Long Hair Styles

A Sandy Flip

Spunky's favorite movie is 'Grease'. She always wants her hair to look like Sandy's. So today we went with the flip from the beach scene from the movie.

Pull the hair into two ponytails in the front (optional).

Spray the ends of the hair with hairspray, let dry.

I used a flat iron. Run it down the hair and when you get to the bottom, curve the flat iron towards yourself.

Repeat on remaining hair.

Comb smooth so all of the hair is uniform.

Spray with hairspray.

French Braid to Ponytail

Excuse this picture. We were in a hurry to get her out the door. She really doesn't have scary eyes.

Divide a section in the front of the hair.

French braid it back and secure it with an elastic.

Pull the remaining hair up into a ponytail, on the last time through, only pull the ponytail halfway through.

Curl the ends and piece them out.

Short French Braid

Smooth and wet the hair.

Start out with your braid sections low, just above the ears.

French braid it down as far as you want to go.

Secure with an elastic.

Add a bow.

Knot with Curls

I pulled the top half of her hair smooth and then did a knot. I curled the ends with the flat iron.

Braids to Ponytail with a Center Part

Sometimes my kids can pull off a center part. I started this one with the intention of French Braids, but I was told that no French Braids were allowed today, so we went with two braids to a ponytail. This one is pretty self-explanitory; I did secure each braid with an elastic before I pulled them back and I ended up leaving the elastics in, the flower covered them up. Plus I was lazy.

Side Braid to Ponytail

*Hairstyle submitted by Laurie

This is Little Londynn. Londynn is going through a braid phase right now so her mom has to come up with all sorts of variations. Here is one in particular.

Section the front part of the hair from the part to the opposite side of the part.
Braid the hair back to where your ponytail will be. Secure with an elastic.
Comb hair smooth to the ponytail and pull the braid to the ponytail.
Secure with an elastic.
Place a bow or ribbon in the hair.

Thanks for your daughters picture Laurie! We miss her!

Oscar-esque Bun

Here is another of my friend Hilary's daughters. Hilary is like me and gets bored with the same old thing. She watches for inspiration and she received some from Nicole Kidman at this years Academy Awards.

Pull the hair into a low ponytail at the nape of the neck.

Curl the hair in the ponytail.

Divide the ponytail in half.

Take one half and loosely twist it up above the ponytail and secure it with a bobby pin.

Do the same on the other side.

Piece out the ends and spray.

Channeling Our Inner Shirley

In my world, ringlets are synonomous with Shirley Temple or Nellie Oleson. Since Nellie doesn't evoke warm fuzzies, we are channeling Shirley today.

This past week both of my girls have wanted ringlets. When I do ringlets I still use my trusty flat-iron (love that thing). Instead of pulling it through fast like it says to in the demo, I run the hair through slow and make sure I keep the hair wrapped around the flat iron.

Spunky designed this hair do. I had to do the top part FOUR times to get it to her specifications.

Here is my "dirty" little secret. I only wash their hair every other day. The previous day she had a French Braid on the top of her hair. She left it in and the next morning she had waves up top but not on the bottom. So we worked with it and curled the ends. It was fun to have so much body to work with on the top.

Twist Tutorial

Let's start by saying hi to our sweet little model. Hi Lana! Today is her birthday and she was so sweet to let me take pictures of her getting her hair done on her big day!

Let's begin, shall we? The twist here isn't so much about twisting the hair as it is about sectioning, pulling pieces and twisting your hands.

Start by wetting the hair. Try to dampen only the front and crown and sides and leave the ends dry. Comb out the hair as smooth as you can. Combing it out smooth is VERY important in this style.

Part out a vertical chunk from the part to the ear.

Divide your section in half. Take a second to look at Lana's mommy's hands. She has the most beautiful hands. Don't you agree?

Pull the bottom half over the top half. You then take a section of hair from the underside of the hair and pull it up into the original bottom half (the next picture demonstrates this better). You usually end up with a section of hair between your thumb and forefinger and another section of hair between your forefinger and middle finger with the palm of your hand next parallel to the hair.

You always bring up hair from the bottom. Never the top. This is where the smooth, damp hair is necessary. It makes it easier to section. Thank goodness for spell check. I can never spell necessary. Twisting the new formed section, you repeat with the original top half.

See Hilary's gorgeous hands, you can see how she is holding the hair. In this style you are constantly turning your hands

Keep going.

Till you get to the end. Twist down a bit so that you don't lose the twist you just made when you secure their hair.

Take a rubber band and secure the end. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, you are just going to take this part out. If your child is older and has the patience, you can have them just hold the twist. That is what I make my Princess do, but she has almost four years on these young pups.

Repeat on the opposite side.

Pull together. Hilary pulls one side over the other. It helps with the stability of the twists. Putting them together is kind of like plates on the earth. They slip and slide and make a big old mess. Trust me and avoid the mess. Put one side on top of the other. Secure them with an elastic.

The hard part is over. Usually her hair is pulled all the way through in a ponytail, but it's her birthday and Hilary is feeling adventerous (hey, we are stay-at-home-moms, most days this is as big as we get in the creativity department) and she decided to pull the ponytail only half through.

This is why I love my friend Hilary. She always teaches me something new. Before I met her, my the ends of my daughters ribbons were all askew. She taught me that if you take your curling iron and curl the ends, it makes them look finished.