Lesson 76: Another French Braid Variation

I saw a tween girl with this hairstyle at a choir concert not too long ago.  I thought she was adorable, and I was intrigued that I had never thought of or seen this before, when it is such a slight change to the ordinary french braid.  You just start braiding with hair at the top of the head near the part instead of at the front of the head near the forehead.  Braid straight down instead of curving around to the neck.  You may run out of hair over the ear before you run out at the back of the head, so you just keep braiding the one side without adding hair to it, but still add hair to the other side until you run out.

Lesson 75: Braid Loops Ponytail

I was inspired to do this style from a darling little girl (another Belle) at my church.  Hers was done on the side with an enormous sunflower.

Gather the hair into a ponytail (middle or side).  The higher on the head the ponytail is, the more difficult it will be to match the end lengths of the hair to braid.  Braid all the hair, one small section at a time, and put a small elastic at the bottom of each.  It may be helpful to do this on wet hair (use a spray bottle if necessary) to keep shorter lengths from poking out of the braids as much.  Fold the braids up and stick the ends into one of loops of the hairband.  Adding another hairband around the whole thing will help keep them from slipping.  I used a no-slip grip hairband.  Just be careful not to mess up the braids when you are wrapping the hairband.

At this point the little ends are sticking out like wild at the top of the ponytail.  Do whatever you can to tame them.  Spray them wet, roll, tuck, wrap, pin... whatever you can do to contain them to a small area.  Now cover up the mess with a bow or flower to hide it.  I used three small flowers because I don't have a big one. (Thanks again Gimme Clips!) A wide piece of ribbon would have done the trick nicely, too.

Lesson 74: Ribbon Accent

More curls!  He's another way to spice it up. This is a simple front half pony.  Some curls from different places on the head gathered together beneath the hairband.  I combined them smoothly by wrapping them around my finger and combing them a bit at a time while on my finger.  For the bow accent, I tied a short thin ribbon into a bow around the end of a bobby pin, and then inserted it into the hairband. 

Lesson 73: More on Rag Curls and Twist-Wrapped Half Pony

I've been saving these pictures for a year or so.  This is a curl made with the corkscrew method I talked about in my last post.  Here's a single curl as I let it out of the rag.

Notice the pink arrow pointing a portion of hair that didn't curl very well.  It may have been too wet so it didn't dry and set the curl, or it may have come unraveled while I was wrapping and knotting the ends.  Oh well.

This is after running my fingers through the curls to loosen them up a bit.

I don't like the flat places near the scalp, so I try to style it in a way that will hide it.  Here I did a front half pony, leaving out a chunk of hair on both sides over the ears.  I then twisted the hair left above the ears, crossed it over the hairband to hide it, and then tucked the ends underneath.  You can either stick the ends down into the hairband at the back or use mini jaw clips to hold the twists in place.

A side view:

And a gratuitous shot of these luscious curls (I can't help myself):

(These are the curls I made my blog banner from.)

Lesson 72: Rag Curls for Long Hair

I love these gorgeous curls!  They last much longer (almost all day) than curling iron curls.  They are a special treat for Belle sometimes when she gets her chores done quickly and there is extra time before bed on a Saturday night.  After her shower, I blow dry her hair until it is damp.  You will want to keep in mind the style you want for the following day and add in the parts for shaping, if possible.  For this I'm just doing a headband, so I'll start by parting her hair on the side in the front.  You will need to divide the hair into sections, but best not to do it all with a comb to avoid the straight lines showing after it is all done.  Just pick up a section of hair, and don't worry about how the edges look at the scalp.  You'll need at least 8 long strips of fabric.  I just tore 4 inch/ 10 cm strips off the end of a piece of old fabric, which is 45 inches/ 115 cm.  You could cut it, but tearing is faster (and more fun).  Pull up your section of hair and then put the rag under, about a third of the length below.

Wrap the hair around the shorter length of the rag.  You can wrap it flat as if running tape around a tube, or you can wrap it like a corkscrew by keeping the hair ends always facing you as you wrap.  This choice will create two different types of curls.

Continue wrapping until it gets hard to hold down the ends.

Pull the rag straight up at the top, and then begin to wrap the longer length of the rag in the opposite direction around the hair.  This protects the hair from getting messed up in the night.

Continue wrapping down the length of the hair until you get near the ends.

Wrap the ends of the hair around and cover them with the rag.

Tie the two ends of the rags together in a square knot (tight enough so it doesn't fall out but not too tight or you won't be able to get it out in the morning).

Vary the directions of the curls by wrapping clockwise and counterclockwise curls to help prevent them from clinging together into one great big curl.  Let them stay in overnight.  Belle doesn't complain about it being uncomfortable.  Undo all the rags, carefully unwrapping the hair to avoid tangles and frizz.  Do not brush it out or you will have a huge mess.  Just run your fingers through it.  You can reform any curls that go awry by combing it around your finger.  Use a spray bottle and fine bristle brush or comb to smooth out any places you want to lay flat for the style you put in.

This headband is my favorite in the world.  It is from Gimme Clips.  The headband has a loop on it where you can stick on a clip.  "Mix n Match" I think it is called, because the flowers or bows are interchangeable.  How clever is that?  What they didn't label on the packaging, though, is that you can also use the little loop to stick a bobby pin in to help keep the headband from slipping around.  I generally don't use headbands much because they don't stay, but this one isn't so frustrating.

Lesson 71: Woven Twists

I've been super busy lately and haven't had much time for blogging.  This is the best I can do today.

This is really similar to Princess Hairstyle's woven piggies.  It's one of my favorites.  I simplified it a bit with six twists instead of eight and pigtails instead of messy buns.  Also there is a side part instead of a center part.  Click on the link above for more detailed instructions from PH.