Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 Cover Hairstyle/ Half French Braid

This hairstyle is from the movie cover of Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2.  This tutorial is for an everyday realistic hairstyle, but if you are going for it to look just like the cover, there are a few changes that I'll tell about at the bottom of the post.

To start, make a part over the top of your head from ear to ear.  Pull the back hair out of the way into a temporary ponytail.  The front half is going to be a half french braid.  To do a half french braid, you should know how to do a regular french braid first.  This will be like that, but you only add hair to one side.  When you add the hair in, gather a new section all the way back to the part, and cross it over the middle strand.

Then cross the back strand over the middle without adding any hair to it.

When you run out of hair to add in, keep braiding down.
You can put it into a side ponytail for a variation.

If you are trying for the authentic "just like the picture" style, leave some hair out at the front for long side-swept bangs.  If you want pink hair, you can use an extension clip or color your hair with dye, markers, or pastels (girls, ask your mom first!).  You will also want to curl the ends a bit with a curling iron, but not the pink extension or it will melt.  And of course, don't forget the tiara on top.  (If it's for Halloween and you don't have really long blonde hair, you could do this style on a wig, but don't use a curling iron or it will spoil the wig and the curling iron.  Boil the hair like in this post.)

Barbie Ponytail

See the pictures in my post titled Barbie Gallery numbers 15 Fashion Fairytale, 17 Stacey, and 18 Merliah Summers in Barbie in a Mermaid Tale.  All of these Barbie pictures have incredibly thick ponytails. To get this fullness in a ponytail, I have a little trick: use a thread spool.

Begin gathering the hair into a ponytail.  For number 15, make it a very high ponytail at the top of the head.  Put an empty spool at the bottom of the ponytail and let the hair slide around it to conceal it.

Add a hairband around the ponytail.

I added a couple more hairbands of the same color now to make it look thicker.  You can add a scrunchy or ribbon if you want.  To continue with the Stacey curl, I used a curling iron to curl the tail.  I curled all the same sections in the same direction like so:

...and then brushed them together to form one big spiral.  A wider barreled curling iron would make a wider curl more like the picture of Stacey, if you have one.  This style ought to be sprayed with hairspray to keep it curled up together, and also to help prevent the hair from getting tired and falling to the side of the spool.  Using a no-slip hairband could also help with that. If you want the extra step, you could paint the spool to match the hair to help camouflage it better if it starts to show through during the day.

I've seen a tool called a Perfect Pony from Conair that has a little plastic contraption to do the same job as this spool of thread.  Perhaps it does a better job of staying concealed, but I've never tried it.

Lesson 79: Bun with Ribbon Wrapped Twist

This is the Barbie hairstyle I named "Yet Another Musketeer" (number 10) in this Barbie Hairstyle post.  It isn't exactly the same, but close enough for me.  This special guest is my neighbor friend.  She asked me for help to do her hair for a dance competition.  She said that it lasted for her second day of dancing, and she just needed to spray some flyaways after she slept on it.
Start with a ponytail.  Next you'll need to use a sock to form the bump.  Cut the toe off a sock and then roll it until it looks like a doughnut.  Put the tail of the ponytail through the hole.  Spread the hair over it evenly, and then add another hairband.

(I guess I should have taken some more step by step pictures, but I didn't have a whole lot of time.)  Grab up a portion of the hair from below the bun, pull it up over the top, and arrange it to cover up the doughnut.  Add a small hairband (clear is best).

Tuck the little tail in under the bun, or if you can use it the next step.  Now you will need to do a french hawser twist around the bun.  Take up two sections of hair from beside the bun.  I did it on the side, but taking it from the top may make it less visible where you start from.  Twist each section one direction, then wrap them together in the opposite direction.  Add more hair to the sections as you continue twisting around the bun.  When you run out of hair to add in, keep twisting the ends together and put a clear hairband in the end.  Wrap it around the bun and tuck the ends underneath to hide them.  Use bobby pins to hold it all in place.

Now get a long piece of ribbon.  I didn't measure when I cut it off the spool, but just guessed and ended up with way too much.  Better too much than not enough.  Use a craft needle to sew around the twist.  This is called hair taping.  Tie the ends together and tuck them underneath to hide.  Use hairspray to keep the top layer of hair on the bun from sliding and showing off the doughnut shape underneath.

