French Twist with You-Pins

I am excited to share my new favorite hairstyle to do on myself.  It is elegant enough for a special occasion, yet fast enough for an every day do.  After a little bit of practice, it is really quick to put up.  I am using You-Pins from Lilla Rose.  They are beautiful pins with two prongs about the length of my finger.  They are malleable enough to bend somewhat to shape for a comfortable fit, but quite sturdy, and they hold a surprising amount of hair in place.  Belle and I chose the sparkly stars as our favorite, and this will be a fine hairstyle for the Fourth of July.  (This post is going to have a lot of labels!)

Begin as you would for a low ponytail.  I started here at the corner of my head to keep the roll at the center of the head.

Grab the hair from underneath, and begin to twist it.

Pull the tail upwards and continue to twist.

Twist upwards, tightening the inside of the twist by pulling the inside hair with the other hand.

Pull the ends of the tail over to one side, away from the crevice. Insert a You-Pin at the edge at the top of the roll.  The curve of the pin should be opposite of the curve of your head at this point.

Roll the pin over to the side and push it in against the scalp.

Insert another You-Pin the same way a little bit lower.  With practice, these two pins are enough to keep the whole thing in place.  If you have trouble keeping it all together, you can add a bobby pin or two down through the top, or a spin pin.  Also, if your roll angles to the side like in the above photo (which, by the way, was taken by five year old Sweetheart, and I couldn't see what I was doing without my mirrors), try starting the ponytail on the opposite bottom corner and rolling up as if to the opposite temple rather than straight up.

Lesson 58: Star with Ribbon

Belle's 4th of July style this year was a star with ribbon over it.  Follow the directions for the twisted star.  Then slip the end of a long ribbon through a loop of each elastic.  Begin with a bottom piggy, leaving an end a few inches long.  Next the top middle, then the other bottom piggy, across to the other side on top, then straight across to the other top side, and back down to the bottom where you began.  You can leave the ends loose or tie them into a bow.  I used several pieces of ribbon to tie bows around each piggy.  You could also use clip bows or flowers.

Lesson 57: Sea Star

 The inspiration for this style came from Girly Do's By Jenn and her post called Flower Bun.

Begin with a ponytail.  Divide the tail into 5 even sections.  Add an elastic to each section about 2-3 inches (5-7 cm) down.

Split one of the sections beneath the hairband.

Turn the band to go through the loop.  It doesn't matter which direction, but it will look slightly different depending whether you go to the front or to the back.

Wrap the tail end of the hair into loops, keeping the ends at the back.  It helps if the hair is wet.  Lay the loops down against the head so the twisted part is straight out.

Put in some bobby pins to hold it in place.

Repeat with all the sections keeping the loops going in the same direction.

Here is a shot of the same style where I used mini clips to help hold it in place, and I turned it through the loop in the other direction (from the back).  This was some time ago when Belle's hair was medium length so there weren't so many turns in the loops, but it looks the same.

I posted two today, so be sure you keep scrolling down to see the other star style.

Lesson 57: Twisted Star Hairstyle

I learned the basic technique for the star from Princess Hairstyles.  It has become one of our favorites, and we do it often around Independence Day (4th of July) and Christmas.  Thank you, thank you, Princess Hairstyles!  Rather than reinvent the wheel here, I just want to show a little how I've tweeked it for my own preference.  Please look at the link above to get the step by step.

If you can see it in the picture, I have changed the shape of the parts.  The Princess has a triangle shape section of hair with the point at the forehead.   Belle's triangle shape has the point at the back.  Another difference is the placement of the hairbands at the sides.  Rather than pull the hair together in the middle of the section, I have put the hairband along the part.  The part then sort of fills in for the fifth missing side of the star.

Instead of doing hawser twists, I've just twisted each section.  It won't hold on its own with hairbands, so you have to use clips to stick them to the bottom piggy until you get the hairband over it.  Also, if you twist the two pieces from the middle top section in the same direction, you might have a problem with the hairband rolling over.  If that happens, you can twist the two pieces in opposite directions.

Here's another shot when we've done it with braids.  It is a little more difficult to recognize that it is a star this way, but still an interesting and fun style.