Fancy French Wrap

This style looks amazing and the best part is that it's SO SIMPLE!  Start with wet hair for the best results.

Begin by sectioning out the top half of the hair from ear to ear and pulling it into a ponytail.  (You should literally have half of the hair in this ponytail.)  Make sure your ponytail is nice and smooth.

Now section out two small areas on each side of the ponytail - underneath that secured top half.  Cross the two sides over the top of your ponytail and then around and underneath it.  Continue wrapping those strands around the ponytail until you get down to the bottom where you will secure it with one small elastic.  Now Grab two more small areas on each side of the ponytail, just below your previous ones and repeat the wrapping steps. 

 Be careful in your placement of the wraps.  You want your new warps to lie directly above your previous wraps to get the desired look at the end.  Once you have wrapped those two new strands all the way down to the bottom of the ponytail,  Secure it in place with another small elastic.  (Or you can just reuse your previous elastic.)  

 Now grab your remaining loose hair on each side of the ponytail and create one final layer of wraps going down the ponytail.  Secure that at the bottom with one final elastic.  We added a small ribbon on our first elastic but you can decorate the hair with any accessories you like.  :) 

Long Knot Puffy Braids

Thanks for being patient with us while we took a couple weeks off.  We have had family in town and lots of school and extracurricular activities going on.  We are excited to get back to posting some hairstyles and our first one is called "Long Knot Puffy Braids". 

 Start with wet hair and divide it in half  by creating a part directly down the middle of the head.  Now make a small section at the front of the head on each side of the part.  Combine each of those sections into a small elastic so that you now have two small ponytails - one on each side of the part.  Take those two ponytails and do the first step of tying your shoelace - take one over the other and pull it through so that the ponytails have created a twist and are now on the opposite sides from which they started.  

Have your princess hold those two strands while you sections out two new areas.  (Right below your previous two.  Add the ponytail on the right side in with that new section on the right and secure it with an elastic.  Do the same on the left side as well. 

Now take your two new ponytails and just repeat the steps.  

Continue creating new sections of hair down to the bottom of the head.  You will finish with two final ponytails.  

Friday's Film: Milk Maid Braids

This darling pin has been floating around Pinterest and we just love the idea!

You can find the direct link to that pin here.

We've done a video on this hairstyle and we had a bit of a variation at the end because my princess has VERY long hair.

You can see that it's really easy and super fast for such a cute style!

We chose not to have our ribbon show as much as in the original instructions but that's totally up to you when you do the style.

This shows how we just bobby pinned our side up.

My princess was very excited about this hairstyle because we saw it on Pinterest and I think it turned out pretty cute!

Royal Crown

Here's a style that's fun for any day.  You will want to make sure that you have a bun mold or rolled sock handy to help create your bun.  

Begin by pulling all of the hair back into a ponytail.  You can position your ponytail high or low on the back of the head.  It would be really cute up high if you were using it as an actual crown.  Now you have a choice of breaking up your ponytail at this point and creating several small braids out of it, or moving on like we did.

  We went ahead and pulled our un-braided ponytail through the bun mold and the created our smaller braids at this point.  Either way will work.  (Tip:  You only need to plait your braids down far enough to cover your mold - the rest of the hair can be left loose.)  

Create as many small braids as you like and have them spread out around your bun mold.  We have 9 braids on ours.  Once you have spread the braids around the mold you will secure them with another elastic that goes over the braids and the mold to hold everything into place. 

 You should now have the remaining hair hanging outside your bun.  (Remember that this hair should not be braided.) Break that hair up into about three groups and plait three individual braids out of it.  Wrap those braids around the base of your bun and secure them into place with bobby pins.  This creates the bottom of your crown.  Pretty simple and cute! 

Friday's Film: Uneven 5-Strand

This is not a new hairstyle for us but we have never posted a video on it.
  

This is our original Uneven 5-Strand Braid and you can find the link for that post here.

We also have a "pulled" version of the braid and you can find a link to that post here.

This video should help give you the idea of how we divided our strands and created the braid.

Here is the finished braid from this video.  Try it out!  It's a fun braid and really quite easy with a bit of practice!  

Super Chunky Knot Braid

Here is a very fast and simple hairstyle that is great when you're short on time.  It's called the Knot Braid because it's just a series of knots.

This style works best with long hair because it takes up a lot for each knot.  (My princess has hair a couple inches from her waist and you can see how much shorter it is once the braid is done.)

Begin by pulling the hair back into a ponytail.  Divide that ponytail into two equal sections and cross them over each other and pull the top section up and through the back and then pull to tighten.  *Basically you are doing the first step of tying your shoe - a half knot.  Now just repeat the step of creating a half knot over and over again until you run out of hair. 

 Secure your braid at the bottom with an elastic.  It has a very full and chunky look and it pretty cool! 

Friday's Film: 7-Strand Sennit Braid

I was on Pinterest and  cam across this cool tutorial for rope braiding and this one is called a Sennit Braid.  you can find that original pin here.   I pinned it thinking it would be awesome to make a hair accessory or jewelry but then got to thinking that it could probably be used for a hairstyle as well.  

I did a bit of re-configuring with the strand and came up with this 7-Strand Sennit Braid:

Hopefully the video was able to explain it well for you.  As always, practice makes perfect with this braid.  

