In the concurrent fashion world, Pop Smoke Braids are one of the most popular and versatile hairstyles for natural hair.
Known for its diversity and modularity, this hairstyle is your key to adding a new dimension to your looks.
If you follow this article, you’ll learn all the basics you need to know about Pop Smoke Braids.
Along with that, we’ll teach you how to take care of this hairstyle, how to do it yourself at home, and all the most popular Pop Smoke Braids you can carry out.
So buckle up, have a quick read and plan your next authentic and fancy hairstyle for your natural hair!
Contents
0.1 What are Pop Smoke Braids?0.2 Which Hair Types Can Do It?0.3 How Long Can Pop Smoke Braids Last?0.4 How Much Does Pop Smoke Braids Cost?1 DIY Section: How to Get Pop Smoke Braids at Home?1.1 How to Take Care of Pop Smoke Braids?2 Popular Pop Smoke Styles2.1 Pop Smoke Braids for Women2.1.1 Classic2.1.2 Zig Zag2.1.3 Stepped Layer2.1.4 Criss-Cross2.1.5 With Extension2.1.6 Bohemian2.1.7 Oval Jumbo2.1.8 Layered Jumbo2.1.9 Jumbo Modern2.1.10 Elegant with Rings2.1.11 Modern Pop Smoke with a Tribal Touch2.1.12 Curly Side Part2.1.13 Thin-Long2.1.14 Thick-Medium2.1.15 Uniform2.1.16 Colored2.1.17 Modern Jumbo Side Part2.1.18 Mixed Parted2.1.19 Accessories2.2 Pop Smoke Braids for Men2.2.1 VerdictWhat are Pop Smoke Braids?
If you’re looking for a hairstyle that is versatile, supports all types of hair, and protects your hair from falling, Pop Smoke Braids ticks all these checkboxes.
Inspired by the late famous rapper Pop Smoke, this hairstyle has seen a wave of revival and modern-day adaptation in recent days.
Similar to Tribal Braids, it is also commonly known as Jumbo Feed-in Braids based on the hair style and braiding pattern.
The general principle of this hairstyle is to part your hair down the middle with a braid and create four braids on each side, forged by stitch-in knots.
Cornrows with straight, oval, or zig-zag designs, this hairstyle can be customized in many different ways.
You can add accessories or length of hair, change the volume of braids or add color – it’s all up to you.
Read our in-depth guide to learn all there is to know about this hairstyle, starting from the very basics to popular styling tips.
Which Hair Types Can Do It?
No matter if you have kinky/curly hair, or very thin hair, almost all the natural hair types can wear Pop Smoke Braids.
With regular hair density and texture, you can style and customize Pop Smoke Braids with ease. In extreme cases, however, you might have to take a few extra steps to make it work.
For example, if your hair is Type 4, you’ll have to pick fewer strands for each pack of hair. This will lead to having more braids than usual.
On the other hand, if your hair belongs to Type 1 or 2, you can then style exactly the way Pop Smoke did. For a more detailed idea, have a look at our Hair Type Table to see the variation in hair gradients.
Also, whether your hair is short or lighter in volume, you can add hair extensions and easily pull-off Pop Smoke Braids.
How Long Can Pop Smoke Braids Last?
Before answering this question, let’s address another one first: How long does it take to Pop Smoke Braids done? The answer varies, depending on the style, texture, and length of hair, but generally, that should take over 3 hours at a minimum.
So it certainly does require some patience to get these braids. And after such a lengthy and somewhat expensive session, you’d want your braids to last the longest time.
Usually, Pop Smoke Braids can last up to 4 to 6 weeks. It all depends on how you initially tie the braids and treat your hair afterward.
With appropriate care, your braids will last for 6 weeks nicely. And if you don’t follow proper caring procedures, it might last even less.
How Much Does Pop Smoke Braids Cost?
Creating braids is an intensive session that requires tons of time, patience, and expertise. That is why getting it done by hairstylists is never a cheap option.
