Friday's Film: Braid Embellishment

My princess had a choir performance today where she was required to wear a winter hat so we decided to come up with a cute hairstyle that would work with her hat.  We came up with this Braid Embellishment:

It's a simple way to add some flair to any braid or ponytail.  

 You can see how it makes these simple braids look adorable!

These embellishments will look different every time you do them so don't worry about having them look exact.  There's beauty in variety.  :)

Netted Overlay

Here's a pretty hairstyle and I love it because the netting is so fun and we haven't done netting for a long time.  Have lots of little elastics handy.  It's fun to pick a color that coordinates with the outfit if possible. 

 Start by creating a part from ear to ear that is only about an inch and a half from the bang line.  Now that you have that section of hair you can divide it into 8 equal sections and secure each with an elastic.  Comb all of the remaining hair straight down. Take each of the little ponytails from your sections and divide them in half - except for your section closest to each ear.  

Starting on the right, combine the whole section closest with the ear and the right half of the adjacent section together with a new elastic.  (About an inch farther back on the head.)  Now combine the other half of that adjacent section with the right half from the following section.

 Continue doing this around the head until you come to the far left where you will make sure to include the entire far left section with your final elastic.  Start on the right again and repeat the steps - making sure to add in the whole section closest to the ear.  You will have fewer and fewer sections as you move farther back on the head and your side should slowly start to come together towards the back.  

Once you are down to 4 elastics/sections go ahead and create a flat 4-Strand Braid.  Your netting should lie on top of the remaining hair that was combed straight giving it that "overlay" look.

Friday's Film: Uneven 5-Strand

This is not a new hairstyle for us but we have never posted a video on it.
  

This is our original Uneven 5-Strand Braid and you can find the link for that post here.

We also have a "pulled" version of the braid and you can find a link to that post here.

This video should help give you the idea of how we divided our strands and created the braid.

Here is the finished braid from this video.  Try it out!  It's a fun braid and really quite easy with a bit of practice!  

Friday's Film: 7-Strand Sennit Braid

I was on Pinterest and  cam across this cool tutorial for rope braiding and this one is called a Sennit Braid.  you can find that original pin here.   I pinned it thinking it would be awesome to make a hair accessory or jewelry but then got to thinking that it could probably be used for a hairstyle as well.  

I did a bit of re-configuring with the strand and came up with this 7-Strand Sennit Braid:

Hopefully the video was able to explain it well for you.  As always, practice makes perfect with this braid.  

Here is what it looks like totally complete.  You can see that it looks like 2 side-by-side braids.  We have a couple other versions of 7-Strand Braids as well and I've listed those below with links to their original posts.  Just click on the name and it will take you over.

7-Strand Braid

Lucky Number 7  

Unbe-WEAVE-able

This hairstyle turned out really cute and I wish these pictures did it better justice but we were in a condo on vacation and these were the best shots we could get.  

Make sure you start with wet hair and create a high part going from one ear to the other so that you have a "headband" like section in the front.  Now you are going to create 8 small sections out of that front section you just created.  (4 on each side.)  Secure each of those 8 sections with a small elastic.  

Now you've got 8 little ponytails that you will pull out of the way and have your princess hold for a minute.  Divide the remaining hair in half by creating a part directly down the center of the head.  Pull each side into a low ponytail. 

 Now bring those 4 ponytails from the left side of the head and add them into the ponytail on the right side with a new elastic.  

You will now weave the 4 small ponytails from the right side through the left side ponytails using an alternating over and under method.  (I used a Topsy Tail to make it a bit easier.)  Once they have been weaved through you can secure them into the ponytail on the left side with a new elastic.

I've included this picture to show you what my weaving looked like in the back once I finished.  You can see that they are not crossing directly over that center part like they should so I just adjusted them with my fingers a bit until they all cross over that center part and then sprayed them with hairspray to make sure they stayed put. 

You can leave your two ponytails loose or finish them off however you like.  I've done a 5-Strand Braid out of each and you can find the instructional video for how to do that here.  

Friday's Films: French 4-Strand & French 5-Strand

We've had more than a few requests for these videos so I'm finally getting them up for you. 

First of all we have the French 4-Strand:

 Hopefully that makes sense for you and will help.

Here's a picture of the finished French 4-Strand.  This is cool because it's half a French Braid and half a Dutch Braid!

You can see that this side is the "French" half.

And this side is the "Dutch" half.

We just finished it off with a 4-Strand Braid and secured it with an elastic. 

Next we have the French 5-Strand:

The fingering it definitely a bit more tricky as you plait this braid but it is one that gets much better after a couple practices.
 

Here's a picture of one of our finished French 5-Strand hairstyles and you can find the original post for this one here.

