good for a mannequin price, because they've been going for way more than that, but yeah this one was cheap. So what i'm gon na do? I'M gon na just start like this now nine times out of ten when you're doing yes girl. I was like. Let me let me do this live nine times out of ten when you're doing a client, their edges are not gon na, be this full yeah. My wooden rat like since we move a lot, my wooden rack ended up breaking in the move and i was like yeah i'm not about to be buying another one of those just for it to break again. I love this clothing rack because it has like several different little pieces. It has several little pieces for you to um, put your hair on so uh yeah, so i'm gon na split this in half but, like i was saying nine times out of clients, hair they're, probably not gon na - be this thick um around the perimeter, because the Perimeter is normally uh the thinnest parts of the hair, but i'm still going to show you just in case. You do have a client with some real long hair. Well real thick hair. It'S still going to be easy to touch once you get that tucking technique. Now little girl you're the lightest thing in this house tonight. Can you go upstairs? Please can i do this video, so i'm using my slay band um, you can purchase this slay band on my website. We have um different colors in raya. I need you to go upstairs, go, get max, look at max and then my go-to product that i like to use is the braid formula by eben. Um. I'Ve tried, like other products. I'Ve been trying to you know, put y'all along when i do find something else, but honestly, i just love the way this product works. If you have any other products that you like to use, put them common put them in the little uh comments. Let me know, but this is something that i really love compared to. Like all the other things i was using um. I also did use this in my last knotless video. It was good but okay, i don't know if you can see my thing a little bright. So this is the african pride um, braids, lock and twist gem. This one was good. Yes, it's bomb, i'm telling you you're gon na love it. This one is good, but for me it was a little too thick like it's a really good consistency but like when you pull it. It'S kind of like really really big. It'S like a really thick consistency, kind of like sticky in a way. So that was the only thing i didn't like about this bryan. Can you? Let me just do this video, please thank you. Okay, go upstairs um, but yeah. This one was kind of like sticky and, like the consistency was like just like super thick okay, so when you're tucking with knotless, you just want to make sure that you're keeping the goal is to make sure that you're keeping the actual frog yeah right right right. They they actually on amazon. They have ones with like the afro type of consistency they have like kinky textures, but i just got this one, because i knew it would be easier to like manage, but they do have like all types of different textures on amazon. So if you need one with like more of a afro kinky texture, they have them up there too, but when you're tucking with knotless braids, even if you're not using the color hair, you still want to make sure you're, tucking so say like you're doing, knotless, braids And your client has a color one hair or they get the color 1b or uh two like even with natural hair colors. You still want to make sure you're tucking, because with knotless braids the root is already exposed, so you already starting off with the real hair. So you want to make sure that the rest of the braid, the the client's hair, is actually tucked into the rest of the braid. So it'll last longer, if you make, if you get what i'm saying, what happens when you don't tuck, is the hair is exposed and say like if any humidity or anything like that happens and the client is natural, their hair is going to puff out of the Braid and freeze out of the braid, so i'm going to show you how it looks if you don't tuck, which is the result that you don't want to get that's what i'm gon na do first, so this braid, i'm gon na, show you what happens. If you don't tuck, so you get exactly what i'm saying when i say like put the hair behind the braid here now. Naturally, i took y'all, so i'm gon na try my best not to tuck, so you can get exactly what i'm talking about um. So i'm just putting the braid formula up here, like i said, that's my go-to, so let me move this over here. Okay, so let me try to bring it closer, so y'all can see exactly what i'm doing. I'M trying to read comments: okay, yes, girl and it's good like, even if you have like family members or friends, anybody that raya anybody that i actually let you um work on them, that's even like better. So what i like to do, i split the hair in three sections. So if you already know how to braid you just starting it off the same way, you would do a regular braid. So some people like to braid theirs a couple of times and then do it, but i just like to just cross my you know: prep it for that braid and i'm hoping y'all can see with this angle. I'M hoping this is a good angle, so, like i said for this, video i'm gon na show raya. I'M gon na show what happens if you don't tuck, which is why - and this is why tucking is important. So in this i'm just not going to i'm just going to be braiding. This is what happens if you're not tucking. This is the appearance that it's going to get, and this is what you don't want, but i feel like i'm gon na end up tucking anyway, but i'm trying i'm gon na try not to tuck. So y'all can see exactly what i'm saying raya. I need you to hush, please yeah whisper okay, so when you don't tuck, it's gon na have like a salt, pepper type of effect. Okay, i'm not tucking y'all, see that that's what you do! That'S what you don't want, because what's going to happen all that hair! That'S exposed what you think: that's going to do. That'S gon na start. If the client is natural, all of that hair that's exposed is gon na poof up and it is not gon na last at all. So this is how it looks when you don't tuck - and this is a major excuse, my language - this is a major hell. No, we don't want to do this. Okay, when we're braiding. We do not want to do