Braids into Front Piggy

I just found these old pictures.  I'm thinking I used the jaw clips since her hair was so short, and it just helped keep the ends from falling out.  If the hair is long enough, the clips won't be necessary.  There is a french braid in front and regular braids on the sides.  I think it is pretty self explanatory, so I won't leave detailed instructions.

Waterfall Braid Tieback

Here is a variation on the waterfall braid I gave directions for here.  After crossing over the last section from the bottom and dropping off the last section from the top, you will have only two pieces left to work with.  You can combine them together and pull them back an inch or two.  Lift up some hair from the top of the head.  Use two bobby pins to hold down the strand from the braid (in an X shape).  Let the top hair fall down hiding the bobby pins.  If you find that the bobby pins stick out and show, try using mini bobbies instead.

Or, instead of combining the last two strands, you can draw up another for three strands again, and do a simple braid for a few inches.  You can bobby pin it like above, or anchor it with another piece of hair and a rubber band like in this post, but hiding it beneath some loose hair.

Lesson 89: Basic Twisted Heart

This is really very simple and easy, but it is striking.  The twisted heart is very similar to the braided heart, but it is a rolled twist instead of a braid.  You will need two piggies, one above the other.  Do an upside-down pull-through with a Topsy Tail tool or with your fingers on the top piggy.

Split the tail and roll each piece in opposite directions, rolling down towards the forehead.  If you twist the right way, it will lay flat.  If you twist the wrong way, it will stick up.  Try again.  Roll them down a ways and then pinch them together at the bottom piggy forming a heart shape.  Carefully put on another hairband.  If you tighten the heart too much when putting on the band, gently pull at the loops to adjust it.  It helps to spray the twists with water before you band them.

You can put one in the bangs like this picture, or you can do a front half pony, a whole head pony, two pigtails, two or three across the front or along a side part.  If you do pigtails, you can actually just do it with one hairband on each side instead of the double because gravity will hold them down.  This is one of my all time favorite hairstyles.  It's really cute.

Here I've made a twisted heart with Barbie bangs and a headband.  This would also be cute with a wide ribbon and three heart across the top.

Lesson 88: Waterfall Braid/ Fairytale Braid/ Fountain Braid

I've been seeing this style become more and more popular.  I have to say, though, that I think it may work better in some hair types than in others.  Belle's hair is slick and straight, and whenever I put this style in her hair, it barely lasts a half hour.  She is young, though, and likes to play rough.  A teen or adult or someone whose hair isn't so slippery may not have the same trouble.  I've seen this style on someone with very curly hair.  I thought it was striking.  I really liked it.  So here's how:

The first step is a temporary pony at the bottom of the head.  This makes the braiding easier.  Part out the section at the top to use for braiding, and pull the rest out of the way.

Let the top hair fall down.  Part the hair at the top of the head or on one side.  Pull up a section near the forehead on one side and split it into three to begin braiding.  Cross the front over the middle.

Now cross the back over the middle.

Now bring the front over middle again adding a little hair from the bottom just as in a regular french braid.  This is the only time you'll do this: it is just to get the hair back away from the forehead so the first "fall" doesn't drop over the face.

Add hair from the top like in a regular french braid

Here is where the change comes from a regular french braid.  Instead of crossing the front over the middle again, you will exchange this strand for a new one.  Draw up a new section of hair as if to add it in to a french braid, but do not add it to the strand.  Just bring it under the bottom strand, cross it over the middle, and let the section you would have added it to fall loose.

Continue at the top by adding hair to the top strand and crossing it over the middle.

Repeat on the bottom by drawing a new section from below...

...and crossing it over the middle.  Then add hair from the top and cross over to the middle.

Repeat.

Repeat until you get to the center of the head.  Add a temporary clip to hold it together onto the ponytail.

Repeat on the other side.

Undo the temporary clip and bring the braids together.  Tighten up the "falls" by pulling on them gently.  You can add a hair band right here, or you can combine the strands and continue a regular braid.

Undo the temporary ponytail.

Like I said before, Belle is too rough on this hairstyle, so to make sure she doesn't end up looking like a mess in a half hour, I brush all the ends into a ponytail and add a bow.

For a variation, you could end the braid at the corner of the head.  Here I use a mini clip to keep it in place.  Notice the slight variation of the look: it comes from the amount of hair you pull up from the bottom.  The pictures at the top have only a little hair brought up, and it looks a little bit like a hawser twist, but the one below has thicker/wider pieces brought up.

Lesson 84: Front Half Pony with Twist Crossover

Start with the front section of hair from temple to temple in a piggy.

Next make row on each side with a french hawser twist.  Twist them down the ends a bit and secure (temporarily).

Gather the hair up from ear to ear to make a front half piggy.  Include the hair from the forehead, but not the twists.

Twist up the twists tighter by turning them, and then cross one over the other.  Wrap them around underneath the piggy, and band them together.

