Slanted

This is one that we've done several times but never actually posted. 

It's very straight forward and simple as long as you know how to do either a French Braid or a Dutch Braid.

  Begin on the top-left side of the head and start your braid. 

 Gather in hair as you slowly move toward the middle of the head. 

 Continue adding hair into the braid as you move toward the bottom-right part of the head. 

 Once all of the hair has been gathered you can finish plating the rest of the hair and secure it with an elastic.

  I remember my first time doing this braid and feeling strange because I was so used to braiding straight but it will get easier with practice!

Waterfall Updo

I recently saw this hairstyle done over at Girl Do's and just loves it!  Basically you just need to know how to do a Waterfall braid.  (Click here to be directed to the Waterfall Braid.)

You will want to work with wet hair because it will hold it's shape better as it dries.

 

 Comb all of the hair straight back and begin your Waterfall Braid right behind the left ear. 

Work your way across the head and over toward the right ear. 

 Once you get close to the ear you will want to curve your braid back under the original plates.  This time gather in the strands that you dropped through from the top braid. 

Continue this back over to the left ear and then wrap around to come back again.  Keep wrapping back and forth as many times as you like. 

 On your last level you will want to gather into your braid but not drop any strand through.  Finish plating that braid all the way to the ends of the hair and then tuck it up underneath the previously plated braid.  Secure it with bobby pins for a nice tight hold. 

Add any hairpins that you like for decoration and you're all finished.  This also make for beautiful waves the next morning when you take the braid out!

Lucky Clover

I'm realizing that I didn't really get a great angle of the actual clover itself, but it's a 4-leaf-clover with a Barrel Roll Bun in the middle.

Begin by making 4 equal sections in the hair by parting directly down the middle and then again across the head.  Secure each section with an elastic.  On the top two section you're going to want to make an Inverted Pull-Through and the bottom two sections will be regular Pull-Throughs.

 

Separate each Pull-Through into two pieces and make each piece a Corkscrew.  Pull on Corkscrew to the left and one to the right just above the Pull-Through and then have them meet together again in the middle of the head. 

 Use a claw clip to hold that in place while you do the same steps with the other 3 Pull-Throughs.  Once all 4 leaves of the clover have been created you can secure the Corkscrews all together in the middle with an elastic. 

We have gone ahead and brushed out some of the Corkscrews and left some of them in tact for our Barrel Roll.  Barrel Roll the hair in the middle down and secure it with bobby pins.  Add a ribbon or hair clip over the Barrel Roll.  

If time had not been such an issue this morning we would have laced each leaf with green ribbon which adds nice color but also helps to hold the leaves in their shape.  You may need to add some bobby pins here and there to help hold the shape of your leaves if you choose not to use ribbon. 

Hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day! 

Pot O' Gold

This one is officially my favorite St. Patty's Day hairstyle! You will need some rainbow colored ribbons, a black nylon, and some gold coins glued to hair pins.  

Begin by making six small Pull-Throughs along the bang line on the left side of the head. 

 Now tuck a colored ribbon through each individual elastic so that there are two equal lengths of one ribbon coming out of your Pull-Through.  (You want the very center of your ribbon to be folding through the elastic.)  

 Use the two equal lengths of ribbon as two strand of your braid and the hair from your Pull-Through as your third strand for your braid.  Now create a regular 3-Strand Braid out of the ribbon and each Pull-Through.  Have your princess hold each braid while you pull the rest of the hair tightly down into a low side ponytail on the right side of the head. 

Add the braids into the ponytail using a second elastic - making sure that your braids are slightly wrapping around the left side of the head.  Trim off any excess ribbon so that no more than 1 inch of ribbon is hanging out of the elastic.

  Create a bun out of your ponytail.  We've done this by using a bun mold but you can also do a regular Twist Bun or a Braid Bun.  Now fit the black nylon over the bun and secure it in place by wrapping a clear elastic band over the top of it and around the back of the bun.  (You may need to cut any excess nylon before doing this.) 