Lesson 68: Barbie Mermaid Merliah Hairstyle

Belle loves Barbie.  She likes to play with the dolls, but really loves the movies.  If you haven't seen them, most of them really are pretty good (not that I have seen them ALL).  Belle's absolute favorite is "Barbie in a Mermaid Tale."  She is nuts over mermaids, especially Merliah Summers.  Check out the Barbie Gallery and scroll down to number 21 to see a movie pose.  Here is Merliah's mermaid do.

First, to achieve the beachy waves, I used the blow dryer after her bath (the night before) until her hair was just a little damp.  Then I made three hawser twists with all her hair (no parts, just grab three random sections of hair).  Twist all the way down and wrap the hairband around the ends to keep them tucked in.  One hairband can cover an inch and a half of length if you leave gaps.  It's not nice an neat how you do it during the day, but doesn't matter.  Does that make sense?  I didn't get pictures since I just wanted to get the little people to bed.  By morning, the hair is all dry.  Undo the twists and comb through the hair.  You can skip this step if you don't need to add the texture.

Start the style by  making a piggy out of the top section of hair like so:

Next, part out the side sections above the ears, brush upward as if to join it into the piggy, but cross them over like how you start to tie your shoe.

Pull it tight to cover the hairband, then clip the tail that is going up toward the forehead to hold it in place.  Tie down the other tail to the piggy.  Clear elastics are best.  It should be hidden, but just in case, you don't want any florescent green sticking out.

Take out the clip, pull the tail tight, and bring it down to cover up the knot and put in another hairband.

To wrap the ponytail, pick up a small section of hair from the back side of the tail.  Wrap it around the front and then around again above the first wrap so it covers the hairband.  Now get your trusty topsy tail tool and tuck the end back in through the hairband at the back.

This style tends to go a little crooked and can show a little of the parts back from the temples, but hey, we can't all be CGI animation, right?  Some of those mermaid hairstyles look impossible, really.  This is a pretty good facsimile, I think.

Lesson 67: Island Princess Barbie Hairstyle

It's a braid.  Duh, right?  Just put a flower on it.  See Barbie Gallery number 2.  Something new to try, though: Put all the hair in a ponytail, braid the tail, then remove the hairband you put in for the ponytail.  I'm playing around with this idea to work out some new styles.  If  the sides poof out on you, try doing the whole thing wet then letting out the hairband after it dries, or spray it with hairspray.

Barbie Gallery

I have written permission from Mattel to use these images here in this post.  All the names of characters and movies are trademarked for Mattel.  I'll be referring to them one at a time (if I ever get to them all) with tutorials.
1.  Mariposa from Fairytopia

2. Ro from Barbie as The Island Princess

 3.  Luciana from The Island Princess

 4.  Kelly

 5. Rosella

 6. Queen Marissa (Rosella's mother)

 7. Liana from Barbie & The Diamond Castle

 8. Musketeer

 9. Another Musketeer

 10. Yet another Musketeer

 11.  Annika from Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus

 12.  Annika

 13. Alexa from Barbie & the Diamond Castle

 14.  Alexa

 15.  Fashion Fairytale

 16.  Fashion Fairytale Fairy

 17.  Stacey

 18.  Merliah Summers from Barbie in a Mermaid Tale

 19. Xylie

 20. Kayla

 21. Merliah

 22. Queen Calissa

 23.  Erika from Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper

Lesson 49: Barbie Bangs

(Belle doesn't want me to take her video to french braid with wet hair, so I will post other stuff until she changes her mind.)

When you buy a new Barbie doll, often the hair is done something like this in the front.  I use Barbie bangs for the beginning step to several other styles, but it looks fine just how it is if you only want to leave the rest of the hair as is.

To begin, make a side part on the top of the head.  Then part the hair across the top from ear to ear.

Pull the remaining hair back and secure it temporarily into a twist or bun, whatever will keep the hair out of the way and off the neck.

Brush the front sections of hair smooth flat against the head.  I put it behind the ears, but you could cover the ears if you prefer (and if she/you can stand it on top of the ears).  Bring both sides together at the back of the neck and tie them together with an elastic.  Be careful not to get any of those tiny baby hairs or it will be painful.  It helps to spray the hair above the neck with water to plaster down all the baby hairs before you bring the top sections back.

Let down the rest of the hair and brush it smooth.