Toddler French Braids

First off, I've got to pat myself on the back, as I feel like I've finally got a hang of French braiding.  Gasp - yes, I have a hair blog and I've stunk at French braiding (at least in my opinion!) I mean, I could do it, but I never really like how things turned out.  But with practice, I've gotten better.  And as the old adage says - practice makes perfect!  I still am not the queen of braiding, but I'll actually let the girls go out of the house sporting one of my braids now! :)  For this one, you'll need to know how to French braid.  I'll eventually put my video on here, but I don't have time for that yet!

Anyway, back to the hairdo.  This is nothing earth shattering, just something I thought I'd share because chances are some of you out there deal with this problem too (and who knows- w/all the many, many hair blogs out there, this possibly has been done elsewhere!)  Bee finally has enough hair to braid, or French braid.  BUT - she still has a lot of the little short hairs/baby hairs up front around her face.  So trying to French braid towards the front of her hair is a joke for 2 reasons.  One being those baby hairs, and secondly, trying to get her to tip her head the way I need her to so I can get a grip on the hair and braid it is just rediculous.  She's pretty good at holding still for short periods of time, but I still am usually working on a moving target.  So the other day I decided to try something else.

I made a side part, and then parted from ear to ear - making 2 little ponytails up front and secured them with rubber bands.  Then I did a zig-zag part down the back of the head to divide the rest of the hair in half. 

Starting on the left side ponytail I made 4-5 plaits of a regular braid in the little pony tail working towards the back of the head.

Then once I had braided far enough down the ponytail and I was over the hair hanging down in back - that's when I started adding hair into the regular braid, to start making a French braid.

Continue adding hair, as you would to French braid, and braid until you run out of hair.  You could stop at the nape of the neck and leave the rest in ponytails, or I could have flipped the braids up to cute-sify it some more, but I left it as is - 2 basic French braids, just started from a ponytail, into a regular braid, and then into a French braid.

 

And because she was in a silly mood & her sister wouldn't let her have her Halloween vampire teeth, she opted for putting a claw clip in her mouth for "scary teeth!"

Anyway, by doing the ponies up front, it helps all those little hairs stay put, she doesn't have to crank her neck to some weird angle for me, and we still get cute French braids out of the deal!

Tuesday Tips

It's been a while since I've done a post of tips, and I've had a few things in my head lately - mainly time saver tips, so I thought I'd share.

Tip #1 - Don't put your hair in a ponytail at night if you don't want that "neat line" through the hair in the morning.  You know what I'm talking about right?  Hopefully so.

The girls don't like having their hair in their face, so after I wash the girls' hair at night (and no it's not ever night) and we've dried it- I pull their hair back like this (just section out the top section of the hair on the head):

Years ago I used to just pony tail them at bed time, but then every day I had to deal with that dumb wave all the way across their head that the rubber band made (this is assuming you want their hair down - if you're just going to put it in a ponytail or something anyway, this obviously doesn't matter.)  So I started just pulling it up on top.  May sound silly and simple but it helps.  And since I'm always doing something on the top of their head with their hair, the little bit of a line that that rubber band leaves always disappears quick and easy once I've misted it with my water bottle.

Of course, if your dd is a way crazy sleeper you might be saying "If I leave her hair down like that, it'll be a total rats nest in the morning."  So maybe try tip #2.

Tip #2 - Try a slickery (that's probably not a word!) or a silky pillow case or scarf.

My mom to this day still sleeps on a silky pillow case, because for whatever reason your hair in the morning looks just like it did when you went to bed the night before.  I hear it's also good for the skin - but that's another topic all together.  So if you or your dd has major bed head in the morning try a silky pillow case.

Tip #3 -  A time saving tip --- PLAN your hair do's -- yes I said plan.

