Cupid's Heart

We have come up with a new hairstyle that is perfect for Valentines Day.  We call is "Cupid's Heart" and it is VERY easy - don't let the pictures fool you!  :)

Start with wet hair.  It will not hold nearly as well if the hair is not wet.  Create a part directly down the middle of the head so that you now have two equal sections. 

Using a rat-tailed comb you will create half of a heart on the left side of the part.  (We started the inside of our heart about 3.5 inches back from her bang line.)  The half-heart will start and end right on the middle part.  Comb the hair outside of the heart down an have your princess hold the hair that is inside the heart.  Now move over to the right side and create the other half of your heart.  It needs to be a mirror image of the left side so make sure you take your time and really have it look nice.  Make sure that all of the hair outside of the heart is combed down and then tightly smooth out all of the hair inside the hear and combine it right in the middle with an elastic to create one ponytail.  You should be able to see your heart-part really nicely now.  The hair outside of the parts should still be divided into two sides with that original middle part.  Go ahead and divide your ponytail into two equal halves as well, one for each side.  Temporarily tie off the right side (ponytail and hair) with an elastic so that you can work on the left side without that hair getting mixed in. 

Start on the top-middle part of your heart and begin french braiding by gathering three small sections from the hair not inside the heart.  Gather hair into your braid each time you plate. 

The outside will be gathered from the hair that is loose and the inside will be gathered from the ponytail.  Have your braid lie directly on the hear part so that you can keep the shape that you want.  Continue gathering hair all the way down that half of the heart and tie it into a temporary elastic when you finish at the nape of the neck. 

 Move over to the right side and repeat the steps.  When all of the hair is gathered and you are down at the bottom of the head, remove your temporary elastic from the left side and combine both sides together in one final elastic. 

 You can finish off that new ponytail however you like but we have chose to do a Quad Braid here.  (You can find the video for a Quad Braid here.)  Add some fun Valentines hair clips and give it a good spray with hairspray. 

It takes a good 15-20 minutes to complete but the idea is quite simple.  :)   

Friday's Film: 7-Strand Braids

You may have noticed a couple new things on our sidebar.  We now have links to our Facebook page and our Pinterest page.    Pinterest is particularly fun because it allows you to pin the hairstyles that you are interested in and then you have a quick reference when you're stumped on what to do in the mornings.  Hopefully these with both be helpful links for you!

The hairstyles for today are ones that we have done before but did not have videos for.  We got a request for a 7-Strand Braid from a follower in Brazil and I wasn't sure which particular one was being requested so we made a video for both.  Keep in mind that working with 7 strand is much more difficult because there are less spaces between the fingers to hold everything.  I say "difficult" but not "impossible".  Practice a bit and it will become easy for you.  These videos will hopefully help you and not confuse you more because it is a bit hard to get the perfect angle with my hands and the video camera.  :) 

This one is officially called the "7-Strand Braid" and the original post can be found here.

This braid is a bit easier if you can do it without a full ponytail.  The more hair, the harder it is to hold.  Maybe try it with a half-up style as well!

This shows the braid up close and you can see that it has more of a weave look to it.

This one is called "Lucky Number 7" and the original post can be found here.

You will want to secure all the strand together at the bottom with an elastic. 

Here's a close-up of the weave in the braid.



Royal Rolls

Here's a really fast hairstyle that is great for church or any other formal venue.  It is not necessary to start with wet hair but it will help the style to hold longer if you do.

Comb all of the hair straight back toward the nape of the neck and smooth it nicely so there are no loose hairs popping up. 

We have added this braided hair accessory that I found at Sally Beauty Supply.  It looks like natural hair and comes in a wide variety of colors to match every hair type.  It's also adjustable with an elastic bottom so that adults can wear it too.  You don't need to have it for this hairstyle to look great but I do like the little extra that it adds without the extra work.  :)   If you do choose to use this or any other type of elastic headband, make sure that it wraps underneath all of the hair next to the neck. 

Now gather all of the hair down at the ape of the neck into an elastic so that you have one large ponytail.  Grab your Topsy Tail and stick the pick part straight down behind the elastic.  Feed your ponytail up through the loop and then pull the hair through to create a Pull-Through. 

Now separate your ponytail into 4-6 even pieces and Barrel Roll them upward into the head.  (If you do not know how to create a Barrel Roll you can see the video here.)  Secure your rolls with bobby pins.  The Pull-Through that you created previously will help give some stability in the hair for those bobby pins to latch onto.