There is also this hairstyle that we did a couple weeks ago and it's a diagonal French 5-Strand.  That original post is here.

Friday's Film: 4 Strand Headband With Flower

My princess came up with the idea for this hairstyle this morning and it's a fairly simple one.  Be sure to start with wet hair and have some small elastics, bobby pins, and hair accessories ready. 

I apologize for my voice, I had just recently gotten over a cold. 

For our finished product I went back and did one more 4 Strand Braid and another flower. 

The 4 Strand Braids do not need to have the "squished" effect but I was just looking for something that wasn't so linear. 

My flowers are different sizes but you can really shape them to be any size you like. 

I left the rest of the hair straight down but you can finish it off any way you like.

Pretzel Knot & Piggies

Full Credit for this hairstyle needs to be given to Princess Hairstyles for this post.  It's called the Pretzel Knot and it's what inspired this hairstyle.  I first saw this Pretzel Knot here on Pinterest and then followed it to the Princess Hairstyles site where she has a fabulous tutorial video posted!

 When I first attempted the knot I had a hard time trying to keep my side strands secure so I started mine a bit differently and it helped me a lot.  I started by creating a small 2 inch part at the front of the head just a bit off-centered.  I then created a section on each side going from the part down to the ear. 

 I secured each side with an elastic next to the ear and this helped to hold my piece I was working with a little better and this made all the difference.  I then divided the remaining hair into two equal sides and set them aside for a moment.   

I brought those to pieces to the back of the head and create the Pretzel Knot as instructed by Princess Hairstyles video found here.  At this point I had my knot made but it looked as though it was loosening a bit so I decided to secure it. 

 I took my right end of hair from my knot and added it in with that right half of hair that I had previously sectioned out and secure it all into a piggie using an elastic.  I did the same on the left side as well.  Now my knot was tightly secured and was not loosening at all.

I created a 5-Strand Braid out of each piggie and secured it at the bottom with an elastic.  I finished it off by adding some flower clips and calling it good.  When she got home after a long day at school the hair looked just as great as when she had left!  (That's not always the case with my active daughter.)  :)  

Quad Variation

This is your basic Quad Braid with a bit of a twist that really gives it a unique look.  You will want to pull all of the hair back into a ponytail and then section out two small bits of hair.

Create a Regular 3-Strand Braid out of each of those two areas.  Now go ahead and divide that remaining hair from the ponytail in half.  You should now have two braids and two sections of hair from your ponytail.  This is where you will begin your Quad Braid.  If you need instructions on how to create this we have a video here.

You'll just want to make sure that as you start you will place the two braids as your OUTSIDE strands so that the two unbraided sections are in the middle as you begin plating. 

 This will place your braids correctly inside your Quad.  It's pretty simple but looks very beautiful!

Diagonal French 5-Strand

For Easter this year my princess decided on the hairstyle that she wanted.

(Please excuse the loose strands of hair - it was a VERY windy day and I didn't take pictures until after they had been outside hunting Easter eggs for a while.)  :)

 She loves 5-Strand Braids so she chose this Diagonal French 5-Strand.

We've done these French 5-Strands before and you can click here to see that original post but this one was just a bit different.

We started on the left side of her head by gathering a small area of hair that was divided equally into 5 strands.  (You will want to know how to create a 5-Strand Braid before attempting the French version and we do have a tutorial video here.) 

We worked our way from the top left part of the head down to the bottom right part of the head, gathering new sections of hair into only the two outside strand of the braid each time it was plated.

When all of the hair was gathered we finished plating the rest of the hair without adding strands in.  An elastic was placed at the bottom of that braid to secure it and then we tucked that end up underneath the French part of our braid and bobby pinned it into place. 

We added some hair pins that matched her dress and she was all set for Easter Sunday.

Friday's Film: How to Secure a Bead - Lucky Rainbow

We wanted to use some fun pony beads that we found at the store a while back so we decided to create a rainbow out of them.  Here is a video showing you how to apply and secure the beads to the hair:

I apologize for the final bead and having the elastic pop off but it was because the elastic I chose was a bit too small.  That's a good tip for you to find an elastic that is big enough to work with.  :)

Here is a style that we created with out beads called "Lucky Rainbow" and it's just in time for St. Patrick's Day.

You can choose any pattern you like for your beads. 

We've got 6 rows of 6 beads each.

We alternated our colors but it would be cute to have each row be a solid color as well. 

It's very fun and colorful for St. Patrick's Day.

We finished it off with a Quad Braid. 

We also added some rainbow hair clips to finish the effect.

The best part about this hairstyle is that it will last for days and is a great swimming style!