French Braids With FLAIR

Our go-to style these days is regular old french braid pigtails. We probably do them at least once a week because they're easy, quick and cute. Here's a version of the good old classic french braids, just with a little extra something....
Make a rectangle on top of her head with some sections like this. I placed our elastics off-center rather than down the middle just for fun. If I do this one again, I'm going to leave that front section without an elastic and just brush it to the side. (I think the front would look cuter that way, but whatever.)Next, split each section in half. While you're braiding the first side, it helps to band the other sections together to keep them out of the way.Do your french braids on both sides, adding in the hair from the sections as you go. You could do regular french braids or dutch braids like we did, whatever makes you happy. :)To finish this off, I just braided the ponytail and flipped the ends back up to the top.
I've got another cute version of this style ready to post hopefully sometime this week. (But I'm not making any promises.) My kids are out of school now, so I probably won't be posting as often. I'll be entertaining 3 little monkeys instead. :)

How to Braid - Instructions from The Princess herself!

The Princess has been learning to braid. She practices on her Barbies all the time and is becoming quite the hair artist. Maybe a future hair blogger??

She is so proud of her newly acquired braiding skills that she wanted to make a video to "teach" all of you how to do a braid :)

Here's her very first tutorial. Enjoy!




Don't forget about our flat iron giveaway! There's only about a week left til we announce the big winner.

Pictures From Viewers

So, I had a whole bunch of people send in pictures of styles they had done from the African American Hairstyle segment. I put them all together in a folder (or so I thought) and now can't find them! I'm guessing I either deleted them or sent them to spam or something?!? If you sent one in (aren't seeing it here and still want me to post it) you're welcome to send it again, sorry! Maybe I need to hire an assistant or something. (I'm kidding, but this little "hobby" is starting to overwhelm me, LOL.)

Here are a few I managed to keep track of though...
How cute is this???
Bantu Knot curls and Cornrows for Cheaters

The next 3 are all from AA Day 1. The twisted pigtails.






The mom who sent in these adorable woven braided pigtails is the owner of Chic Clips. Cute bows, right?




Here we have a cute variation of a Valentine's Day Hairstyle!



A cute and creative hairstyle.

A french braid with a bun.....


Look at this long hair, beautiful!
Another talented boutique mom who does Kell's Bows sent in this cute spider web hairstyle.

Thanks for all the fun pics!! And again, so sorry to those of you who's pictures I lost! At least I got to enjoy them for a minute. :)

Twisted Half Ponytail

This is a variation of our quick flower bun thingy I posted last week. This one is more time consuming....yes. But fun and cute too:)

Start by making a half pony with a small part on top (either on the side or the middle, whichever you prefer.) Do a french twist braid on both sides and join in the middle. (Click on the link for a video if you need help with the braids.)

Don't worry too much about it how it looks where you join the braids in the middle. The bun will cover that up :)
Split the half pony in half and twist braid both sections.Make a knot with the braids the same way we did with the other hairstyle......
Join together at the bottom with an elastic......Put a few bobby pins in to keep everything secure.....Now you can add a bow and some curls! We got this fun bow from Flowerz In Her Hair.


Just another fun way to spice up a boring old half ponytail.PS- If you haven't already entered, the flat iron giveaway is still running. You have until 5/31 to get your entries in! Flat Iron Giveaway

Quick Girlie Hairstyle (5 minute flower bun ponytail)

Another quick and easy hairdo!
Make a regular ole ponytail, split in two and twist braid both sections. As you can see, I didn't split this in half perfectly, one braid is fatter. That's okay, you won't notice in the end. Just like you're beginning to tie a shoe, cross one braid over the other...... Bring the end up through the loop and pull..... Keep pulling until you have something similar to this. Not too tight, it's a pretty loose knot. Bring those two ends together at the bottom and secure with an elastic. I added a couple bobby pins on each side of the bun (near the top) to keep everything in place. At this point, you could curl those ends or try to hide them if you wish. I just left them hanging (this is suposed to be quick, ya know) and added a cute bow.


The end!

How To Curl Hair With A Flat Iron

While we're on the subject of flat irons....

I think I use ours more than I use any other hair tool we own. I use it to straighten my own hair almost every day and curl the princess's hair with it a lot as well. I don't know why, but the curls stay in so much longer than if I use a curling iron.
This video is showing how to make loose wavy curls with a flat iron.
If you want the curls loose like this, take fairly large chunks of hair and run the iron through it fairly quickly. (Wrap the hair the same way the video shows.) When I'm making tighter curls, I wrap the hair around the iron a little differently. One of these days I'll hopefully get around to making a video for that too. But, don't hold your breath, it's hard for me to find a good time to do videos (with my hubby here to help me record and my camera working that day:) Before I use the flat iron on either of our heads, I always spray some thermal protection spray first to help prevent damage. Also, make sure you have the iron set on the lowest temperature possible that will still curl or straighten your hair. Some of these flat irons have temperature settings up to 400+ degrees! You really don't need it that hot unless you're working with extremely coarse hair (think horse manes!)Here's the finished look. Keep in mind, these pictures were taken after walking home from church in the wind (several hours after curling her hair.) Just keeping it real!!