Drawing braids (help?)

(from lunarmimi's braid tutorial)

braids are difficult to explain but this is a good visual breakdown of what a basic braid looks like!

there's kind of a soft zigzag in the center, since the sections of hair gently twist around each other.

i find that really lengthy explanations end up confusing more than helping, i'd say it's best to let visual diagrams speak for themselves.

this one is a good visual for how they look when they twist, too. same structure, just a different angle.

you can see how the hair sections loop together in an over-under way here, although this gif does go pretty quickly. i'd recommend watching how-to videos on YT for a better look.

edit: added a second diagram and a braiding gif

I'm not a braid expert, but I tried making a sort of demo/explanation thing! 

I just pulled up a reference of a normal braid from Google Images. The red lines show the "flow" of the lines in the hair. If you draw these, you'll end up with something like in (1). A lot of the time, though, it's kind of a hassle to draw all those lines, so I've seen people simplify braids by removing some of the lines like in (2) or simplifying the shapes like in (3) which is pretty similar to the one you have on the right.

I personally like (3) the best! My character Asteria has a braid, and I drew it kind of like (3) but a lot more simplified and streamlined to match the style. Even without a lot of the lines, it still looks like a braid! The ones you've drawn definitely already read as braids to me, though! But if you're not satisfied with them, I hope the tips I shared might help you.

Thank you both for your input, I appreciate it!

jenngarden - The diagram of the curving braid is actually quite helpful since it's closer to the thing I'm trying to draw (a crown braid). I'll try out some sketches using that!

thalassophobic - I'm really glad you brought up simplified braids, because I always feel like if I simplify/stylise things too much, people won't be able to tell what it's supposed to be. But the examples you posted definitely still look like braids. Maybe I should loosen up and try something similar to those.