stars & stripes

I know I have totally neglected this blog but I have my reasons!! We enjoyed a 2 week vacation at Myrtle Beach. & since we've been home - we've been swimming everyday, either at swim lessons or at grandma's pool & we've just been keeping it perfect hair for swimming - 2 french braids. Stays out of her hair the whole time & is not tangly when we take it out. So my apologies but I do have a fun one for the FOURTH of JULY

This is our version of the American flag. Girlie thought I was literally going to do stars & stripes - nope just improvise!! She loved it & giggled when she looked in the mirror saying how fun it is! & brother kept giggling & saying her hair looked silly. Pretty funky but oh so fun!!

our version:the American Flag - see it? please say yes!
Part the hair down the middle & divide a square on the left side where the stars would go. The rest of the hair is going in the "stripes"

Start braiding for the stripes. I put the elastic closest to the hair. You could do this a few different way. You could braid all the way down. You could bring all this into a side pony or if you can't french braid - you can do puffy braids - using elastics instead.

I braided 6 braids!

Now to the "star" section. Divide little sections in the hair & add elastics. Do the entire squared section

Do mini buns for the stars. I was wishing the entire time that I had those miniature clips (in red preferrably) to secure each bun. It would have been darling & added to it & also taken less time. I just wrapped with an elastic to secure.

Here we go. The stars are all bunned up & the braids stripey!

I just curled what was left down but you could definitely pull it into a side pony, I even thought about twisting it down to a low side pony.

front view. I know it's funky but it's way cute in person.

& she decided she wanted to bow in with it & it looked darling. Love it.

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slanted frenchbraid

If you know how to inside-out french braid, this is a must. So, so easy & just a little twist (or slant:) to make it not look like your traditional french braid.
Start the braid on either side of the head.

Begin inside-out french braiding down the head - making sure it stays on a slant. Pretty hard not to at this point.

Add elastic to secure braid.

Wrap hair around the base of the braid. I secured with an elastic & covered it as much as possible with hair. This seems to hold the best. I also spray it with hairspray as I wrap.

Curl the pony & add a cute bow.

top view

***For those of you who have asked what I put in her hair??? NOTHING!! Honestly. I do her hair when it is damp & only use a tail comb. Spray it with hair spray & use the comb again to smooth everything out. So I guess not nothing - only hairspray. Now - if I am keeping it down we use the Garnier Fructise Curling Gel whether I'm curling it or not. It's just a great scultping gel. I think everyone thinks you need to add all this product but the secret is do it while it's wet. It holds all day & we don't get many flyaways. Especially if I spray it & then comb back again.

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This was so fun to do. I have major spring fever & the weather was so nice last week that we had to pull out our skirts & capris & have a fun new do with all our new spring clothes. Please come back beautiful weather.
Start by splitting the hair in half like you are going to do pigtails. Put one half of the hair in an elastic to keep out of the way. You are now working with half of the hair. Right in the middle, divide a section that looks like a circle with hair surrounding the outside of it. Sounds confusing - look at the picture below:

Now the hair that is left out of that pony tail, begin inside-out french braiding at the top of the part.

You want to circle around the pony tail that you made making sure not to include any of the pony (again only the hair on around the pony)

Once you get to the end, now connect the braid with pony tail.

Do the exact same thing to the other side.

I finished with some messy buns. I originally had the ponies down & curled but I wanted you to be able to see the entire braid. Maybe if her hair were a little shorter I could have kept them down. It looks harder than it really is.

front view:

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what a surprise...another side pony

If you still haven't learned to french braid or inside-out french braid - you really should. So many fun things to do with it. Of course, here's another side pony!
Part the hair in 4 sections. First braid the top half.

then braid the bottom half & bring all 4 sections into a side pony

Take out the braids that are in the pony & make into a messy bun.

front view

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a down do

This was really easy to do & explain. Inside-out French Braid 3 braids at the front of the hair. Bring together to make one piggie.
Wave the rest of the hair & add a cute flower bow (she actually let me put a bow in her hair:) That's it!! How easy & it would be really cute on any length of hair or any age of girl. I had a girlie in my ward that came up & said she wants to wear her hair like that for prom - it really would look cute on any age!

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Just for fun...

Whoever said that braids were just for little girls? Yep...we have twinner hair. Only because I don't have 2 girlies to have them match each other:)
See - braids are for everyone!!

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EASTER

I have had Easter on my mind lately seeing that Easter is just around the corner. & I thought I would share what I was thinking would be some pretty hairdos. When I think of Easter sunday I think of beautiful Easter dresses with pretty hair in soft curls, flowers & headbands. I'm going off of what I posted last time because I had so many comments on it - I thought we could do another variation of the same style.


Part your headband just about 1/2 to 3/4 of the head & pull the rest into a pony tail. Split the pony in half & hold the bottom with a clip. That is what is going to be curled, the top is what is going into the braid.

Start braiding your headband just like the post below, bringing side pieces from the pony & the headband pulled out. I tried to keep the braid right over the part to keep an even line for me.

I braided the hair down & added that to the pony, undoing the elastic & braid so it's now part of the pony tail.

Curl your pony tail & spray to hold the curls.

Pin the curls around the head & leaving some down so that they're not all up. I added some small silk flowers that she got from when we went to Disneyland & they put roses in her hair.

& that's all there is to it!! Now we have a different variation of the braided pony but it looks more like a updo.

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around the head headband

This was a fun one for us to do. It's a little bit different, but it was nice because her hair stay out of her face all day & it looks like a sweet little braided band.
Start by parting a circle around the head, leaving out a headband under the circle.

This is kind of hard to tell in the picture, but you start french braiding from the bottom-middle. Grab your three strands to start with from the hair that is out of the pony. Then as you braid, you bring small pieces from the pony tail from the one side & small pieces from the hair left out from the other side. You can either do inside out french braid or a regular french braid. I actually started with a regular french braid & didn't get very far, I felt it was hard to position my hands, so I stopped very quickly & redid with the inside-out french braid & it was very fast & much easier for my hands to hold the hair. But whatever works best for you - try it!

One you've gone all the way around the head, finish braiding to the end of the hair.

I bobby pinned that little tail so you didn't see the end or the beginning & plus - doesn't that just look like a mullet hanging out:) So definitely pin the end of the braid up so it's not visible.

I added a bow where I had pinned it so you didn't see any of that at all.

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