We were going to the climbing wall today and were rushing to get everyone ready, so I had to do something quick with the girls’ hair. Their hair needs to be well tied back for climbing, so that it doesn’t get on their eyes or get tangled with the rope. These three variations of a ponytail are quite easy but fun.

On the left, I took three small parts of hair from the front of her head and did three normal braids (no fancy french braiding or anything, just three bits of hair and moving them from the sides to the middle in turn.) Then did a normal braid with all of her hair, making sure one little braid was in each of the three parts of the braid. The little braids at the front made sure none of the hair around her face got loose.

In the middle, I did a small french braid in the middle of my daughter’s head, leaving some hair on both sides. Then did a french braid on both sides and tied all three french braids into a ponytail. Great for keeping all the fine baby hair out of her face.

On the right, I did a ponytail and then did a fishtail braid with the hair in the ponytail. This is a great variation of the fishtail, as the normal fishtail braid comes loose very easily on children, doing a ponytail first ensures the hair stays in the braid.

If you don’t know how to do a fishtail braid, here’s a quick tutorial: Fishtail braid