Avainsana: beach hair

Memories of the Carribbean

We are finally settling in our new home in Finland. I didn’t have a chance to blog while we were travelling, as I only had my mobile… My Instagram followers have seen more than enough of my ”travel braids” as I posted at least one braid from each country we went to. So now for those, who are not on Instagram: I’ll show you a few favourites from our Carribean trip.

First, we went to Jamaica. It was amazing. We all agree that out of all the countries we went to, Jamaica was our favourite. The people we super nice, food was good, atmosphere, music, weather, the sea… everything.

There were braiders everywhere! And so many amazing braids! When we first got out the plane, my 5-year old said ”mummy, everyone here has much nicer braids than what you make!”… So, I took it as a challenge, and this was the first morning in Jamaica:

Interlocking french braids, french braid feather braid combo

I got so many compliments for this and other braids throughout the 2 weeks in Jamaica, I even got job offers from the local braid-salons! Really felt that my work was appreciated in Jamaica 🙂

Next, we went on a Caribbean cruise visiting six of the Eastern Caribbean Islands. On each island we did a little trip to a beach, did some snorkeling or just relaxed and went swimming. The braids were always destroyed in the end of the day from all the seawater, so perfect excuse to do new braids every day. Here are some of my favourites (snake braid in St. Kitts, rope braid in Antigua and fishtail-french braid in St. Lucia):
Snake braid on a beach in St. Kitts rope lace braid into rope braid ponytail french feather braids into a fishtail braid

After the cruise we went to Mexico, where I’ve always wanted to visit. It was really interesting with all the history, Mayan ruins etc. and of course Mexican food, one of my favourite cuisines!

Again, we swam a lot, so needed to re-do the braids all the time. I was trying to decide which photo to put here, and then found this:
french braid

This braid was done by my husband. He was complaining he never gets any braiding practice anymore, as I always do the hair! So he came up with this braid, which I thought was beautiful!!

But that’s enough from our holiday (I might do another post with a bit more, but if I add it here it will be too long!)… I hope I’m better at blogging regularly now that we finally have a home again!

 

 

Beach hair -2

six flip half pony tail

This ”six flip half ponytail” is very easy to make, easy enough for dads to do! And it works well as a beach hairdo, although I had to tie it into a ponytail when my daughter was jumping into the pool, climbing out and jumping in again.

It’s very simple to make, but complicated to explain, so I took some step-by-step pictures:

six flip half ponytail tutorial

First, take some hair from the front and tie it in a ”half-up-ponytail”. Then tie another hair band 4 or 5 cm down.

Next, make a hole between the two hair bands and pull the rest of the ponytail through it.

Then tie another hair band 4 or 5 cm down, make a hole between the two last hair bands, pull the rest of the ponytail through, and repeat until you have only little bit of hair left.

six flip ponytail after swimming

The hairdo lasts well: here is an ”after photo”, taken after a lot of swimming (and two nights’ sleep). The only downside was taking out the rubber bands after having sand and sun-lotion in the hair.

Beach hair -1

beach hair My criteria for a good beach hairstyle:

– there are no partings, so the scalp doesn’t burn (the girls are not very good at keeping sun hats on)

– the hairdo keeps most hair out of the face (and out of the ice cream)

– it is easy to tie back for diving, jumping and water slides

– it looks pretty

So, I’ve come up with a lot of different hairdos. This one is a lace braid made from one side to another and back. I’ve lace braided the hair from left ear towards the right, picking up thin strands of hair only from the right/top side. When I got as far as picking up hair from near her right ear, I turned and lace braided back towards the left ear, trying to keep as near to the first part of the braid as possible, and only picking up hair from the left/top side (from underneath the first part of the braid).

I made a slightly different version for her little sister:

beach hairlace braid or half french braid

Here I left a little gap between the first and second part of the braid, simply by not pulling the second part so tightly next to the first part. The picture on the right shows how it looked after a lot of swimming and playing at the beach.