Plait is another word for braids...but I think pple usually think of extensions (singles or micros) when you say braids and then just singles with your own hair or square "plaits" no extensions, when you say plait. But really you can use the words interchangeably and you'd be right. Plait is also a verb so you can say I plaited my hair to mean I braided my hair.
I forget the synthetic hair most favored on the forum for braiding. (There's one that pple have had bad reactions to.) I personally use human hair. I wasn't picky on the brand, just as long as it matched my hair and was long enough to extend a good length beyond my hair so I could use heat on the ends. I went for the less silky kind coz it just looked closer to my hair texture (but it was still way shinier/straighter than mine, but it blended well). Wet and wavy is nice coz you can get a braidout look after washing it, esp if your hair isn't so long that it covers most of the extension. But really you can get a braid out look, a doobie, any do that you can get with relaxed hair...with any type of human hair coz you can style it exactly as you would if it were all yours. The only catch with human hair is if you don't know how to do your own braids, human hair can be a pain coz the hair can slide out easily after a wash, and the braids don't stay neat without touch ups for as long as synthetic braids can. But if you learn how to do your hair, you can wear them forever coz you can redo any that get messy.
You can put in about four braids if all your hair is getting caught in the braid. There's a kind of do, where you tuck in the ends (not sure if anyone wears that around here) and that'd be a protective style since the ends of your plaits would be tucked in. But do vary the positioning of the plaits so you don't end up with permanent partings. Also beware of hair line breakage due to pulling your hair back into the plaits. You could also do a "connect the braids" do so that each braids end gets tucked into the other braids so your ends are "protected".