The cost may vary based on your localization, the demand of your stylist, and your intended hairstyle. It should cost between $100-$300 but should cost more if you choose to get your hair dyed or extended.
For a more reasonable approach, we believe you can get it done at home by yourself or with a help of your friend. This should drastically reduce the cost and allow more room for experiments.
To learn how to get Pop Smoke Braids at home, take a quick look at our DIY guide below.
DIY Section: How to Get Pop Smoke Braids at Home?
As you’ve seen, getting Pop Smoke Braids done by a stylist can stress your budget out a little. So why not try doing it by yourself at home?
Down below is a four-step process of how to do Pop Smoke Braids at home. So buckle up, learn, and save yourself some money!
Step 1: Detangle
Detangling your hair before getting braids done is one of the most important steps. It helps your hair as well as this process in a number of ways.
Firstly, it prevents your hair from breaking. Natural curls are often hard to negotiate with and require the most delicate of interactions.
You can use this product during detangling to make it easier. It also adds softness to your hair strands which makes your braids last longer, and hair healthier.
If you want a smooth detangling process, you can apply Shea Moisture Leave-in Conditioner the night before. It gives breathing to your hair, softens, and helps retain natural strength.
It facilitates your hair strands for a smoother braiding process. Using softening products can reduce the chances of hair breakage.
Step 2: Style
In this step, you’ll enter the main styling process.
First, create two main groups of hair on each side of your head. Keep a central group with some hair strands for the central braid.
Take the central strand and tie a vertical braid over the hairline. Tie the end with a clip and pull it all the back of your head.
On each side, tie four stitch braids for a traditional look and clip them at the end. Use D:fi D:Struct Molding Creme to ease up the process.
Finally, when you’re done, you can decorate your Pop Smoke Braids based on your liking, with accessories like beads, chains, or rings.
Step 3: Care
This final step helps you maintain your braids and keep your hair healthy. So take a look at our Pop Smoke Caring Guide below to treat your hair better and make your braids last the longest time.
How to Take Care of Pop Smoke Braids?
To preserve your Pop Smoke Braids for a longer duration, you must follow some protocols. These will not only help your braids last longer but also maintain the natural strength of your hair.
As you know, Pop Smoke Braids are protective hairstyles, you should enable them even more for a better outcome.
For starters, you can wear a satin scarf or silk cap while going to sleep. This prevents the hair strands from losing character.
In terms of products, you may use leave-in conditioners before going to sleep. It helps your hair retain moisture and nourishment.
You can also try out LottaBody Wrap Me Foaming Mousse once a week for softening your hair. This keeps your hair natural and provides the necessary moisture which prevents hair breakage.
You can apply some SoftSheen-Carson shining gel on the curves before going outside. This’ll add a glimmer to your hair and make your hair look fresh!
Popular Pop Smoke Styles
Although Pop Smoke himself is a male artist, his iconic hairstyle, however, is currently flooding the women’s fashion industry.
Tried and applied with different permutation-combinations, Pop Smoke Braids are adored by almost everyone.
This article provides Pop Smoke Braids ideas for both men and women both, so have a quick read and pick your style.
Pop Smoke Braids for Women
Pop Smoke Braids work with long, short, dense, curly – almost any type or a variety of hair. If this look appeals to you, we have an entire catalog of carefully chosen concepts that you can pull off any day.
Classic
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This is the most classic you can get with Pop Smoke Braids. It contains four Braids on each side creating cornrows, and one vertical braid down the middle.
You can stylize your long, natural hair beautifully with this style. It’ll add depth to your personality.
This look can be used for both casual and professional purposes and a low-maintenance hairstyle that can gear up your look instantly.
Zig Zag
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This Zig Zag look deviates from the Classic one in terms of the hairlines. Instead of cornrows, this style creates a sharp Zig Zag pattern.
