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A padawan braid is a stupid little hair thing that shows you're still a newbie. When you finish training, your master or some smug jedi cuts it off with a lightsaber, which is basically just a fancy way of saying 'get out of my hair.'
My braid got chopped off by my master because I spilled coffee on the sacred lightsaber.
The council cut my braid off because I forgot the jedi code on my birthday.
My braid was sliced clean off because I cussed at a dark side robot.