What should we call her, an activist, actress, Harvard undergrad (“endorsed” by Michelle Obama), Barbie Sheroe… ? How about braid slayer? I think I like all of the above. No one’s just one thing, right? But let’s seriously talk about Grown-ish star Yara Shahidi’s hair game. The nineteen year-old renaissance woman has been rocking a plethora of braided styles on and off screen so much so that she’s become a great source of hair inspo, whether you’re looking for simple braided cornrows to micro box braids. Here’s a round up of our fav Yara looks.
Yara in Cornrows
Yara was looking grown-ish on her show with these classic set of all black cornrows tied into the bun. The honey blond highlights gave them a touch of fun. Meanwhile offscreen she rocked a similar look with golden rings placed sparsely across each braid.
The internet seems to love Yara in the two cornrow look. She’s rocked the look on her show with fulani-like braids framing her face, or with a simple piece of jewelry decorating her center part. But I think the look that gets the most love is the one she rocked in Beyoncé’s Ivy Park 2017 Spring campaign where the ends of the main two cornrows were kept relatively long with a couple thin ones added into the mix.
At the 2017 American Music Awards the young starlet went for skinny cornrows with apparently no added hair. The design was relatively simple, having all back center braids and the sides of her hair braided down the sides. I’d say that the size of the cornrows here give the look that extra something.
And then there’s this. I’m just going to leave these floor length cornrows here 💁🏾♀️😍. P.S. a skilled stylist can do this with the feed-in method with say, 3 – 4 packs of hair.
Yara in Box Braids
Who doesn’t love some loooong thin box braids, especially with a donut bun à la Solange? I’ve been a long time fan of this look but just cannot imagine putting in the hours to get it done 😅 (and take it out). So I’m resigned to just admire it on girls like Yara.
One look that I’ve been close to trying are box braids without added hair. I’ve been asking myself, could I do it? Will they look like hers? Probably not, I’ve got 4C hair. But I think I’m gonna try it anyway and see what it gives. I feel like you’d have do do this after a good blow out first.
Braided Ponytails
Finally, we’ve got Yara in a number of braided ponytails, low and high. I love a good high ponytail and this high pone with three braids and what appears to be marley hair is “top” 👌🏿 as the French say.
These next few looks aren’t necessarily braided but I’m throwing them in since we’re on the subject of Yara’s ponytails. Plus Freeform put out a nifty tutorial of those “bubble braid” pigtails.
Honorable Mention
Shout out to Grown-ish hairstylist Tinisha Meeks for pushing for scenes with Yara’s character Zoe in head wrap because we all know no Black girl is sleeping at night without a headscarf or silk pillow case (okay, maybe occasionally).