this. If this is the color that the hair is you want to at least try to get that braid from, i want to say like from right here on down, you want it to be that one color, so i'm gon na show you exactly how i do that. So this is what we don't want. This is the oh hell. No, so what i noticed when doing knotless braids and, like i said y'all like the more you do, knotless braids, the more you'll know like it's a learning experience every time. So it'll teach you something new like okay. Next time i shouldn't do it like this next time. I shouldn't do it like that what i was doing before when i first started. I was making pieces thick at the top, but that's what you don't want to do. So when starting out, you want to start with really really small strands so um, starting out like the small, the smaller the strands, are at the top, the flatter that braid is going to be at the top. So i'm going to bring it in some more. So you can see so i start with small strands, but then i want to say after about the second or the third strand, i keep them consistent and i just built the braid so that same size that i'm adding by the third time. That'S the size that i'm just adding in until i get that desired size that i want um. I don't really prep the hair anymore, because i noticed that prepping the hair was like making me take way longer to finish the style, because i would have to stop every time raya. I would have to stop every time my um break. Rack got empty and like fill it up, so basically i just pull as i go, meaning i just pull the hair off the rack, but you want to start with lariah you about to go upstairs with your daddy start with a skinny little piece. You could even do something like skinnier than this. I don't know how many i typically feed in. If i had to guess i would say probably like between six and eight maybe um, i stopped counting because lariah can you go upstairs? Thank you go if you're gon na sit down here. You have to hush because you're all in the um thing. Okay. So if you're going to start, if you start sectioning, the you can use, i would say: do like six or seven strands but um. I don't know i don't count the strands anymore, but if i had to guess i would say about eight, so i'm forming like a c with my fingers and with the rest of the hair. I got it tucked in these three fingers right here. So then, when i'm feeding in the hair, a lot of people always ask, are you feeding over or under i'm, not feeding over or under i'm feeding in between? So you see where this last strand is my thumb. My thumb and my index finger is where i'm feeding the hair in between. So when i do it, i'm doing it like i'm lifting my index to bring it in between boom. So i'm bringing it like in between okay and then i'm holding it. Okay, thank you bringing it in between and then i'm just holding it, and you also want to make sure that you're maintaining a tight grip, because if you don't have a tight grip on it, it's not going to lay flat and also make sure that you're laying It in the middle of the box and not like at the bottom, so now i'm just going to do that again. This second piece is going to be another small piece just because forming the sea got the rest of a piece of hair feeding in between my index and my i just don't be actually lifted, but i had to lift it. So i could show y'all exactly like what i'd be doing babe. Can you take ryan upstairs with you i'm doing it live okay, so i'm just feeding it in between my thumb and my index, but i don't move it because i'm trying to maintain that grip and as i'm doing it, i'm making sure that i'm keeping that, like The client's actual hair behind the braid here and you will see it start to build like the more that i feed it in. Can you see, i don't know it's still blurry. Let me know if y'all can see or not so now so now, i'm getting to the point where i'm about to just consistently add the size. So typically, if i'm doing like a small, i don't go like bigger than this. So now i got that c. This is how i'm forming it, so i take it like this and i literally just grab the rest with those fingers and then i just slide it on in there. But you want to make sure the braid hair is in the front or the top, and then the client's hair is behind that. You want to keep the the hair, keep the real hair behind the braid here and that's how you're going to get that tucked effect. Keeping it consistent, so what's this strand number three, it's either three or four: i lost count bringing it in in between my index and my thumb in between my index and my thumb in between the index and the thumb. So now i'm keeping that tight grip, but i'm also keeping the braid hair in front. All i want to be able to see is the braid here anytime. The hair is exposed. You can take that braid product, whatever braid product that you decide to use. Take that and smooth it out, you see it's starting to build and i'm trying to do this slow because i know like when i speed my videos up. A lot of people be coming like you're going too fast, so i'm trying to do it slow slide it on in there making sure i'm hiding the actual hair, because i only want to see the braid here boom. I'M going to do it again, and this is why i add small pieces and just build it yeah. You should do the same, no matter what color braid, hair you're using you. You should tuck, because tucking is going to help the um braids last longer and then not only that it's going to help give it a better appearance as well and then i'll probably add in about one more piece. Then i'm going to show y'all how you braid down and continue to tuck back because tucking, like literally once you get the hang of tucking you're going to just be tucking. Naturally, so i'm going to slide this last piece in there once again, i'm trying to keep the braid here i mean trying to keep the client's hair behind or in between the braid hair. You see that you want to shift the braid hair to the top and, like i said, if you have something like this going on, take that product rub it in your fingers and just cover it. So when you're tucking, you want to make sure that you're keeping the braid hair in the front you see that just bring the braid hair to the