Simple Flower Girl Braids

Today, I wanted to go simple.  And though this one was simple, it probably would have been better with longer hair.  But, this is what I did.  Take three small sections of hair and braid them into basic braids, temporarily secure them.  Two of the braids should be taken from one side of the head and the third from the opposite side.  When you have all three braided, grab your elastic to secure them all together closer to the side of the head that the single braid is on.  The design looks nice if the lower braid from the double side loops down a little, but Claire's hair was not long enough to form a long braid.  Then after the three are secured together, if you haven't already taken out the temporary secures, do that now.  Then braid the resulting pony tail in a basic braid and secure at the bottom.  Then take two cute little flower clips, these are handmade bobby pins from Sunny Days Boutique, and pin over the elastics.  Good Luck!

Leftover Bunny Hair

Because Claire liked her hair so much yesterday she wanted to keep it in.  Ok.  The mini braids were still intact, but the buns had fallen a little, so, I could either re-do them, or just keep them out with the crimp-y hair from yesterdays braids.  Yup, I went simple.  So, to do today's hair do yesterdays Bunny Hair with Double Tri-braids and don't braid up the pig tails at the end.  Have fun!

Bunny Hair with double tri-braids.

Today is Tuesday and Claire has ballet after school today.  So, buns it is.

Start by sectioning a small amount of hair at the front of the head a band from in front of the left ear to the end of the right side of the bangs and clip out of the way. Then pull all the hair in the middle of the head.  Section and clip out of the way some hair at the base of the neck from below the right ear to about 2/3's of the way to the other ear.  Now take the remaining large chunk of hair and part down the middle and clip out of the way.  You can start at the top or bottom, but both of the smaller sections need to be sectioned and secured with elastics into three smaller left to right sections.  Now you have three small pony tails that need to be woven into three basic braids and secured temporarily with bobby pins or alligator clips.  At this point you need to take the larger section on the left and smooth the hair as if you were going to make a basic pony tail.  When the hair is smooth, pull the three braids from bottom into the pony tail, trying to make sure the braids lie flat.  Secure the three bottom braids and left pony tail with an elastic.  And now take the smooth the large section of hair on the right and incorporate the top braids in the same way and secure.  You can stop there, or braid each of the two large pony tails into basic braids and secure.  Then wind and twist each braid up on itself to form a bun.  Secure with bobby pins.  Add a pretty ribbon.  Ta Da!

Claire really didn't like the one while I was working on it because it we were working with the fine short hairs at the nape of her neck and according to her, there was a lot of hair pulling.  So, try to be careful.  But, let your model know, it'll be over soon.

2 Twists and a Braid

Today is another, 'I saw it somewhere' day.  This one really didn't turn anything like what I was hoping for.

But, here's what I did:

Section two section above the ears and twist them inward. Once they are twisted use bobby pins or a clip to secure them together.  Then, with all the rest of the hair do a basic braid, including the hair from the bottom of the twists.  Secure with elastic.  I used a clip and when I was done with the braid, I removed the clip and secured the individual twists with bobby pins, pinning under the hair

Braided Flower

I saw this one on pinterest yesterday and thought, 'Oh, my, we can't do that in Claire's hair.' But, then after I thought about all the individual components, I thought, 'Why not?'

So, what you need is to start with a simple pony tail.  Then take five small sections from around the outside of the pony tail to create and secure five thin basic braids.  At this point I used the remaining pony tail to create a larger basic braid.  Because Claire's hair was starting to have too many fly-aways, I only did a few links of the larger braid.  Now, grab your bobby pins.  Take your first thin braid and loop it and pin it a small distance.  It is okay if at this point that 'petal' doesn't lay flat.  Take the braid that will form the petal behind the one you just did and loop it.  Now, pin both the start of your first petal and the end of your second petal down.  Finish at the rest of the petals the same way.  To hide the ends, you are going to wrap them around the large braid and pin them down.  Because Claire's ends were so short and thin, I required plenty of hair spray.




You can play around with this design by making the thin braids longer or shorter.  Obviously, longer braids mean longer petals.  If your model has longer hair than you use in the braids your will have an easier time working the ends in.  Have fun.

Braided Buns

 This should be a fairly short one.  Start with two pig tails on the top of the head, with only the hair from the top of the head.  Once both pig tails are firmly secured, make a basic braid with each of the pig tails and secure with elastics. Then just roll and twist each braids into a fun little bun, secure the buns with bobby pins.  For a little added whimsy tie a fun little ribbon on the buns.  See, short!  Have fun.

Braid Basket

So, I saw something on tv last night that I thought was kinda nifty and that I could do it.  And that is what I tried today.  I think next time I will be able to tighten it up a little.

To start make eight basic braids back over the top of the head.  You can secure these with any temporary fastener, a small elastic or tiny clip or barrette or bobby pin. Once you have the eight braids done, temporarily pin the four braids from one side of the head  on the back of the head, this is just to hold the braids still while you weave the four other braids from the other side of the head with the first four in a traditional over/under fashion.  Once I got all the braids woven together I tried to secure the braids with bobby pins after I tightened them together by pulling the two sides.  After they were all secured, I removed the temporary fasteners and thought 'Viola!'  After Claire ran around for a little it became pretty clear that I would have to do something else. So, I grabbed a few elastics, tightened the braids up again and secured the four braids from each side together.  So, next time, I will start with the elastics and hopefully the braids wont have an opportunity to unravel any.  So, goodluck.

