Friday's Film: Tied Updo

Thanks for being patient while we were on vacation for a couple weeks.  We had a fabulous time in Hawaii and I wanted to share this picture of a French Braid that we found in Oahu:

 They have taken individual palm fronds and wrapped them around the stems of the trees and French Braided them. 

 They did a pretty good job don't you think?!

The hairstyle we've decided to share today is called the Tied Updo and it's simple yet beautiful.  The original inspiration for this hairstyle can be found on my Pinterest board here.

My princess has such dark hair when it is wet but hopefully you are still able to follow the instructions.

Here is a picture of the finished product.  Cute huh!

 

I wish that our puff was a bit bigger which would be an advantage to working with dry hair. 

 

You can use as many bobby pins as you need when securing your bow. 

Good luck and remember that practice makes perfect!

The Bow Braid

This hairstyle is one that I've been following on Pinterest but could never quite figure out and the AMAZING Mindy over at Cute Girls Hairstyles posted a great video that you can find here.  Full credit goes to her and her perfect instructions that make this braid very "do-able".  She also got some fabulous variations that show the versatility of this braid.  Here's our version:

First we separated the hair directly down the middle of the head and created The Bow Braid out of the left half of the hair.  (The link to the instructional video from Mindy is above.) 

I absolutely love the look of this braid and the idea to it is really quite simple.  It does take some time so plan appropriately.  This hairstyle was supposed to have a Bow Braid on each side but we ran low on time so we came up with this instead. 

We added in the hair from the right side to the bottom of our Bow Braid and swept it over below the right ear.  We did this by doing a Half-French Braid and only adding in hair to the top half. 

We finished it off with a Regular 3-Strand Braid and secured it with an elastic and a little flip at the bottom.  

Remember to check out Mindy's fun variations because she's got some great ideas!

BOWtiful

I've done a few of these "Ga Ga" bows before  but I wanted to show you one other way to do this. I found that this way seems to hold throughout the day better.

Start with wet hair and pull it all back into a ponytail - or piggies or whatever style you are looking to do.  Now section out about 1/3 of that ponytail from the top to make your bow out of.  Divide that section into two equal parts. 

Start with one of those parts and create one loop of your bow, whatever size you like.  Now take a small clear elastic and secure it over that loop a couple of times to hold the loop in place.  Make sure that your small clear elastic is resting as close to the original ponytail elastic as possible.  Do the same thing with your other part of hair to create the other loop of your bow.  You should now have two loops and two clear elastics resting by your main elastic. 

 Take the hair from your loops that was left over and criss-cross wrap that around the three elastics to hide them.  You will first cross them behind and then criss-cross them over the front. 

 Finish by taking the ends behind the ponytail and then including them with the rest of the hanging hair as you divide it into three equal sections to braid.  By braiding these ends in with the rest of the ponytail it will secure them in without having to use any bobby pins. 

Hopefully this way will help a few of you that struggle with theses hair bows. 

Double Lady Ga Ga's

Lady Ga Ga made this "hair bow" popular so that's the reason for the name.  :)

Begin by parting the hair down the middle using any part you like.  (You can find ideas for various parts here.)  Secure each side with an elastic so that you now have two piggies.  Make sure the hair in the piggies is damp so that it is easier to work with. 

These hair bows can be created in several different way but this is that way that worked best for us.  Grab a small section from the top of one of your piggies.  Shape one "hump" of your bow and tie an elastic around it to hold the hump in place.  Create the other hump with some more of that section of hair  - leaving about 2 inches of hair still out.  Secure that hump with another elastic so that you now have 3 elastic all close together on top of your piggie.  (One from your original piggie and two from each hump.) 

  Divide that extra hair that you left out of your small section into two equal pieces.  Wrap the left piece up behind the left hump and the right piece up behind the right hump now criss-cross the two pieces over each other - hiding the elastic - and wrap them back behind the piggie. 

You're going to tuck those ends into the main elastic holding your piggie.  (Do this underneath the piggie so that it's concealed.)  Repeat these same steps for the bow on the other piggie as well. 

 It may not be necessary for you but I did make sure the bows were lying flat against the head by making a "X" with two bobby pins attached to each bow. 

 

You can choose to leave the piggies just straight or finish them off with any braid that you like.  We've done a Flat 4-Strand Braid here.  There's no need to add bows to this one because you already have them!  She got lots of compliments at school and I do have to admit that it's quickly becoming one of my favorite styles!

Our New "Hair Bows"

A few posts ago we did the "Dog Bone Bun" (which my daughter named) and this is just a variation on that. Pull the hair into two ponytails but make sure you only pull the ponytail halfway through the elastic. Take the rest of the hair still out of the elastic and wrap it around the middle of the half-ponytail. Tuck the ends into the hair by using a Topsy Tail. They end up looking like bows made out of hair. I went to lunch with my daughter at her school this day and everyone loved her "Hair Bows".

Dog Bone Bun

My daughter came up with the name for this one and I have to admit that it does kind of look like a dog bone! Pull all the hair together to make a ponytail but only pull the hair half way through your elastic. Separate the part that is through the elastic into two side and then wrap the extra hair (which wasn't pulled through the elastic) around the middle of the two pieces. After you've wound the hair as much as you like, put another elastic around the whole bun to hold it into place. You may want to use some bobby pins as well but we didn't and her hair held all through school. We also left some little ends hanging out the bottom but that's totally up to you.