front. So it's kind of like my advice on it, is like a twisting method. So twist the braid hair like a twist and tuck. Let me move it, so you can see what i'm actually doing. Is that better don't mind my messed up blinds y'all my two year. My three-year-old did that no, it didn't take me a long time to learn how to tuck, because i was already tucking like when i did my box braids so, like i said like when you learn how to tuck. It comes naturally and then i'm a visual learner. So i would hop on youtube all the time uh when i wanted to learn something. So all i do like for me. I can learn visually just by looking at something be done, and then i can just repeat it so literally with tucking y'all you're, just keeping the hair behind the braid here. All you want to be able to see is the braid here, you see what happens when you don't tuck versus it being tucked literally all you're doing just remember like when you're tucking keep that braid hair in front, that's literally all you're doing, and then, if you Notice, it's starting to show a little bit. You just go back because it's not going to be perfect every time go back! Take some more of that product smooth it down. So you also want to make sure you're using enough hair to cover the um, the actual braid hair. Well, you want to make sure you're using enough braid hair to cover the hair, so i probably could have added a little bigger piece to cover, but then you just twist and took your whole way down. So now i'm going to show you the difference. Now you can see with it being tucked, and this is what happens when it's not tucked so basically when you're not tucking, you're, still keeping the hair the client's hair in front, but when you're tucking you're tucking that hair behind do you understand you're welcome, and this Is like i said this is how i learned um most of the things that i do. I learned from youtube nine times out of ten the styles that i know how to do now that i do now are all from youtube. So that's why i wanted to start my own channel too, so that i could share my knowledge with y'all, but tucking is really easy. Y'All you just got ta keep on trying um the more you tuck the longer the client's hair is gon na last and um. The better the style looks as you can see if it's not tucked - that's not gon na last, especially on a natural client and that's gon na look raggedy as hell. That way. Yes, youtube. I love youtube. I'M telling you youtube will teach you everything and it's people um. Sometimes i know like it's hard if you got to pay like hundreds of dollars to take a class when you can go to youtube for free, so i try to um. You know share my stuff with y'all, i'm self-taught everything i learned is literally from youtube girl. Your fingers are going to cram. I don't really have advice for that because i think i got so used to it but um i. I did see this thing on facebook, where people braiders are putting their hands in like um, ice, water and they're, doing like the ice water soak and that's supposed to help with like inflammation and like cramping and all that stuff. So if you do like tend to get like cramps in your fingers or any inflammation or anything like that, you could try that i have carpal tunnel. So i take um. I take like uh, tylenol and stuff like that to help me with that. No you're not asking too many questions so basically, when you braiding down okay, so always remember y'all when you're doing knotless braids your very bottom row. Oh, this thing is not secure, so your very bottom row is going to be your guide basically, and what a god is it's going to tell you like where to stop, how long your break should be in all of that you're. Very the role, that's at the very bottom of the nape - that's going to be a guide. So when i'm braiding, i use that last row as a guide and then you just go up so your next row. You use that row before that as a guide to show you like where to stop. I don't know if y'all actually see me do it in my videos, but what i do is, while i'm braiding down, i bring up the braid that i did so. Okay so say if i was doing this braid right, while i'm braiding this braid down, let me put this mannequin down, so i can actually like show you what i mean because it's easier it's. I know it's like what is she talking about, but if you can actually see it, i feel like that's better. If you're a visual learner like myself hold on okay, so say you didn't already braid this braid all the way down right. Okay, so when you're um braiding - because i didn't see this on the one of my last videos - i did so - you use the braid before that as a guide so say if my braid was to stop right here, as i'm braiding i'ma pick this braid up to See like how far this braid should go down. Does that make sense? You just use the braids that you've already done to be your guides as you're braiding. It'S really simple, but with tucking it's the same thing like you. Just keep that braid hair in front. I'M gon na show you again so i'm gon na redo this one and i'm actually tuck and the key to tucking use enough hair to cover the braid use enough hair to cover the braid. So, while you're braiding, it doesn't feel like you have enough hair um covering it, then that means you need to add more hair in until you got. You know that bright hair covering that braid, because you don't want the client's hair to be exposed at all. So if they say like they want blonde braids give them some blonde braids, don't give them like salt and pepper unless they ask for like one b27 mix, but if they ask for blonde, then go for blonde. You know they ask for red. Go for red go for whatever color it is that you're supposed to be doing so once again, i'm taking my um. What is this braid formula, and i'm gon na bring my i'm a position where i want my braid to be, which is right at the center of the box? You don't want your braid, you don't want to do this. This is where a lot of times we can mess up at y'all. So basically, if i'm in the second row, i should braid all the way down to where the first one is. Yes, that's how you're going to get them. That'S the same length and then, if you notice like while you're braiding, you need to add more to