The Birthday Updo

The Princess loves an updo with the works! Usually we find ourselves doing a version of the flower bun and spiral ringlets. Getting a little bored, I like how the top of this do adds some fun.

We sectioned off the top and twisted them combining them into twist braids that we added to the ponytail we had already created. It's nice having a big collection of bands, we used a big one for the big ponytail and an elastic to secure the twist braids.

Then I only created the top of the flower bun, leaving the rest of the hair to hang long and then curl with the spiral curling iron. I like doing this occasionally so one can get a sense of how long her hair is. Someday she'll probably want to cut it, but hopefully that day is far, far away. Meanwhile, she loves having long hair!

This was the perfect 'do for a special outing to "Build-a-Bear" and then to the Melting Pot for a chocolate dessert! Yum!

Daddy Daughter Dance

These pictures are from last May and I'm finally posting them:

Little Bird was actually very cooperative. We washed and dried her very thick hair, using a round brush to straighten it and put a curl at the end. It has natural curls on the underside and can be very unruly. After pulling it back into small ponytails we put some curls in using the spiral curing iron.

Princess wanted a fancy updo - of course! We pulled it back into a ponytail. Then we put most of it up into a flower bun. The remaining hair and ends from the flower bun were curled with the spiral curling iron. The tiara and flower were the finishing touches. The flower made it through the night, the tiara did not!

Just for kicks I thought I'd share our little Dancing Queen doing her thing! We've always said she dances to the tune of her own orchestra.

The night before do's

It's been a little while since I last posted - I've been having some health issues, but frankly I need to get something together because my children were looking like little rag dolls! Their daddy got them ready for school yesterday - they didn't even meet a hairbrush in the morning!

I've been extra tired but I had the girls take a bath last night and prepped their hair so I had VERY LITTLE to do this morning. After baths last night, I parted my little princesses hair into the hair headband, then I divided the rest with the zigzag part. I put the hair in pony tails and I wrapped them around my finger and made them each into a giant pin curl. It took a lot of bobby pins. I secured the hair headband with another set of bobby pins and put her to bed.
This morning, I wet down the hair headband and added gel. I smoothed it down and secured it behind her head. It looked like a little ponytail sticking out. Then I made some loose messy buns. They looked cute with the large curls in them. Then I tucked the little ponytail from the headband up into one of the messy buns.

Honestly, it wasn't perfect, but I'm talking 7 minutes tops here - and compared to yesterday, she looked like a million bucks!

Little Bird still hates having her hair done, but I needed her to look better than she has lately.

After her bath I put in five small french braids on a diagonal part and used clips to secure them. I knew they wouldn't be super neat the next morning, but it actually wasn't too bad.

I took the ends of each braid and bobby pinned them into pin curls. Then I sort of twisted the rest of her hair into two pony tail bun like things (I KNOW, so technical!) so that it would have a little wave in it.

I think Little Bird's hair looked fantastic from the back, but wasn't quite as neat as I'd like it in front . . . but then again, she looked SO much better than the poor waif she had been looking like!

My Princess Models her Tutu from Tutubug!

Our tutu from tutubug arrived today! Princess dissappeared upstairs during the end of our gingerbread house making and when she returned she was in her tights and leotard ready to model her new tutu for us!

Her hairstyle from yesterday still looked great today as well.

Many thanks again to tutubug and Shaunell!

Fancy Updo for a Special Occasion

We had time today and I wanted to see how my princess’s hair looked in an awesome style first seen on The Princess and her Hair blog that you can check out here. My little one has very long hair but it isn’t extremely thick – although closer to her scalp it is finally thickening - a good sign as she is six now. I decided that I’d do a few things different and being new at hair I’d need some practice making it look alright. I began by washing and conditioning her hair.

We only wash her hair about 2 times a week right now. Unless I’m doing something really special I don’t always put that much product in her hair and it doesn’t seem to need washing more often - especially as our house is so dry.

I made a pony tail in the middle of her head trying my best to leave an even ring of hair all the way around. I clipped it out of my way.

Then I put sections into pony tails. I didn’t do anything fancy here, just tried to make them pretty even all the way around her head. Her hair is pretty long so I kept wrapping the mini pony tails around her bun to keep them out of the way.

Then I split the ponies and made the twist braids. I wasn’t sure how far to braid so each of my twist braids ended up being different lengths.

