beauty

The braids 1 million women are already obsessed with

Images via Instabraid

Blame the cuteness of Cindy Brady, the glamour of Cleopatra or the coolness of Katniss.

Braids are one of those hairstyles that ride the ebb and flow of the beauty trend wave, but with so many women opting for plaited hair these days, it would seem they are here to stay.

No one knows that better than Sophie Rose and Shir Ben-Zikry, the 18-year-old best friends behind Instabraid, the hugely popular Instagram account. With more than one million followers, the feed showcases an enormous variety of braids and its partner website, Instabraid.com, features tutorials to teach braiding techniques.

Here are just some of the incredible braids the account has featured:

The duo started Instabraid in 2012, when they were in Year 10, after Shir braided Sophie’s hair during a school trip. “This was when Instagram was just starting to get popular,” Sophie says. “One girl in our school had one — she was the coolest girl in school — so Shir and I were like, ‘Why don’t we try to make an account, and see what happens? We’ll post this braid photo and see how it goes.’”

Instabraid was an insta-success, so the teens from Florida quickly decided to take their account seriously, posting daily. Today, the account features three to four braid photos each day, submitted via email or posted as regrams of photos tagged #Instabraid, along with sponsored images. Their famous followers include actresses Emmy Rossum, Paris Hilton, and influential style bloggers as well.

Sophie says they receive several email submissions daily, spend an average of eight to 10 hours a week on the account and have made $16,000 through sponsored posts.

Can you braid your hair? Or is it in your ‘too hard’ hair basket?

This post originally appeared on Today.com

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