Survivor Braided Hairstyle

Survivor "Redemption Island" Braided Hairstyle:

On last weeks episode of Survivor: Redemption Island, one of the girls (Andrea Boehlke) had the cutest beachy braided cornrow hairstyle! I have to laugh because team members Andrea, Ashley and Natalie got into a bit of "trouble" with another cast member for playing "beauty pageant" instead of working around camp lol. Apparently it was worth it though because gosh, look how cute these beachy french braids are!
I had to snap a picture of our TV right then and there! And of course, we wanted to recreate this hairdo on our princess. Keep in mind, it would be better to be working with dry, slightly wavy hair to create this tousled beach look. The princess had freshly washed/wet/straight hair when we decided to try this one, so it's more slicked down and less messy looking than the survivor camp version.

We started with a regular side part.
Then made 3 cornrow braids on one side of the part....
On the other side of the part, I left out a section in front to braid later and added 2 more cornrows slanting slightly forward. If I did this again, I would probably angle them more sharply towards the front of her head.
Next I started another cornrow with the front section or "bangs" and added in the other 2 cornrows with the braid as I got to them.
I kept braiding, and as I turned the corner, only took hair from the top of the french braid around to the back.
After all of the braiding was complete, I added everything together into a ponytail.
And lastly, made a messy type bun....
The finished style...
I should have taken a picture, but the day after we did this- her hair looked more like Andrea's (since the braids had a chance to loosen up and get a little messy overnight.)
A fun braided style for the beach, camping, or anytime. :)

Thank you Survivor for the hairstyle inspiration! I'm so impressed with the cute braids this season (especially considering the girls have no hair tools to work with.) Who would have thought?

Holiday Hairstyle

This would be a cute Christmas hairstyle, a holiday party hairstyle, or for any time. You could just change up the colors of the ribbons in the braids for your occasion. This really isn't difficult or as time consuming as it looks either. You just need to know how to french braid. See the "how to" video below.....
As a side note, this Christmas hairstyle would work on short or long hair. If your hair is long enough for a small french braid, you're good to go. And... can you believe how long her hair is getting? It grew back out after her hair cut quicker than I thought it would.

The hairstyle video tutorial:
These "Christmas ribbon cornrows" held up pretty well. We actually kept this holiday hair style in for several days! A Christmas bonus. :)

Braided Bangs - With A Tweek

We both love the look of french braided bangs or a braid in the front of our hairdos. It's one of those quick hairstyles we use a lot on school days. But, I thought it might be fun to try something a little bit different with this basic style to change things up. So.... instead of starting the french braid in it's usual spot on the front/side, I started it in the back this time. Just a small tweek, but I love how it turned out!
To start: Part out a rectangular row about an inch wide where her part would normally be on the side/top of her head and then another part from the row you just made, straight down to her ear.
This is a little awkward :) but have her face you while you french braid starting at the back of her head and continue down the row until you get to the front.
Then have her turn to the side and continue french braiding until you get to her ear. After I made the turn to go across the front, I only took hair from one side to give it more of a round look. If you want to continue taking hair from both sides of the braid, it will finish looking more square, which would be super cute as well. When I got to her ear, I just tied the braid off with an elastic, added the flower, and put the ends in with the ponytail.



Thank goodness for 5 minute hairstyles on school mornings! Otherwise we would be late every day. :)

Patriotic Ribbon Cornrows

Here's a fun and quick hairstyle for the Fourth of July that will work with short hair or long.
Ribbon criss-crossed cornrows!
I didn't take a ton of step by step pics of the braiding because we've done several tutorials on this hair blog using these crossed cornrows before and I didn't want to bore you with the instructions again!

I made a diagonal square on top of her head, split it in half length-wise and then again width-wise (forming 4 sections.) I then started braiding at the front left corner until I got to the end of the row and crossed the braid over to the bottom right and continued the frenchbraid to the end of that row. I finished up by braiding the front right section and crossed it over to the bottom left.
Using our plastic craft needle, I sewed some ribbon onto the cornrows starting at the end of the braid (at the elastic) and up to the top of the braid........
Then back down to the elastic......
Same thing on the other braid......
With the extra ends of ribbon, I just wrapped them around the braid and tucked them underneath and behind the elastic. The Princess thought these ribbon X's looked a bit like little stars in her hair!
This really was fairly quick! It took about 5 minutes to make the little cornrows and another 2 to add the ribbon.
We even had time for curls!

4th of July Glowing Hairdo!

This hairdo is a "Princess Original!" She came up with this fun fourth of July hairstyle idea all on her own. :)

You may remember the collection of hairstyles for the 4th of July that we posted last year. You can browse through those if you're in the mood, and here's another crazy one to throw in the mix!

Of course this isn't the only hairstyle you could make "glow." After the Princess decided she wants glow sticks in her hair while she watches the fireworks on Independence Day, we had to come up with several more fun hairdo options using them! I'll post a few more if I get time before the 4th.

This one was fairly quick and easy. I made 3 cornrows with a zig zag part.....
Then added the glow sticks! My advice would be to put them in right before you head out at night. The glowsticks we got lasted about 8 hours. They will probably burn out before you want them to if you add them too soon.
This hairstyle would not only be fun for the 4th of July, but maybe even crazy hair day at school or at a night time party or sleep over!The Princess was pretty excited about this one as you can tell in this video showing how to add the glow sticks......Oh and the best part? She had darling curls after we took out the french braids for church the next day. 2 for 1!

Crossing Paths French Braids

I didn't know quite where I was going with this hairstyle when I started. We usually sorta have a plan, but this one just kind of created itself. Sometimes it's fun to just start braiding on your cute little girl's head and see what you end up with!
Start with a part on the side and make 2 sections going down to her ear. Secure the section in the front with an elastic right above her ear. Put the section in the back in a temporary clip or scrunchie to keep it out of the way.Make 2 more diagonal sections behind the first two and inside-out french braid them.Now take the scrunchie out of the section in front of the french braids, split it in 2, and braid both pieces. Bring the braids over across the top of the french braids (to the other side of her head) and secure them each to a little piece of hair under your part with an elastic. I curled the hair in each of the 5 little ponytails with our flat iron and added a couple of cute clips from Nellie Bugs to the section in the front.

Cornrows In The Front-With A Twist

I wouldn't consider this a fast hairstyle for girls going to school in the morning! I feel like I'm a fairly fast braider, but this still took me over 15 minutes. So, either get up a little early, or save this one for the weekend, K~

Oh, and that's not chocolate on her chin or anything fun like that. The princess fell off the monkey bars and got all scraped up the other day! :(

To start, make 2 sections in the front like this......
Part the larger section into 3 sections.......Make some cornrows in the 3 sections. You could do regular french braids, dutch braids, twist braids, elastic braids (whatever you want.)Now, here's where the "twist" comes in. With the section you have left, comb the hair FORWARD and split it in half.Start this braid at the back of her head, right at the part. Braid towards the front of her head, then turn it around and head back towards the part again. (Using the other half of the section on your way back.)Bring all the braids together at the back of her head.Add a cute bow! We got this darling pony streamer from Shimmy Shimmy Bowtique. The bow is attached to the ponytail holder so it's super easy to get in and everything stays put. No worrying about it falling out halfway through the day!