The edginess of this style is massively appealing to the people. Wear it, and see yourself standing out from the crowd like a famous Pop Star!
Stepped Layer
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The Stepped-Layer Pop Smoke Braids style makes both horizontal and vertical hair separation lines shaped like boxes.
This paired with multiple layers of braids makes up for a fabulous and unique hairstyle that you must try out at least once, and see its magic work on people!
Criss-Cross
The Criss-Cross Pop Smoke Braids is an eye-catching braided hairstyle that lays its differences in the root of the hair strands.
Instead of separating the hair on each side of the head, this style chooses to create stitch braids in a criss-cross angular style.
This creates cone-shaped strand roots on either side making it asymmetrical and increasing the aesthetic value of your hairstyle.
With Extension
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If you feel you are short of hair for Classic Pop Smoke Braids and don’t want to wait months for your hair to grow, you can get a hair extension and have your desired look straight away!
Bohemian
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This hairstyle is a fusion between Pop Smoke Braids and Bohemian loose-ended natural hair. Tightly braided at the root, it lets the braids end after a few inches below.
Although this hairstyle makes you look fantastic, it, however, has a drawback. The loose portions of the hair will be more prone to damage than the rest, and this hairstyle will last fewer days than its other counterparts.
Oval Jumbo
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You can make your Pop Smoke Braids jumbo-sized if you have a high volume of hair. With the jumbo braids, you can shape the cornrows in an oval way, making it a significantly pleasing hairstyle to look at.
Layered Jumbo
Jumbo Pop Smoke Braids can be made into multiple layers. Layering helps to allocate and organize your hair nicely without getting into each other’s way.
This is the hairstyle to be had if you want to decorate your long, dense natural hair into beautiful layers of jumbo braids.
Jumbo Modern
You can add a modern touch to your Jumbo Pop Smoke Braids by adding highlights beforehand.
With a platinum highlight and loose ends, you can upgrade your looks and be a part of pop-cultural hair trends!
Elegant with Rings
The Elegant Pop Smoke Braids is the way to style if you’re up for an event and steal the spotlight of the show.
It contains regular stitch-in braids on each side with smaller braids in-between. The braids progress with a gradual loss of thickness from the root to the tip.
You are encouraged to use ornaments like rings or chains on the braids. You may also wrap ribbons around your braids with a knot at the end to complete the look.
Modern Pop Smoke with a Tribal Touch
The Modern Pop Smoke Braids fused with Tribal Braids resemble the Jumbo Braids in many different ways. But this modern fusion takes this hairstyle to a whole new level.
With varying volumes in the braids, you can wrap the narrow ones tightly over your head. For the thick ones, you can add a hair-knot at the root for the braids to add a bit of height.
These combined will add a new dimension to your looks and you can flaunt your stylish hair on any occasion!
Curly Side Part
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The Curly Side Part for Pop Smoke Braids endorses a different approach from the traditional one. It parts the hair on one side instead of parting down the middle.
This way of parting paves way for the opportunity of diversifying this hairstyle. Because on one side, you let your braids loose but on the other, you’ll have to circle your braids back which creates a soothing pattern of braids.
Thin-Long
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Pick a smaller amount of hair strands for each braid if you have long hair. Creating Pop Smoke Braids in this pattern will offer you this beautiful hairstyle with numerous thin and long braids climbing all the way down to your waist.
You could make this your everyday style or you could wear this on special occasions. This style will help you preserve your hair strands from strain and damage.
Thick-Medium
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If you have medium-length hair, then you can pick a different approach than the long ones. Get a Classic Pop Smoke Braids hairstyle, but without any hair extension.
Once done, wrap a golden ribbon or chain around a couple of braids. This makes for an excellent style for ones who don’t want to extend their hair or wait for it to grow.
Uniform
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This style is one of the most classic Jumbo Pop Smoke Braids styles. The uniformity of this style is something that stands out in terms of appeal.