Undo the bands at the ends of the twists.

Here is where you can add a decoration if you wish, or just leave it how it is.  I'm using our new Lilla Rose Flexi-Clip.  (Belle and I really like fairies.)

Product Review: Lilla Rose Flexi-Clips

I'm excited to try out my new hairdo-dads from Lilla Rose.  They are flexible infinity sign shapes with a metal pin that goes through.  I've been testing them out on a few different styles lately.  If you head over to their website via the link above, they have some tutorials on some basic styles you can do with this.  Lilla Rose graciously sent us three sizes to try out so I could share my opinion with you.  We have an extra-small, small and medium.  The one in the picture here is an extra-small.  There are different things you can do with the different sizes, and the size you need will depend on the length and thickness of your hair, and also what you want to do with it.  I have been using this extra-small for a front-half pony in my own hair.  It is actually just a little bit too big for Belle's hair in a front half pony because it slips down a little (but doesn't slide down at all in mine).  I taught her how to split the tail in two and tug them away from each other to make it slide back up.

These hair clips remind me of my mother's old "stick barrette" that she used to wear a lot in the 80's.  It was an egg shape piece of thick leather with a hole punched in both ends for the wooden stick to go through.  She did the "tails up" style with it.

At last I have found a solution to the problem of heavy hair wrecking the cascading curls style.  Follow the directions for this post, but then add a flexi-clip above the pull-through for added stability.

I like these hair clips because they are useful for common every day hairstyles.  They are quick and easy and make a simple style look nice.

Lesson 20: Topsy on top

Today Belle's hair was wavy from some dutch braids we left in overnight.  I wanted to take advantage of it by leaving her hair mostly down.  Begin this one with a side part.

Make two more parts to divide the hair on top into a box.  Secure the underneath hair into a temporary ponytail.  Spraying a little water on it will help to keep the flyaways down and out of the way.  Next, divide the box into three or four sections and secure each one with a tiny hairband.

Now get your topsy tailer ready.  Instead of just sticking it through above the hairband like the Topsy Tail and Tiny Topsy posts, use the pointy side to split the hair section in half, just as if you were going to divide each section into another part, and then tuck the end through under the hairband.  This little step may not be completely necessary, but it will ensure that your finished look is symmetrical.

Pull the tails through the loop and pull the whole thing down and through.  When I did this, the little tails didn't like to turn around inside out on their own, so I had to pull the tails down until they turned.  Then just tighten them up by splitting the tail and gently pulling the ends away from each other so the band slides up a little.  If the twisties don't go even, try pulling down on little sections of hair in the tail to flatten out the bumps.

This technique would also look really cute if you turned the rows the other direction going toward the back of the head rather than toward the ear.  Then you could add extra rows and go from ear to ear.

Lesson 19: Tiny topsy

This is just as easy as the last post, but instead of starting with the low ponytail in back, do a small piggy in front.  Use a side part and then part out a block from the top of the head.  It will be like three sides of a square with the forehead being the fourth side.  Secure it with a hairband in one of the back corners, or the middle would be okay, too, for a different look.  Insert the smaller topsy tailer (or needle, or fingers...), put the piggy hair through the loop, pull it down and through, and tighten it up.

Forgive the weird designs in the picture.  My photo editing software is a little glitchy sometimes.

Lesson 14: Small braid in front with anchor

 

This post is actually for three different hairstyles (though they aren't all that different).  To begin, make a part from one side of the forehead straight back across the top of the head.  Draw another part with the comb beginning on the first part and moving perpendicular (right angle) across to the other side of the head. 

Divide the section into three strands.

Braid the sections together.  That could be the end of it.  Secure it with a hairband and you're done with hairdo number one.  Otherwise, just use a little jaw clip to hold it temporarily and continue on.  Hold the braid back against the head to find the spot where you want to anchor it.  Pick up a small  (about 1/4 in.) strand of hair from the scalp.

Use a small hairband to connect the braid to the strand of hair.  Undo the rest of the braid under the hairband.  That's hairdo number 2.

When I did this in Belle's hair, the hairband didn't have enough grip and kept sliding down the extra strand, so depending on the texture of your daughter's hair and the type of hairband you use, this may or may not work.  So I took out the hairband and added the extra strand of hair into one of the three strands of hair from the braid.  Continue braiding down and secure.  Hairdo number 3.

Lesson 10: Front Piggies

Part the hair from the front to the middle of the top of the head.  Part the hair again from the center where you stopped down to the top of one ear.  This will make a square corner at the top.  Gather the hair from the box and secure it with a hairband.  Repeat on the other side.  You can leave it as is or decorate it with bows.  To add a bow, Tie a ribbon around the hairband and tie it up like a shoelace.  Spread the ribbons out flat to make it look nice.
You can also do the part towards the side rather than directly in the center.