We study braid diagrams with a minimal number of crossings. Such braid diagrams correspond to geodesic words for the braid groups with standard Artin generators. We prove that a diagram of a homogeneous braid is minimal if and only if it is homogeneous. We conjecture that monoids of homogeneous braids are Artin-Tits monoids and prove that monoids of alternating braids are right-angled Artin monoids. Using this, we give a lower bound on the growth rate of the braid groups.