Take a black ribbon and wrap it around the bun and tie a bow on the top of the bun. 

 

Now grab your gold coin hair pins.  You can use as many as you like and they are very simple to make.  Just hot glue a hair pin to the backside and you're set to go. 

 

Tuck them into the hair just above the black bow and there you have a Pot O'Gold!

Irish Rainbow

I have 3 St. Patrick's Hairstyles for you and this is the first one.  (Sorry for not getting them posted sooner!)  To get ready for this style you will need some rainbow colored ribbons and a plastic yarn needle.  (Cut your ribbons according to how long your piggies will be and where on the head the ribbon will be.)

Begin by parting the hair right down the middle and tying one half up so that it's out of the way. 

Part out about an inch and a half of hair along the forehead line and put the rest into a temporary elastic.  Now you'll be making a French Twist with the hair. 

If you are working on the right side of the head first you will want to gather hair into the strand on the right each time you twist and make sure that your twist lies right next to the part.  If you are working on the left half, gather hair into the left strand.  Continue your French Twist down just below the ear and secure it with a temporary elastic.  Part out another inch and a half of hair just below that first one and repeat the French Twist process.  You will create 6 parted sections on that half of the head.  (One for each color) 

On the very last section you are going to want to do your French Twist a bit differently and add hair into both strand as you twist.  Also have the French Twist lie in the middle of the parted section instead of close to the part. 

 Gather all those French Twists together just above the temporary elastics and Combine them into one large piggie with a permanent elastic.  Once that is in place you can remove all the small elastics below and brush out the hair.  Now move over to the other half of the head and repeat the process - making sure to reverse the side of you French Twist that you add hair into. 

There should now be 6 even twist on both sides of the head.  Grab your ribbon and plastic yarn needle and get ready to add some color.  The colors can be laid out however you like but I had my green going first because my princess was wearing green that day.  Thread your needle and then find the very center of your ribbon.  It should lay directly over the middle part so that you have an equal amount of ribbon for both sides of the head.  Starting on one side you will simply wrap it over and through the French Twist.  Do this all the way down to the elastic that is holding your piggie and let the remainder of the ribbon hang down.  Move back over to the other half of the head and repeat the process with the ribbon.  Do this again with each of your colors. 

You should now have 6 ribbons hanging down by each piggie.  Separate your ribbons into two groups of 3 and these groups will be two strand of your braid and the piggie will be your 3rd strand.  Now just create a normal 3-Strand Braid.  Secure it at the bottom with an elastic and cut off any excess ribbon.  Do this on the other side as well. 

 Now add some fun hair clips and you're all finished. 

 Each of these clips went along with the hairstyle and would look really cute.

  These gold coins are extremely simple to make!

St. Patty's Clips

St. Patrick's Day is coming up fast and this is the first year that we've really gotten excited about it at our house.  We've got our traps set for the leprechaun and a very green dinner planned.  :) 

Here are some hair clip ideas for you that we made this year.  Tomorrow we will be posting a St. Patrick's style using some of the clips so check back for that!

Feeling a Little Off

There's a girl on this season of "Survivor" that has some seriously cute hair for being stranded on a beach.  This was a style that I saw her wearing the other day and it's pretty straight forward but I never even though to go uneven.

Start by parting the hair all the way back on the head with 2/3 of the hair on one side and 1/3 on the other side of your part. 

 Start with the 1/3 of the hair and create a regular French Braid.  (You could also do a Dutch Braid and it would look great!)  Braid all the way down to the bottom of the hair and secure it with an elastic. 

 Now move over to the larger section of hair.  You want to make sure that your braids are lying even on the two side of the head and that the only thing that is of-centered is the part. 

This means that you will be combing over the hair that is close to the part so that it gets where it needs to be in order to add it into the French Braid.  Make sense? 

 Braid that side all the way to the bottom of the hair as well and secure it with an elastic. 

Pretty easy!  I guess I need to take a second look at a bunch of our styles and see how tweaking them just a little can make them totally different.  :)