With evenly distributed hair, make dense braids and let them all loose. You can go out and about leaving behind all concerns for your hair because they’ll look fabulous if you pick this style!
Colored
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Coloring your hair is always a viable option for adding variation to your Pop Smoke Braids. Although you have to make sure that you don’t overdo it to the point of damaging your hair.
In terms of styling tips, you can go full blonde with Pop Smoke Braids, or you could color only halfway from the top like in the picture.
You could also color only a couple of braids on each side in the front to match the recent front-colored styles.
Or you could keep it subtle by adding blonde, platinum, or any colored highlights. There are many options to choose from – pick whichever speaks your heart best.
Modern Jumbo Side Part
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This Pop Smoke Braids hairstyle is a hybrid of all the best possible things out there and it probably goes beyond modern beauty values.
Firstly, it borrows the aesthetics from side part braids and creates a design with your parting hairlines.
Then, it tries a couple of braids around the nape to add a tribal touch to your hair.
And finally, a touch of highlights completes the look of your Postmodern Pop Smoke Braids hairstyle.
Mixed Parted
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Just like the Criss-Cross Pop Smoke Braids, this hairstyle too follows the same philosophy. But this time, it doesn’t create sharp cones, instead, it makes boxed edges.
This is paired with the Bohemian loose-ended hair at the bottom. This can be an aesthetically pleasing hairstyle for a special occasion should you choose to try it out soon!
Accessories
Accessorizing always helps enhance many of the hairstyles, and in the case of Pop Smoke Braids, it only craves experimentations which often result beautifully.
Here are a few accessories ideas you can try out with your Pop Smoke Braids:
View More Hair Rings
Rings are always a great addition to braids, and when you have Pop Smoke, you shouldn’t miss out on the chance of wearing 8-10 rings on the middle, vertical braid.
View More Hair Beads
Beads have always been the go-to accessory for braided hair. Pop Smoke Braids are no different, and you should most certainly try on different types of beads to add diversity to your style each day.
View More Crystal Beads
Crystal beads often work better than regular beads as it doesn’t require any matching color to go with. You can put on any outfit and throw in some crystal beads with your Pop Smokes.
View More Crystal Tinted Beads
Crystal tinted beads work in sync with highlighted hair to uplift your existing gorgeous Pop Smoke Braids. This is a must-have party braid that is sure to snatch all the attention.
Pop Smoke Braids for Men
Pop Smoke Braids are highly popular in the men’s fashion industry too. Have a look at these variations below to generate some ideas for your next hairstyle!
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This is the authentic Pop Smoke Braids hairstyle. Stitch-in knots on each side with medium-length hair, this hairstyle will make you look dashing around your friends.
So make sure to receive tons of numbers once you walk out with this hairstyle in your arsenal.
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This is a shorter version of the original Pop Smoke Braids. You can add tiny knots at the end to keep it from falling apart.
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This is a modern-day appropriation of Pop Smoke Braids. Coming out of the old-school style, this style carries a couple of vertical thin braids down the middle.
As a whole, this hairstyle is a fashion statement in itself, and a dazzling upgrade to your hairstyle which should boost your confidence significantly.
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To further the modern adaptation, you can create little pairs of braids on the cornrows between the larger braids. This fancy hairstyle works better if you have medium-length hair, as it’ll create an eye-catching sharp contrast.
Verdict
This article covers almost all there is to be known about Pop Smoke Braids. If you’re still confused on whether to go for a Pop Smoke Braids hairstyle, I’d say – yes, you should definitely go for it.
Because this hairstyle has been made popular in recent times on social media. As a fancy-looking, low-maintenance, and high-rewards hairstyle, it ticks all the right boxes.
And as a bonus, it keeps your natural hair healthy and reduces the chance of hair fall or damage.
Overall, my final verdict is that Pop Smoke Braids are all-around hairstyles that’ll do your hair justice, both in terms of style and hair health. So stop waiting and start braiding!