Avainsana: Hair

Christmas parties

Been busy with all the December happenings… Here are a few hairstyles we’ve done for various Christmas parties.

First, there was a party where we were going to by car, and it was indoors, so we could do almost anything with the hair.

When I said I’d do any hairstyle they wanted, my middle daughter instantly requested the butterfly braid. For my oldest girl, I did a ladder braid, and my smallest had a braided headband with some curls from the previous braid.

Butterfly lacebraid bun ladder braid, no heat curls, butterfly bun

The next party was a bit trickier. The girls were going to do a little song and dance performance with santa hats on. So the hairdo had to look nice even with a hat on… So these chinese ladder braids were quite good for that: they looked nice even when most of the head was under the hat, and were a bit more interesting than normal braids:

two chinese ladder braids

This morning was the last of the Christmas events: the Christmas Carols at the school. It was outside, and the girls were going to school first, so potential for messing up any hairdo before the event. It was also cold and wet, so hats on, and no curls… And an early morning, so no time for hair in the morning!

For my 1st grader, I just did some tight french braids last night. For the 4th grader, I found a nice hairdo from @abellasbraids on Instagram: two dutch braid headbands into pigtails and then making mini twists with the hair in the pigtails. This was easy, but a bit time consuming to make, and lasted really well.

The first picture below was taken last night, and the second one this morning after she slept with the braids.

two dutch braid headbands into pigtails and mini twists two dutch braid headbands into pigtails and mini twists

Skiing

Started our skiing season on Sunday. Hair under the skiing helmet and balaclava is always a bit tricky: there can’t be any hair escaping from under the balaclava around the face, and the braid can’t be too thick around the head or the helmet won’t fit.

For my youngest daughter, I did just two very tight french braids as her hair is so thin that braids won’t prevent putting on the helmet. (I didn’t take a picture of this one)

For my oldest daughter it’s a different story! I did a mermaid braid for her, which is like a french braid, but you only add hair from the very edge of the head leaving loose hair underneath the braid. This way, the braid doesn’t get too thick. When I got to the nape of her neck, I finished with a loose simple three strand braid.

Mermaid braid to fit under a ski helmet

For my middle daughter, I did two very fine lace braids around the face and then finished with a loose 3-strand braid.

Two lace braid headbands into a 3-strand braid

 

Here is a tutorial I did for this hairdo:

All three hairdos worked really well. The helmets fit over the braids, and there was no hair on the face. The braids didn’t get messed up when the girls took their hats off,  put them back on and off again…
We came home quite late and didn’t have time to wash the hair and do new braids before bedtime, but these ones lasted well for the next school day.

Braiding at the Christmas market

Today I was doing braids at the Finnish Christmas market. I only had 1 and a half hours to do as many as I could… I managed 10 heads!

three overlapping braids lace braid triple dutch lace braiddouble dutch lace braidlace braid into french braid spiral braid half up do lace braid heart double lace braid headband zig zag lace braidzig zag lace braid, finished with a side french braidI very rarely get to do braids on anyone else than my daughters, so it was quite an experience to do so many so different types of hair: thick, thin, curly, straight, layered, fringe etc… I really enjoyed it! And it was for a good cause: fund raising for the Finnish school.

I was a bit worried before hand, how to get the little ones to sit still without a TV or computer. I had brought a small sticker book, and I asked the girls to stick some stickers in it while I was braiding. It worked really well.

These all took about 5-10 minutes. The trickiest one was the little double lace braid headband on very fine and thin hair, and the one I enjoyed the most doing was the thick long Rapunzel braid.

Five beautiful hairdos

Lace braid around the head into a french braidCouple of weeks ago I was staying at my sister’s and had the opportunity to try some of my favorite braids on her.

Adult hair can be challenging as well, my sister’s is quite slippery, and she is growing out her fringe, but at least she sits still when I do her hair.

The first one is a lace braid going around the head, and catching all the short hair at the front. After going around the whole head, I turned and french braided the rest of the hair from left to right.

The double starburst bun is probably my favorite braid at the moment. My sister and mum were taking my bigger girls to see the National Ballet, so she needed a beautiful hairstyle, and this seemed perfect:

double french french braid bun

Most of these (apart from the ballet hair) I made the night before, so that we didn’t need to get up too early in the morning to do hair. The braids lasted really well on her, much better than on a child!

Below left, is a kind of a ladder braid, which I’ve tried on my daughters before. I still think that it is very difficult on anyone else except my oldest daughter with super thick hair, but it worked out OK on my sister.

Below right is two spiral braids, which you can do on any hair (I have done this one successfully on thin and short hair). You start from the middle and lace braid around and around. On my sister’s hair do, I did two spirals and tied them back, so from the top it was a heart-shape.

ladder braid     spiral braids tied together at the back

french braids into lace braid bowBy the time my sister had walked around with nice hairdos for a week, people started suggesting hairdos for us to try… This was supposed to be two french braids from the top down and from the bottom up, tied together into a (non-braided) bow. Her hair was not long enough to make a simple non-braided bow, so I did two bow-shaped lace braids and twisted the ends of the braids around. It ended up looking quite a lot like a butterfly:

Can you see the difference?

Can you guess which one of these braids was done by mum and which one by dad? If not, I think this is a perfect ”daddy-do”.

two half up pull-up braids

 

Me and my husband did the same braid on two of our daughters… Apart from one having thicker hair than the other, I don’t think there is much difference between them.

To make this, you just take three strands of hair from the front, do a normal braid with those strands (right to middle, left to middle and so on). When you have braided the hair till the end, get a good hold of one of the strands and pull the rest of the braid upwards, adjust a bit to make it even, and finally secure with an elastic.

I love this braid as it is simple, but always gets compliments for being a bit different.