S Curve Dutch Braid

So, last night I laid down with my iPhone and went off to browse pinterest.  I found several things, some fun gluten free recipes, kid activities and plenty of fun hair styles.  I saw one that I really wanted to do it was sort of a s curve dutch braid into a pretty little braided flower.  I said, I can do that.  This morning while Claire was eating her eggs, I set off.  I started with a small section of hair on the far left side near her bangs. I did a Dutch braid (an inverse french braid) over her head along the bang line with pulling only the smallest amount of hair from the back of her head side of braid.  On the far end of her braid I started to turn the braid up over the ear again taking smaller amount from the top of the head.  Do three or four links straight back until all the hair is taken from over the ear. Next turn the braid left.  While you are braid back to the left side of head, take small amounts from the bottom of the head use all the hair from the top of the head and the hair from around the left ear.  Turn left again when you run out of head and now use up the rest of the hair.  Once you have used up all of the remaining hair you are going to start into a basic braid.  I was good up to this point.  But following this I realized Claire needed longer hair.  You are supposed to braid 2-3 links of the basic braid and lightly pull a small amount of the outer most hairs from the links on the left side of the braid a good way out, then braid 2-3 more links and do the same thing.  In order to make the flower look full you should do this 3-4 times.  Stopping after you are getting too many ends poking out of the braid.  After you secure it you are supposed to twist and twirl the braid up in overlapping circles with the pulled links on the outside. Use bobby pins to secure the braid flower.  Well, Claire's hair was too short, she was having a end problems as soon as we hit the basic braid.  So, instead I finished the braid, with ends flying and all.  I twisted it up in a circle and then, added a flower clip from Sunny Days Boutique.  Not what I intended  but she still received a ton of compliments.

Side Part French Braid

 Claire's cousin spent the night last night and saw Claire's Renaissance Hair from yesterday and wanted her own special hair.  However, her hair is much shorter and finer than Claire's thus limiting the possible options. I wanted to do a fun little dutch braid head band, so it would be similar to Claire's hair, but it just kept falling out.  Bummer.  So, in lieu of that, I had to really simplify to a french braid.  I parted her hair on the side of her head and then did a french braid on the opposite side.  About half way through I switched to a basic braid and secured it with an elastic.  Once I had her hair done, Claire wanted her hair like Leina's so, after taking the ribbons and braids out of her hair from yesterday, I did the same with Claire.  And they were happy!

Renaissance Headband

Attack of the infamous 'Mom with too much time' monster!  This one really is quite simple, but it looks like a lot of work.  Start with dutch braids (that is a french braid done backward, strands crossing under instead of over each other) one going both directions across the top of the head securing with elastics.  I also secured the ends of the two braids together under the left over hair.  This just hides the ends.  Then, I grabbed two lengths of ribbon left over from Christmas (this is 1/4" ribbon) and a large eye craft needle.  After threading one ribbon start in the middle of one of the braids and poke the needle up through one of the links on the inside of the braid, then cross the ribbon over and thread it up through a link of the opposite braid avoiding poking the head.  Big key there, you don't want a crying subject before you finish! When you thread the ribbon back through the original braid leave one link open and use the next one.  Continue sewing the ribbon into the braids on both directions until you run out of links on both sides.  Next, take the other ribbon and sew it into the empty links in the same fashion.  When you run out of braids, tie the ribbons together.  I had a little ribbon left so on each side I wound the ribbon around the longer braid and tied the ribbons under the braids.  See, not hard, just a little more time intensive.

Enjoy, let me know what you think.

Basic Braid with a French Twist headband

This braid required me to take it out and try again.  This is a simple basic braid with a little french braid twist.    Every four or five cross overs during a basic braid pick a small amount of hair from the front of the head, near the bangs (or forehead, if you don't have bangs) and continue braiding.  There are a few tricks to this, make sure you add hair to the third cross over on the same side each time. By being careful about which strands you add to you make sure that each of the three strands are lengthened enough to make it over the head like a french braid.  

I also played around with adding a bow to the bottom of the braid by pulling a small loop of hair through the elastic used to secure the braid, after double looping the elastic, I added a second loop of hair and secured the whole thing. Claire wasn't a huge fan of this and had me take it out before school because it kept hitting her ear.

Waterfall twists

So in honor of the deluge (ok, I guess it is not quite a deluge, but it has been raining for quite a while) we have decided to do waterfall hair.  Doing this one, I felt like I could have used an extra arm or two.  So, take a small amount of hair from each side of the head, near the temple.  Now, twist both strands of hair inward at the same time, one with each hand.  After both strands are twisted to the ends secure hair with an elastic near the head.  Now, take small amounts of hair from both sides of the head, under the previous sections and twist in the same fashion.  Here comes the extra hand,  grab the previous pony tail and secure all three sections of hair near the head.  Keep taking small amounts of hair and twisting and securing until you run out of hair.

New Snood

Gramma Lousie Miller to the rescue.  This is a new snood for ballet class, under that snood is an extremely basic pony tail.  Stuff the pony into the snood and three bobby pins later: Voila!

Full Headband Braid

 This style didn't turn out the way I envisioned, but it was still quite cute.  I started with doing a french twist from one ear over her head, pulled in hair from the front, at approximately her ear, I changed into a basic braid securing it at the ends of the hair.  I then did the same thing with the french twist pulling again from the front.  After finishing both braids, I had Claire help move the remaining hair out of the way while I secured the two basic braids together with an elastic.  You can stop there or finish by gathering the remaining hair into a basic braid.  While I was securing the basic braid, I included the the ends of the original braids, that way you don't see those ends.