How To Create a Jumbo Ponytail Braid on Natural Hair

Today’s blog post is aboout how to create a jumbo ponytail braid on my natural hair. There are many ways to create this hairstyle, but I’ll share step by step, two methods that worked for me below. No heat of any form was used to achieve this hairstyle. Creating this hairstyle will not give you any heat damage at all.

Step one: Prepping my natural hair for the Jumbo Ponytail Braid

The first thing I did was wash my natural hair. I had to wash my natural hair because I’m dealing with scalp issues (it’s still a medical mystery and I wrote about this already, you can read about it here).
Every now and then my scalp flakes. Sometimes there are a lot of flakes, especially during the transition from one season to another. I have to wash these flakes out of my hair. If I don’t wash the flakes out they’ll come off while I style my hair and they will be visible as tiny clomps and flakes in the sleek back look (which is the base of this hairstyle) and it just looks nasty (to me at least).

I wash my hair the day before creating this hairstyle, mainly because I don’t use heat to blow dry or straighten my hair. I leave my hair to air dry and it dries better when I leave it overnight. 

The second reason why I wash my hair the day before creating this hairstyle is that I don’t use any form of heat to dry and straighten my hair. I have to use alternative ways to stretch my hair as much as possible. That is why I create six braids and I leave my hair like this overnight to dry down and to stretch naturally.

Products used to prep my natural hair for the Jumbo Ponytail Braid

These are the products that I’ve used to prep my natural hair to create this Jump ponytail braid hairstyle. The selected products are based on the method I use to moisturize my hair after a wash.
This is called the LOC method and stands for Liquid or Leave-In, Oil, and Cream.
I apply the products to my hair according to this method. First I start with a Leave-In, followed up by an Oil and the last layer is a Cream.

Tip
The LOC-Method is a method used to layer products on your natural hair. This method is a way to moisturize the hair. The goal of using this method is to keep the moisture in the hair for a few days. This depends of course if you use a satin bonnet, a satin hair tie, or a satin pillowcase when you go to sleep. 

If you don’t tie your hair at night when you go to sleep on a cotton pillowcase, all of the moisture you added to your hair absorbs into that cotton pillowcase. Another reason to use a satin hair tie/ bonnet/ pillowcase is to avoid friction while sleeping. When you move your head during your sleep to lay in another position, the hair robs onto the cotton pillowcase which causes friction and friction leads to hair breakage. 

Step two: creating the sleek back look

The next day I take the braids out one by one and I comb the braiding pattern out of each braid with a large-tooth comb. I put each ‘combed out’ section in a twist, this is to make sure that the hair doesn’t poof up too much.

After completing this step, I took the twists out, created a middle part and I brushed my hair to the back and attached it with a scrunchie.

I braided my natural ponytail tight. I braided it tight so it doesn’t poof up and get big. If the braid is too thick it will be difficult to conceal or hide it into the ponytail braid later on.

Tip

Make sure that your hair is completely dry before you take the braids out. If your hair is not fully dry it will shrink back. Not only will it be hard to create a sleek back look, but it is also going to be hard to blend your natural hair with the kanekalon hair.

Then I went in with the hair gel, the edge control, and the brush to sleek the fly-aways and the short hairs to the back. We’re done creating the base of the ponytail braid hairstyle.

Step three: creating the jumbo ponytail braid

I’ve used one pack of this pre-stretched pack of kanekalon hair that is 46 inches long to create the jumbo braid. The pre-stretched version of the kanekalon means that it doesn’t have blunt ends. The ends are tinned out, which to me helps to create a more natural-looking braid.

Method 1: create a knot to attach the braid

I twisted my natural braid tight to create the smallest knot I can get. The smaller the knot the better. I created the bun by twirling the braid around itself. 

I took a pack of kanekalon hair. One pack of this kanekalon hair contains two bundles of braiding hair, that are each divided in the middle with an elastic band. I replaced the elastic band toward one-third of the kanekalon hair bundles. Then I attached both hair bundles with the elastic band around the knot of my natural hair. I kept a small part of the kanekalon hair aside (do not braid this part) and I also made sure to conceal/ hide the knot of my natural hair with the hair bundle before I started braiding the hair in one big braid. There is no need to use an elastic band on the ends of the braids because this hair is pre-stretched it will not unravel by itself.

That small part of the hair that I did not braid, I wrapped that part around the base of the braid and I sprayed it with the Got2b glued spray so it doesn’t unravel.
The purpose for this small part of hair is to conceal the elastic band and to hide the braid that is not part of our own hair. It creates the illusion that it is our own natural hair. 

Method 2: create three small individual braids with you natural hair

I came up with this second method because I didn’t like the way the braid looked when I tried to conceal my natural hair bun with it. It looked too big and bulky to me.

In this second method, I decided to divide my natural hair into three parts. Then I braided each part as tight as possible. I attached the elastic band with the braiding hair around the base of my natural braids. Then I put a very small size of the kanekalon hair away so that I do not braid it. I divided the kanekalon hair into three sections and hid each natural braid into each section. Then I braided the hair to create this jumbo ponytail braid. 

Again, That small part of hair that I did not braid, I wrapped that part around the base of the braid. This is to conceal the elastic band and to hide the braid that is not part of our own hair. 

Tip

try to ask a family member to help you cover your natural hair into the kanekalon hair. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone to help me with that and it wasn’t easy for me to see how well I covered my natural hair into the braiding hair.

Optional

It is optional to loosen the braid a bit up this will make the braid appear bigger and it will make the braid less stiff. 

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