 

Another quick one

two 4-strand slide up braids tied back into oneContinuing from last week’s quick and easy hairdos… Here’s one that you will need to practise a little bit, but once you’ve got it, it’s fast, easy and impressive.

Cute Girls Hairstyles did a one-sided version of this, and I think Mindy explains it so well, that there is no point of me trying to do instructions, click here for a link to CuteGirlsHairstyles video tutorial on the 4-strand slide-up braid. When you do this 4 strand braid, there is one strand that will never get to the outer side, in the end you hold onto that strand and slide the rest of the braid up (this will all make sense if you watch Mindy’s video tutorial)

So, for my version, I just did the 4-strand slide-up braid on both sides, and tied it back. I love this one because it looks a bit unusual and makes people look twice.

You will need reasonably long hair for this one, a bit below shoulders, to be ably to have long enough braids to ”slide up”. Also, the problem with smaller kids is, that the hair easily sticks out from the middle, but to prevent that, you could tie all the hair and the little braid into a low ponytail at the back.

Quick and easy

I haven’t posted anything this week, as I have been busy with taking the kids to school and all the after-school activities… If anyone else has been as busy, here are some quick fixes for the school mornings:

easy and quick 2 little braids into one This one is super easy: just do two basic braids, then tie them together at the back. I used a very small hairband and then took a strand of hair from the ponytail, wrapped it around the hairband and attached with a see-through elastic.

This hairdo took me about two minutes to do. It looked nice for the whole day. The next day I tied all the loose hair and the little braid into a ponytail, which was also a nice hairdo, and a bit different from the day before.

half up do with two fishtail braidsA variation of the above hairstyle: do the same, but instead of basic 3-strand braids, do two little fishtail braids. This one takes slightly longer, as fishtail braids always do, but I was still able to make this in under 5 minutes.

 

Playing with the lace braids

french lace braid zig zaging down the middle Once you’ve learned the basic lace braid, you can start to be creative.

This one is a nice variation, almost like a normal french braid, but makes people look twice.

I started by lace braiding from above her left eye, going slightly to the right and picking up hair from the right.  When I had caught all the difficult fine baby hair from the front, I started heading left, and picking up hair strands from the left only. Then changed direction again to the right and picked up hair from the right into the lace braid, then left and finally right again to finish.

This was very quick as it didn’t require parting the hair in any way. Took me about 3 minutes. And it lasted really well, somehow lace braids always do.

And you can zigzag the other way as well. Start from behind the ear, lace braid heading towards the middle of her forehead, picking up hair from the left, after 4 or 5 stitches , turn slightly to the right and start picking up hair from the right, then turn towards the fore head again, and pick up hair from the left again…

zigzag lace braid headband into single braid updo zigzag lace braid headband into single braid updo

zigzag lace braid headband into single braid updo Zig zag until the left ear, turn and finish by lace braiding the rest of the hair by picking up hair from the right.

This one was slightly trickier, took me just over 5 minutes, but was really worth the effort. It lasted a couple of days, and survived our ultimate test: the swimming pool 🙂

And even if these don’t turn out quite right, they are a good way of practising lace braiding.

How to make a starburst braid

lacebraid headband into starburst bun lacebraid headband into starburst bun

Every time I make a ”starburst” braid, I get so many people asking how to do it. Even strangers on the street stop to ask whether the hair goes to the middle or comes from there… So I finally decided to do some step-by-step pictures.

how to do a starburst braid

I started with a lace braid headband to keep hair out of the face.

After I braided from left ear to the right (adding hair from the right only), I put a clip on the braid and made a little ponytail in the middle of the rest of the hair, leaving some loose hair all around.

You don’t have to do the first part of the braid (the lace braid headband), you could just start by making a ponytail in the middle of the head and leaving some loose hair all around the ponytail.

Next, unclip the braid and start french braiding it. Every time you add hair strands to the braid from the left, add it from the ponytail. And when you add hair from the right, add it from the loose hair around the ponytail.

Carry on french braiding around the ponytail, picking up loose hair to add to the right side of the braid and hair from the ponytail to add to the left.

Once you’ve braided all around, finish with a normal 3 strand braid. Then tuck the braid inside the french braid, and secure with couple of bobby pins.

So, it’s not as complicated as it looks. It’s a bit tricky to make the ponytail in the beginning, and you might need some practice to find out how thick the strands of hair should be,  when you add hair from the ponytail. The model here is my eldest daughter with incredibly thick hair, but I need to do quite a lot thinner strands on the other two girls. And the outcome looks quite different, but still nice.

When you master this, you can do the beautiful starburst double bun: french braid into two french braid buns

At least the hair looked nice

A few minor back-to-school disasters yesterday: had one girl there at the wrong time (luckily too early), forgot their snack boxes (saved by husband who ran back home for them), forgot quite a few items from the list to bring to school, and in the evening, tried to cover the notebooks with plastic, and got it all wrinkled. And after all that, I had another accident with not reading the label on my hair wax and makeup remover containers, this time with waxy eyes! Clearly too tired after the first day!

But the main thing was: they both enjoyed school very much AND their hair looked nice 🙂 :

two dutch lace braids back to school hairfrench braids made with five strands, back-to-school-hair

The first one of these is very easy, and could even do it in the morning (but we did all the hair the night before). It’s two little dutch lace braids. That’s a lace braid, but  instead of moving hair strands form the side over to the middle, you move from the side UNDER to the middle. So like an inverted braid.

The second one is more tricky, and requires some practice. I’ve made two french braids, but with 5 strands instead of 3. I did this first time about a week ago and ended up with loose braids that fell apart, but after trying a few times, I’ve mastered the 5-strand french braiding. You might want to start with making simple braids with 5 strands first (here is a link to a tutorial on a simple 5 strand braid, which I found on YouTube).