Aside from flip flops and a maxi-dress, few things make us feel more summery like braiding our hair. It encapsulates that carefree attitude of 'no school!' and long lazy afternoons in the park. Braids speak of those Sienna Miller peasant skirts and gladiator belts we wore in the early 00s and pre-teen attempts at 'cool' hair styling courtesy of Twinkle Magazine. But this time, we're not accessorising our braids with giant heart-shaped hair clips or threading any of those naff plastic beads at the end. It's got more of a sexy Helena-Christensen-on-the-beach-in-the-90s feel to it, as opposed to a 30-year-old woman trying to look 11 (which lets face it, is kind of creepy).

The new braiding is as grown-up sexy as it is fun and whimsical, with minimal accessories required and the rest of the hair left slightly unkempt (to avoid it looking too Little House on the Priaire twee). Another great thing about this trend? It's perfect for when you have a bad hair day, when you don't want it just to be completely loose and falling in lank clumps across your face - but still flowing and pretty to a certain extent.

Although many of us may be daunted when it comes to braiding, we're not talking the migraine-inducing Game of Thrones-style braids here. Just plait a few locks of hair at the front. And if you're feeling more creative, you can twist them up on top of your head with a few kirby grips and some hairspray. Now, to head to a festival to show them off in..

Here's how our team got on ... 

Daisy Dudley, designer

An OTT Heidi braid will always remind me of performing in dance shows circa '97. Saying that, I do still really like this look but prefer to wear it loose and messy this time around. I have always coveted the angelic braided crowns featured in the Narcisso Rodriguez For Her campaign, but since cutting my hair short, I've backed away from braiding - fearing that the braids would just stick out at awkward angles. For this look, I added texture to my hair with a few sprays of L’Oreal Wild Stylers Beach Waves Texturising Salt Spray and mussing it through. I then loosely back-combed it and braided two small sections either side at the front, before crossing over the top and securing with grips. This style was easy to do and I actually really liked the result; it had a care-free feel to it which I didn't think I could get with my hair length. I'll definitely be sporting it again throughout the summer.

Viola Levy, freelance beauty writer

I've been a fully paid-up member of the braidy bunch for quite some time (with shoulder-length locks, I can really go to town with this too). My hair is quite prone to frizz, so I find a few braids across the crown stops it from looking too cave girl-esque. I tend to plait one braid and then pin it to make a 'crown' à la Sansa Stark at the front of my head. I begin by side-parting my hair and combing out a section at the front (as if I were about to cut a fringe). I then start to French plait it along the top of my forehead and then braid it normally down towards the end. Taking the loose part of the braid and some kirby grips, I twist it round into a circular shape on the top of my head, and secure it with the grips. A spritz of UNITE GO365 hairspray and I'm good to go. The best thing about this? It looks really impressively complicated when in fact it isn't. Will definitely be sporting this all summer (and beyond, until I get bored of it basically).

Laura Silver, staff writer

I am always plaiting my hair – unless you’ve got naturally super-sleek hair that looks great in a pony-tail, I think it’s the nicest-looking easy up 'do. I really miss longer hair for messing around with plaited looks, so while my bob grows out, I’m experimenting with French plaits - which are great for shorter hair. I like how this triple plait version - simply twisted into a knot with a band at the back - creates quite a structured shape, without any of the actual effort a properly coiffed hairstyle would take. You want it messy, otherwise it looks a bit ‘prom hair Pinterest board’, so the more it loosens up as the day goes on, the better!

Joanna McGarry, beauty director

Like green juicing, I love the idea of braiding far more than I enjoy the actual braids themselves. Backstage at the shows, braids always create a little flurry of excitement among beauty editors, not least because they represent something we can relate to – we know what braiding is, we get it, we’ve done it – but in real life, they always seem to look a little contrived. Maybe that’s just me. Or because my hair has scarcely stretched beneath my shoulders (braids look better on long hair, they just do). So, fellow bob-haired readers, the only real option open to us, are those miniature little woven braids - as seen at Karen Walker s/s14 - that peek in and out of the hair (go for lengths underneath rather than anything along the hairline or parting) which can, when done well, give off a sort of surfer-girl-meets-Woodstock-meets-Spice-Girls air of undone style. Still, it helps if you’ve been gifted with thick, wooshy, textured hair, so that the braids can nestle in inconspicuously. On medium-fine hair, braids have a habit of standing out like a sore thumb. Salt spray or the like helps to scrunch things up slightly. For, this is best left to the naturally shaggy-haired among us and contemporary bridesmaids. Oh, and can we all agree to go back to calling them plaits again?

Ellie Bull, beauty intern

I usually only ever try a simple single or double braid in a drastic attempt to conceal those greasy hair days. But I've always loved the look of a good braided hairdo - that famous snap of Kate Moss in the 90s always springs to mind - where she sports two mini-braids either side of her face. Yet when it comes to braiding my own hair, I was scared I lacked the hand-eye coordination to pull it off successfully. The style I went for is a bit different from your run-of-the-mill twee crown plait. It’s quite Game of Thrones, but also fairly futuristic too. It wasn’t hard to do at all - I brushed back my hair with a couple of pins and a healthy amount of hairspray and then braided two small plaits with a section of the remaining hair. Easy peasy. Initially I was dreading braiding my hair in front of another human being (the pressure to perform was just too large) but it went off without a hitch and ending up looking pretty darn cool.