Here is what it looks like totally complete.  You can see that it looks like 2 side-by-side braids.  We have a couple other versions of 7-Strand Braids as well and I've listed those below with links to their original posts.  Just click on the name and it will take you over.

7-Strand Braid

Lucky Number 7  

Super-Sized Bun

I love experimenting with new supplies and tools so it's always fun to find a new little gadget.

I was out shopping the other day when I came across a super-sized bun mold at Claire's. 

 I bought this more specifically for myself but my princess wanted to wear it in her hair for church. 

I loved how it looked in her hair and we had several compliments on how elegant she looked.  

You definitely need hair past shoulder length for this bun mold because it requires lots of hair to cover it.  Start by simply pulling all of the hair back into a ponytail.  (The best results come from using wet hair.)  It can be a low, high or a side ponytail - it doesn't really matter.  Now slip the mold over the entire ponytail and the elastic.  Have your princess tip her head down and spread the hair evenly around the mold with a comb.

  Secure it into place by slipping another elastic over the hair and the mold.  Take the excess hair and divide it into at least 3 sections and twist or braid them.  Wrap those sections around the base of the bun mold and bobby pin them into the mold to secure them.  

You can either have your tiny little ends flare out or tuck them under to conceal them like we've done here.  Add a flower clip on the side if you like and it's finished.     

Friday's Film: French Knot

This is a style that we kind of came up with on the spot this morning and decided that it would be a great video to share because it's an easier way to create a French Braid type of style.  

I apologize for the messiness of some of the video, my princess has extremely long hair and sometimes it looks super tangled.

 The hairstyle itself is really beautiful and it's nice because it's one that you can do on yourself as well.  (Not too many strands to keep track of.)

This shows the top of the braid and what it looks like as it gets started.

The bottom side of the French Knot tucks under while the top side tucks over and inside.  

We did our braid on an angle so that it ended as a side ponytail but the orientation of your French Knot is totally up to you.  

We added a flower clip to conceal our elastic on the side and that finished it off nicely.   

Unbe-WEAVE-able

This hairstyle turned out really cute and I wish these pictures did it better justice but we were in a condo on vacation and these were the best shots we could get.  

Make sure you start with wet hair and create a high part going from one ear to the other so that you have a "headband" like section in the front.  Now you are going to create 8 small sections out of that front section you just created.  (4 on each side.)  Secure each of those 8 sections with a small elastic.  

Now you've got 8 little ponytails that you will pull out of the way and have your princess hold for a minute.  Divide the remaining hair in half by creating a part directly down the center of the head.  Pull each side into a low ponytail. 

 Now bring those 4 ponytails from the left side of the head and add them into the ponytail on the right side with a new elastic.  

You will now weave the 4 small ponytails from the right side through the left side ponytails using an alternating over and under method.  (I used a Topsy Tail to make it a bit easier.)  Once they have been weaved through you can secure them into the ponytail on the left side with a new elastic.

I've included this picture to show you what my weaving looked like in the back once I finished.  You can see that they are not crossing directly over that center part like they should so I just adjusted them with my fingers a bit until they all cross over that center part and then sprayed them with hairspray to make sure they stayed put. 

You can leave your two ponytails loose or finish them off however you like.  I've done a 5-Strand Braid out of each and you can find the instructional video for how to do that here.  

Friday's Film: Knotted Ladder

We have had several requests for a tutorial on this hairstyle:

This picture was sent to me from one of our friends on Facebook and  absolutely love the style.  I wish I knew it's origin so I could give credit where credit is due. You'll notice how complete perfect this picture above looks.  Well, mine was not as great (this was my first attempt) but I'm sure it will get better with practice.  :) 

 Something very important that I wish I had been better with is making sure to hold the strand tightly so they don't loosen up.  You will see that ours loosened a bit and I was kicking myself that I wasn't more careful about that.  

I should have kept my add-in strands smaller like in the example picture and then I would have had more crossing hairs as well.  

I started our hairstyle a bit farther back on the head than in the example but you can do it however you like.

To finish it off I simply wrapped a small strand of hair over the elastic to conceal it and then poked a Topsy Tail through the elastic, threaded that strand through it, and pulled in in tightly so that it was secure.

It's a very beautiful hairstyle and hopefully this tutorial helps those of you that were looking for some instruction!

School Starts Style

School started this week and my little princess has been so excited to get back and see her teachers and friends.  I have been excited for a routine to set in so I can get back to posting on this site!

This was her hair for her first day back and it was a simple, yet darling style:

Begin by creating an off-centered part at the front of the hair.  Create a section on both sides going from the part down to the ears and secure each with an elastic.

Now create a Regular 3-Strand Braid out of those two small ponytails and have your princess hold onto each once they are done.  Divide the rest of the hair into two areas by creating a part directly down the center.  Begin with the left half and gather it all together into a ponytail - making sure to bring across the right side braid and include that into the ponytail as well.  

Do the same with the right side, remembering to bring across that left braid and add it in.  Comb out any remaining braid on each side.  You should now have two ponytails.  Create another Regular 3-Strand Braid out of each. 

 Bring the bottom of one of your braids up to the last elastic and create a puppy dog ear by securing it up with a new elastic.   Puff out any excess hair over the elastic.  Do the same thing with your other braid and you're all done!