  Spread your Barrel Rolls out around the base of the head to give it a nice look and also to cover your elastic band a bit. 

Once all of your rolls have been created and are secured, you can add some hair accessories.  I've added some little flower hair pins that we made and you can see the video on how to make these here.  I've also added a couple flowers up by the headband.  Give it a good spray with hairspray and it's finished.

Jacob's Ladder With Weave

This is a hairstyle that takes a bit more time so it's not a great one if you've only got minutes to spare.

  Begin with wet hair and separate a small area next to the left ear that you will set aside for later.  (This will be the hair that you weave with.)  Now create a horizontal part all the way around the back of the head from the left ear over to the right ear.  It can either be right in the back of the head or it can lay a bit lower on the head - depending on where you want your Jacob's Ladder positioned.  We've done the Jacob's Ladder hairstyle before but I don't think I've ever posted about it so I will give some step by step instructions.  This one is a bit different than we usually do because it is positioned horizontally and we usually do it vertically. 

Start by grabbing a section from the bottom half of your part by using a rat-tailed comb to go from the part down to the bottom of the hair.  (Make sure your sections are not too large because you want to have a nice weave in the end and the more sections you have, the better the weave will look.)  Pull that small section into a ponytail using a clear elastic.  Now move up to the top half of your part and create a  parallel section from the edge of the hairline down to the part.  Before you secure that into an elastic you will want to pull up the top half of your first ponytail and add that in with you top section.  Now secure it into a ponytail and you've created the first rung of your Jacob's Ladder. 

We just finished a rung on the top section so you will now be creating another section on the top.  Pull the complete ponytail from the top in with the new section you just created and secure it with a clear elastic.  Divide that new ponytail in half.  Now create a parallel section on the bottom half and add in the other half from your very first bottom ponytail and half of the last ponytail you created on the top.  Secure it with an elastic and you now have your second rung of the ladder.  Create a new section on the bottom and pull all the hair from your most recent ponytail in with the new section and secure it with and elastic.  Divide that ponytail in half and create a parallel section on the top half. 

 You can see how I've created the top sections here and what our parts looked like.

 Keep moving back and forth from top to bottom with these instructions until all of the hair has been gathered over to the right ear and you've created several rungs to your Jacob's Ladder.

Now go back over to that hair that you section out at the very beginning and divide it into two equal sections.  Make sure it is still nice and wet and start weaving with your top section.  You will be going over and under the rungs in your Jacob's Ladder.  I used a Topsy tail to do this but it is not necessary.  Once you have weaved it all the way through your Ladder you can combine it with the top ponytail on the right side by adding another elastic.  Now go back and do the same thing with your bottom section but make sure to alternate the over and under with what you did using your top section so that it gives the basket effect.  Secure that piece in with the bottom ponytail on the right side. 

You should not have two full ponytails on the right side of the head and you will divide each ponytail into two equal sections and weave them all together to create a Flat 4-Strand Braid.  There are instructions for how to create this braid here.  Add a flower to the bottom of your braid and you're finished!

Friday's Film: Pull-Through Bun

If you have a princess with long hair and struggle to find the perfect bun, we may have a solution for you. 

This is one that we use all the time and it's called the Pull-Through Bun.  You'll need to have a Topsy Tail and some bobby pins for the hairstyle. 

Begin with any hairstyle you like, or you can just begin with a simple ponytail.  We've got a variation on our Angel Halo hairstyle here and it works great because all of the hair ends up in a side ponytail.  (You can find the video for the Angel Halo here.)

  Once your hair is all combined in an elastic, grab your Topsy Tail and stick it in the hair behind the elastic.  Feed the ponytail through the loop and then pull it halfway through the hair.  You will create your bun by only pulling it halfway through. 

Take the ends of the hair that were pulled through by your Topsy Tail, divide them into two equal sections, and wrap them up around the bun and bobby pin them into place by creating an "X" with two pins.  If the hair is wet you can shape your ends to curl around the bun but if it is dry you can use an iron to achieve the same effect. 

Add a hair clip on top of the bun to conceal the bobby pins. 

Here is a video to help you as well: 

Triple V

This is a simple hairstyle that takes less than 10 minutes to complete and we always need to have a stash of those hairstyles handy!

We call it the triple V because of the three braids forming the V's on the back of the head.

Begin by creating a small part at the front of the head.  Ours is off-centered a bit but you can place it wherever you like.  Comb the remaining hair down straight.

