Turkey Foot

We are just getting back home from a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and wanted to share our hairstyle for Thanksgiving Day.  It's called the "Turkey Foot" because it has the shape of one of the claws right off a turkey.

Begin by creating an off-centered part on the top of the head.  Have your part go back to the crown of the head and then stop. 

You are going to create a Half-French Braid on each side of the part.  It's a Half-French Braid because you will only be gathering hair into the top side of each braid - the side closest to your part.  Continue adding hair in until you come to the point where you stopped your part.  Finish it off with a Regular 3-Strand Braid. 

 Do the same with the opposite side of the head.  Have your princess hold those two braids while you pull the hair underneath - from ear to ear - into an elastic at the back of the head. 

 Create a Regular 3-Strand Braid out of that new ponytail and comb the rest of the hair straight down.  Bring your two top braids to the back of the head and join them with your new braid about 3 inches down.  Secure it with an elastic and this will create your Turkey Foot shape.  Add any fun hair clips that you like and spray it with some hairspray for hold. 

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't damage your waistlines too much!  :) 

Friday's Film: Long Knots

We posted a video last week showing you how to do some flat iron curls and this is the other part of that same hairstyle.  These are called Long Knots and they add a fun look to lots of different styles.  (I apologize for some of the instruction being out of the frame but hopefully it won't hinder the basic idea.)

Remember that you can secure your Long Knots with bobby pins if you would like to.

Like I said in the video, you don't need to secure the bangs before hand but we chose to do that for this particular style. 

We only did 3 knots here but you can do as many as you like and they can be as big or as small as you like just depending on how much hair you grab. 

Her ends were just left hanging for this style but you can pull them into braids, buns, or ponytails as well. 

We just finished it off with some flat iron curls and we posted the video for those last Friday. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that it's a wonderful one for you!  I am grateful for all of the comments and followers that help support this blog.  Here are some fun things you can use for the holiday!

This is our Turkey Time Hairstyle that is always a fun and easy one.

Here's our Thanksgiving Fun Style with some fun pilgrim clips.

Here are some other little clip ideas for you as well.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Half-Down French Braids

I'm so excited because my princess and I have been working on a whole collection of hairstyles that we're going to call "Holiday Hairstyles" and we'll start posting those in December.  Get excited because there are some fun ones!  :) 

This is a really simple idea that is great for school because it looks nice and it holds together really well.

Start by pulling the hair on top of the head half-up by and securing it into an elastic.  Now divide all the hair below the elastic in half by creating a part right down the center.  Clip one side out of the way while you work with the other. 

Divide your ponytail in half and then take one of the halves and divide it into 3 equal sections.  You will plate the sections once as a Regular Braid and then start adding in hair as a French Braid from the area of hair right below it.  Have that French Braid go on a diagonal from the center of the head down towards the opposite edge. 

Do the same with the other half of your ponytail and the opposite side of the head.

 Finish plating both French Braids into Regular 3-Strand Braids and secure them each at the bottom with an elastic.  I wrapped my elastic one final time at the bottom and made sure not to pull the hair completely through and that gave me these little puffs at the bottom.

  Nice and easy and she'll be set to go!

Friday's Film: Bella Curls (Flat Iron Curls)

Well, it is a big day today!  It's the release of the new Twilight movie, "Breaking Dawn - Part 1".  This is exciting for us here in this house and all of the kids went to school wearing Twilight gear that my husband and I got on our trip to Forks, WA.  (Yes!  FORKS!!!)  :)  I'm gearing up for a big party tonight with some more of my Twi-hard friends and I thought it would be fun to do a Twilight themed video for you.  These are basically Flat Iron Curls but that doesn't sound as fun as "Bella Curls"!

*Remember that it's always better to spritz the hair first with a heat protecting spray.* 

You can see that the curls are nice and loose and look very natural. 

We have her bangs tied under and some Long Knots on top and I will have a video for those next Friday. 

Her curls lasted throughout the day and looked beautiful. 

I actually did this video on Sunday so you don't get to see her cute Twilight clothes but you'll just have to pretend.  :) 

Have a great day and GO TEAM EDWARD! 

Twilight Fan?

So I am really excited for the release of the new Twilight movie tomorrow and I wanted to jump back to a previous post - Team Edward or Team Jacob?
It is just a simple double messy bun style.  We did this for the release of the "Eclipse" movie and I made these bows.
I wanted to post this idea if any of you are Twi-hards like me and would like to copy it!  :)
So I ask again... which are you?
Team Jacob?
Or Team Edward?