get to that length. Then you add more until you get that length that you got that last row it because you want them to all be like even basically so, where you mess up at a lot of the times. You might be doing that list and you wonder, okay, why am i not flatter why you can't pull it up or when you pull it up? Why is it a hunk? So basically, if you start in the braid like right here, this is what's going to happen. You see when you flip it over it's not flat, it's not going to move, but if you position it right in the middle of that box, this is where your braid is going to lay that's how you get that, oh, i can move it and it'll be Mobile, i'm gon na show you exactly what i mean. Okay y'all are welcome. Y'All are welcome. Yes, but i got you i got you like. I said i learned on youtube, so i was like. Let me start my youtube and teach people what i know. Okay, so take it in three sections: right: keeping it in the middle of the box, the middle, that's how you're gon na get it flat start off with a small section. Okay, so i got my small section forming my c. You said what blue yeah always make sure that it's in the middle, that's how you're going to get it flat. I'M holding my grip! Don'T let go of that grip once you got that grip y'all, that is so important. People be like um. Why? My braid? Don'T be flat at the root or they um, they say they always lose their grip. You have to maintain that grip as y'all gon na see like when i braid that's, why? I think that's why people be confused, because i don't let up to actually like go in debt when i'm braiding, because i don't let go of that grip. So i take this. I'M sliding it in there, but it's in between my thumb and my index. That'S what i'd be saying it's in between these two fingers right here, i'm just not letting that grip up, because i want the braids to be nice and flat, so i'm going to keep on building it. This is what i mean by building a braid, because you literally have to add hair in until you got that look or that size that you're going for i'm keeping the actual black hair behind the blind. All i want to see is the blind. I don't want to see the black, so i'm keeping that behind you got to tell yourself. I don't want to see that black so try to keep it behind now at the root it is gon na show a little bit because you're just starting off and you're building it. So i'm gon na take some of my braid formula and just slick it down. It'S still not at the consistency that i want it to be at because i don't feel like i can cover it enough. You see what i mean when i say i'm twisting and tucking. At the same time, now after this piece, i know i'll be able to braid down and it'd be tucked because it's enough hair to cover, so i'm keeping that hair behind the braid here taking that product. It'S kind of like you're gon na twist you're twisting the braid hair over it smooth it out now, y'all see since i had it in the middle. It'S going to be able to move wherever you want it to go and be flat. My thing coming off the table: that's why i'm holding it like this y'all hold on and it would do it wrong in the middle of the braid hold on okay. Now, like i said twist braid, let me take that braid formula, i'm keeping that hair behind the braid here you always wanted the cover. So even if it's trying to play peek-a-boo cover it with the bright hair, it's trying to play peekaboo you see it uh nah. I probably wouldn't use locking gel, because it's too um it's too thin, that retwist gel is that what you're talking about is anyone else, a visual learner, because you know you can see exactly like as you're writing down. Okay, so now most of that hair is already tucked in the braid. You just keep on doing it all the way down. So now, all that hair is braided down and they just keep on going now that braid is tucked y'all see that tucking is really simple. Like i said so, um just a review when you tuck not even uh tucking when you're doing brakes in general tuck when you're doing it, it could be traditional, it could be um, knotless, always tuck, and the easiest way to make sure that you're able to tuck Is to make sure you're using enough hair, meaning enough braid hair to cover the actual hair. What'S going to happen is if you're using more say if you got more hair parted off the hair, that you're using it's going to be harder to tuck, because you're not putting in enough braid hair, but if you're, adding in enough braid hair to actually cover the Hair tucking will be a very, very easy process and just make sure you took each style because it is a protective style and by tucking you're, protecting the client's hair from being exposed. You'Re also increasing the um you're, making it you're, making the style last longer with it being tucked, and that's really all that's to it. You just want to make sure every time you do your knotless braids you're, starting in the middle, don't start at the bottom, because that's not going to be knotless and it's just going to be a mess when they try to flip it and all that stuff. To get that knotless effect make sure you're starting in the middle of the box, um and yeah. That'S really it with tucking. You want to twist and tuck just make sure you have enough hair to cover the actual um. You got enough bright hair to cover the actual hair and everything could just be simple. The more you practice, the better you'll get with it and yeah hey see. All of that, like the more you practice, the better it'll get. So i don't know it's just what i'm just used to and then you want to make sure you're using like a good comb too. The let me tell y'all when braiding your products matter, my products. Is it matters from the comb to the product to the braid hair if you're using like bad products, that's not holding that's going to be messing up like the actual. It'S going to be messing up the actual visual of your braids. If you're not using the right kind of braid hair, then the braid is not going to come out right. So it's all in, like the products that you're using um to do the style. That'S going to help you with that good turnout that you want see. That'S what you got to do, though you have to um the brave hair that i suggest is