I Am Terrible at Braiding, but This $5 Tool Made It Possible For Me to Wear a Fishtail

A Magic Braid Tool ($5) transformed my clumsy fingers into braiding geniuses. I purchased the tool — which is a simple piece of plastic bent into a curved pattern — in a set of three on Amazon that costs only $5, and it was exactly what I needed to create a dreamy Pinterest-worthy braid.

Before testing it out, I immersed myself in many different YouTube videos on how to use it. I broke it down for myself into three steps. First, and arguably the most difficult step: secure the tool where you want to start your braid. I decided to start my braid at my hairline, as it was my first time using it and I wanted to work through the process in a section of my hair that I could see.

To do so, I held the tip of it against my hair and intertwined two pieces of hair around the first groove. Then, I began feeding sections of hair from the left and right sides of the plastic piece into each groove, working my way down the ladder. Once I made it to the opposite end of the tool, I secured it with an elastic.

I found that the magic braid tool is easy to do on a section of hair that is directly in front of your face, but when it comes to creating a braid behind my head, I struggled. I asked my colleague to create the look on me, which she was able to do in just a few minutes.

One other drawback of using this tool is that if you have extralong hair, one of these tools may not be enough. You might need to stack a second one beneath it and cut the tool so it is the perfect length for your hair.

Regardless of its few faults, this $5 tool is capable of making the neat braid I was never able to create on myself and others. Check it out ahead.