Back & Forth Half-Up

Here is a hairstyle that is similar to The Switchback hairstyle that we did a while ago but it's done just a little differently.

Start by creating a small, off-centered part on the top of the head.  Comb the rest of the hair straight down. 

Start by working on the left side of the head.  Grab a section of hair from the part down to the left ear.

  Comb it around the back of the head and over to the right half.  (Make sure you don't go all the way to the right but that you stay on the back area of the head.)  Grab a loose section of hair from that right side and combine your combed section in with it.  Secure it with a small clear elastic. 

 Now move over to the right side of the head and section out an area from the part down to the right ear.  Comb that across the back and over the elastic to hide it.  Combine it with a small section of hair from the back-left side of the head and secure it with an elastic. 

 Now grab one final section from the left side - right behind the ear and pull it over that last elastic.  Comb it across the head and combine it with a final section of hair from the right side of the head.  (From just behind the ear.)  Secure it on the back-right side of the head with a small elastic and then pull a bit of the hair from the section above it down over that elastic to hide it. 

The rest of the hair can stay straight down or you can curl it.  It's a very simple, yet elegant hairstyle.

Friday's Film: Hair Pin Tutorial

I've had a request for a video showing how to make the hair pins that we use in several of our hairstyles.  They are very simple, very fast, and very affordable to make.  You will need some unused hairpins or bobby pins, a glue gun, & a flower/notion/ribbon for your focal point.

I told you there were easy!

Here's a finished product from the one I made on the video.

They are so fast to make that I was able to finish all of these in about 30 minutes.  I make sure to always have multiples of the same kind because I use all of them in certain hairstyles.  (I found these cute little knitted flowers on Etsy.com and they were super cheap.)

Here are some other examples of pins that I've made.  (You may recognize some from hairstyles we've posted.)  I just keep them in these little craft boxes from Walmart and they stay nice and organized.
Here are just a few of the hairstyles we've used these in:

The Rose Bowl

Baptism Picture Hair

No Go Without A Bow

Pot O' Gold

Double Layered Bun
As you can see, there are lots of ways to use them and they look great in adults as well as kids! 
Happy hair pin making!

Draped Braids

Here's a hairstyle that we tried this morning and it was a fun one.  We have pictures here of the draped look but you can also pull the braids tightly so they don't sag and you'll have a totally different style.

  Begin by making  apart directly down the center of the head. 

Start on the right half of the head and  create a small section of hair up on top and secure it into an elastic.  Pull out some hair from the bottom of that ponytail and create a Regular 3-Strand Braid out of it. 

Now move over to the left half and section out the front area - equal to the right side.  Pull your braid over to the left section and secure it all together with an elastic.  Now unplate any remaining braid underneath that new elastic. 

Create a new section on the left half, just below the first one and combine that left ponytail and the new section together and secure it with an elastic.  Pull out some hair from the bottom of that new-left ponytail and create a Regular 3-Strand Braid out of it. 

Move back over to the right half and section out another area - equal to the left side. Pull your braid over to the new-right section and secure it all together with an elastic. 

You will continue this process, moving from side to side, until you come to the bottom of the head. 

 You'll end up with two ponytails on each half of the head with you can leave straight or braid.  Hide your elastics with some hair clips and you're all finished!

Diagonal Puffy Braids

The weather is starting to get a bit cooler and my princess loves to wear warm hats.  They're very cute but they can sure mess up a cute hairstyle quickly.  :)  Here is a hairstyle that stays put underneath those warm fleece hats.  It's your basic set of Puffy Braids with a bit of a twist on them.

Start by dividing the hair in half diagonally.  You can start on whichever side you like - we've started over on the left side and ended on the right.  Tie one half of your part out of the way temporarily to work with the other.

Gather a small section from the top of that half and secure it into an elastic. 

Now gather another section of hair just below that first and add in the ponytail you just made.  Tie that new group off with an elastic as well.  Just continue adding in section of hair to that ponytail and securing those sections with an elastic until you get to the bottom of the head.  That's how you create a Puffy Braid. 

Move to the other half of your original part and repeat the steps.  You should end up with two large ponytails on one lower side of the head. 

You can leave these ponytails as they are, finish them off with a bun, or a braid like we've done here. 

 I divided both ponytails into two equal halves so that I had four pieces to work with and I created a Quad Braid. 

 The video for the Quad can be found here.  We added a flower at the bottom to finish it off and she was all set to go to school - hat and all!