Start on the right side of the head and section out some hair from the part down to the top of the right ear.  Smooth it out with a comb and then create a Regular 3-Strand Braid that will be long enough to reach to the back of the head.  Have your princess hold that braid while you move over to the left side and repeat the same steps.  Pull those two braids to the back of the head and combine them with an elastic.

Now you will grab a small section of hair directly behind/underneath that previous section and create a braid out of that as well.  Have your princess hold that while you move to the opposite side and repeat the steps.

Join those two braids at the back of the head - along with the ponytail from the previous braids - and secure it all with a new elastic.  Repeat these same steps with one more section of hair from each side of the head to create your 3rd "V".  You can finish off the style by curling the hair as well.

BOWtiful

I've done a few of these "Ga Ga" bows before  but I wanted to show you one other way to do this. I found that this way seems to hold throughout the day better.

Start with wet hair and pull it all back into a ponytail - or piggies or whatever style you are looking to do.  Now section out about 1/3 of that ponytail from the top to make your bow out of.  Divide that section into two equal parts. 

Start with one of those parts and create one loop of your bow, whatever size you like.  Now take a small clear elastic and secure it over that loop a couple of times to hold the loop in place.  Make sure that your small clear elastic is resting as close to the original ponytail elastic as possible.  Do the same thing with your other part of hair to create the other loop of your bow.  You should now have two loops and two clear elastics resting by your main elastic. 

 Take the hair from your loops that was left over and criss-cross wrap that around the three elastics to hide them.  You will first cross them behind and then criss-cross them over the front. 

 Finish by taking the ends behind the ponytail and then including them with the rest of the hanging hair as you divide it into three equal sections to braid.  By braiding these ends in with the rest of the ponytail it will secure them in without having to use any bobby pins. 

Hopefully this way will help a few of you that struggle with theses hair bows. 

Friday's Film: Swedish Piggies

We tried to get this video up as soon as possible because we had a lot of response on the hairstyle and many requests for a video.  I wish that the hair on the video looked a little more crisp and clean but you should still be able to get the general idea.

If you want to see pictures of the finished product as it should look, you can refer to the original post here. 

See, now wasn't that easy?!  :)

Barrel Bun With Braids

This is a new twist on an old favorite.  Those of you that have followed us for a while know how much I love Barrel Rolls.  :)  This is simply a Barrel Roll Bun that we've added some braids to.

Begin with wet hair and pull it all back into a tight ponytail.  You can have a small part in the front if you like but it's not necessary.  You can also have your ponytail high or low depending on where you want your bun sitting in the end.

Pull out some small sections of your ponytail - as many as you want - and create some Regular 3-Strand Braids.  Secure each one at the bottom with a small clear elastic.

Set the braids off to the side and create your Barrel Roll Bun using the remaining hair.  You can find an instructional video on how to create a Barrel Roll Bun here.

Once you've finished your bun you can take your individual braids and wrap them through and around your bun in any fashion that you like. 

Use bobby pins to secure your ends in behind the bun.  Spray it with some hair spray and then add a flower in the center to finish it off. 

Elegant Updo

Here's a hairstyle for you that looks really complex but is actually quite simple.  It may take a couple trial runs to get the feel of braiding sideways but practice makes perfect.

Begin with wet hair and create a small off-centered part at the front of the head.  Comb the rest of the hair straight down. 

Begin on the left side and grab a section of hair right by the ear.  Divide it into 3 equal sections and begin braiding sideways toward the right ear.  You will be adding a section of hair into the far right section of your braid (the top section) every time you plate the braid.  Do not add hair into the bottom section - just the top so that it is a Half-French Braid.  Also be sure to keep your braid somewhat low on the back of the head.  

When you get over to the right ear you will slowly twist your braid  down toward the neck and then have it start heading back toward the left ear. 

This is where you will begin to add in hair to both sides of your braid as you plate it for a full French Braid.  Make sure that you gather up all the remaining hair as you work back toward the left ear.  Tip:  Add the top sections of hair in tightly so that the braid is snug up against that first braid going across the head.  Once you have gathered all of the hair up you will simply finish braiding the hair with a Regular 3-Strand Braid and secure it at the end with an elastic. 

Take that 3-Strand Braid and bend it underneath the French Braid you just created and bobby pin it onto the head.  Be sure to tuck and loose ends up into the braids so they are hidden.  Give it a good spray with some hairspray for hold and then add some cute hairpins to dress it up!
This is an easier version of our Waterfall Updo that we did a while back and take much less time to accomplish.  The steps are not exactly the same but the outcome looks very similar.