Just like you might plan a meal, and then plan to have extra for leftovers the next day.  Depending on the hair do the girls might sport one day, I plan my hair do for the next day off of it.  If I part their hair down the middle for pigtails, I don't pull them out at night.  So the next day, I still basically have a part down the middle, and we then do Pocahontas braids, or something like that.  Or if I know I'm washing their hair that night, I'll do something that may cause major curls or something that wouldn't be the easiest to work with the following morning - because I know it's going to be washed out that night.   Depending on the hairdo I'll leave it in when they go to bed, so I can work with the "leftovers" the following morning.  BUT if a hairdo has lots of rubber bands etc. I DO pull those out before they go to bed, thus, saving me time in the morning as we're rushing around trying to get ready for school.  Also, if you do a zig-zag part one day - don't comb it out when they go to bed.  Leave it for the next day and do a style w/a zig-zag part.  You'll save time not having to comb that all out and start from scratch.  It doesn't take much - but give a little thought to what you'll do in their hair - the day before & you'll be surprised that it does save a bit of time. 

Tip #4 - Give hair a break.  Yes, I'm actually saying that!  Don't put your hair, or your dd's in a pony tail or braids, or little ponies, or whatever every day in the same spot.  If you've been pulling the hair up a lot, let it be down for a while.  Of course, we all know hair breaks, so watch for signs of that if your dd starts getting a lot of shorter hairs around the front of her face, it's probably from using too many rubber bands and such, and it's time to give that a break for a while.  That's another reason why I sort of "plan" hair styles for the girls, so their hair isn't being styled the same and in the same spot every single day.  That's also why side pony's are great!  Gives the hair in middle of the back of the hair a much needed break (as in time off - not as in breaking off!)

Sorry this got rather long & wordy.  But that's me.  Sorry!  Anyway, hope those tips help a bit.  If you have any more time saving or great hair tips, feel free to send them my way & I'll get them posted.

Calling All Curls & a Hair Share

Hey everybody!

I've had so many people e-mail me and tell me they bought Curlfomers after our big giveaway here at BIL.  (Much to the shagrin of their husbands! :) LOL)  And I've had a few of you send in pictures of the results.  But I'd love to see more.  I'd like, for my next monthly hair share to be just a Curlformer hair share!  I would love to see what you are doing w/those fabulous curls.  Whether it be on you or another cute head of hair!  That way, if some of you are still debating thinking, "They'll only work for Babes in Hairland" you can see that they do work for others too!  I don't care if it's not some fancy hairdo - because seriously, those curls really do it - nothing more is needed.  So ... "Calling All Super Readers" -- oh wait -- that's these guys that Bee is watching on TV! Haha. 

Sorry, I couldn't resist .... Calling All Super Curls ... Calling All Super Curls!!  Send me pictures soon so I can include them next month with the others that I've already been sent!  Deal?  Deal!  Good. :-)

Ok, so now onto our Hair Share.  These first few are Halloween related and oh so cute.

Leia sent me these Halloween pictures of her little girls because she used the Dorthy hairdo for her oldest.  And I must say she's absolutely darling!

And look - she even had Toto!  And her little sister was just as cute as can be, especially with her glasses and darling poodle skirt!  All that was missing was her holding a poodle I guess, huh?! :)  Too cute.

 

Then I got these from Karin.  She used our idea of "bendy ears" for Halloween and turned her daughter into a flower adding more "ears" for petals and ribbon for color.  How creative is that?!  So cute & fun.

Sorry I couldn't get this pic to be any bigger, but she's got a pink shirt for the flower and green pants for the stem.  Now why didn't I think of that!? :)

Jill sent these of her darling dd.  The picture on the left she did 2 rows of knots, and then the next day they took the knots out and she had some beautiful curls.  That's the picture on the left.  And so she fluffed the curls up a bit, added a headband, and secured it using this method - only just pulled a few sections of hair across the top so she wouldn't cover the headband up too much.  Nothing like getting a 2nd day out of a hairdo.  Can't beat that!

So thanks ladies for sending these in.  I just love seeing what you've been up to!  So again, don't forget to send in your pictures of curls for next month!  Have a great weekend ya'll.