Lesson 48: Easter Up-do

(When the timing is right, I'll post some more about french braiding...)

Here is the "do" Belle wore for Easter.  This is my absolute favorite style on her!  She looked like a princess.

I put in some rag curls the night before to get the curls at the end, but a curling iron would be fine.  I didn't have time to take step by step pictures, but I got several angles when it was done.

Part the hair on the side in front.  French braid the front sections to the top of the head, then quit adding hair in.  Braid them down to the ends and put in a clear elastic.  Put the remaining hair in a pony tail, high up and just an inch or two away from the end of the french braids.  For short hair, do an upside down topsy tail to make "cascading curls."  Since Belle's hair is too heavy for that,  I braided the tail of the pony very loosely, folded it in half upwards and added another hairband around the first so the curly tail ends stuck up.  The braid from the front I let hang down a bit beneath the pony and wrap around to the other side.  I crossed them together at the top and clipped them together with a mini clip and stuck in a bobby pin to keep them from falling down.  I hid the clip by looping a curl around and making a circle.  I held the circle in place with a flower bobby pin.  These gorgeous flower accents are easy to make: just clip a fake flower up to the little green nub, put a dab of hot glue on the top of a bobby pin, and stick the flower on.  The big yellow flower I actually just left the stem on and stuck it through one of the elastics.  Stick the flowers in a random.