They weren’t as tight as I’d like them, but I was able to fix that when I put them in the big ponytail. To hold them in the right positions, I bobby pinned them down until I had the elastic secured.

Then I took all of the ends of the twist braids and pulled them together and bobby pinned them out of the way.

Next I started making loops as I would in making a flower bun. I only worked on the top half of the flower. I looped each section of hair only once and left the rest of the hair to hang down.

Then I let the ends dry and curled them with a flat iron. I covered up the ends of the twist braids with a flower clip.
I caught her admiring herself in the mirror! Too cute!

Monday Morning

My Goal for the Week - How many days can I reuse/recycle the hairstyle ?!?!

First let me begin by sharing with you that #1 I am new to the hair obsessed club and still learning from my "Hair Heroes" and #2 I am a working mom (who by the way is NOT a morning person!!!)

The Princess

My 6 year old is happy to sit for me as long as I made her hair pretty. She loves all things pink and sparkly.

Category: Overnight Prep Hairstyle
Time: 20+ minutes night before, 5-7 minutes in the morning

I'll begin with Princess's hair today: I had a vague idea in my head and was pleasantly pleased with the end results!


I began after her bath last night:

I put gel in her hair and I sectioned off several small sections along the front and made twist braids on each.

She looks a little spider like here don'tchathink?



I loosely twisted all the hair and put it in a pony tail/bun for the night. It was pretty wet. The first picture was from last night and the next from this morning after she slept on it.




Princess's hair was still a little damp this morning when I took it out of the ponytail. So after I took it out I dried it some more using the diffuser. I didn't even brush the ends of her hair. The curls were quite nice after I dried them.

Then I pulled her hair - minus the twist braids - into a pony tail securing with a pony tail holder.

Then I added in the twist braids and added another pony tail. You can see the two different colors of pony tails I used. Then I attached a bow. I actually attached it to the pony tail holder so as not to show. Next time I'll use smaller or hair colored pony tail holders.



I'm thrilled with how it turned out. I'm especially happy with the overnight twist that resulted in curls. BONUS!I can't wait to see how I can recycle this style tomorrow morning. . .

Little Bird

This is my older daughter, age 9. She is a sport girl who occasionally tolerates me doing something with her hair.

Category: Overnight Prep Hairstyle
Time: 20+ minutes night before, 5-7 minutes in the morning

This is my version of a "It's A Girl Thing" post from September, 9. I made 4 little messy buns because Little Bird's hair is pretty short. I also would have liked to flat iron all of her hair but my grumpy girl was actually growling at me this morning so after I finished the messy buns I called it DONE!

I began last night after bath time. I put gel in Little Bird's hair. Then I did a diagonal part and made 6 pony tails on each side.

I made all the pony tails with red elastics and then used green to show where I attached the twisted pony to the next pony. It's hard to tell, but I twisted each pony to keep the short hairs under control.
The second picture shows the weaves a little better.


Last night I did some messy buns just to see what they'd look like.

They were very messy Messy Buns.

I did not do, perhaps, the best job explaining this style. Post any questions or visit "It's A Girl Thing" for great step by steps.


I'm looking forward to trying something next tomorrow with the back as I'm going to leave in the elastics as long as I can this week.

And So It Begins. . .

Only about a month ago I was searching for a hairstyle for my oldest daughter. We were headed to the salon the next day to have her hair trimmed. I accidentally stumbled on The Story of a Princess and her Hair as well as another site or two. I thought - wow - incredible, wouldn't that be cool but seriously these moms have TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS!

Ok, so a week goes by and I lurk and view more of that blog. . .and find more such as Babes in Hairland and Adopt a 'Do. The next thing I know, I'm trying out a hairstyle or two - even making my own variation. Of course I start this on a Saturday, when I have plenty of time and don't have to wake up early. . .

Another two weeks go by and I'm thinking about what I need to accomplish these hairstyles, products, tools, decorations . . . elastics being my favorite new purchase, because without those I never could have successful accomplished: Of course if I spend time on Little Bird's hair, Princess wants hers done too. . . I also have to explain that Little Bird decided at the LAST minute to join the play and I had to make a quick run to JoAnn Fabrics to get stuff to make her costume. While I was there I decided to pick up a little ribbon to make some hair bows. . . well perhaps that's a story for another post.

Now I am having fun. It doesn't always take that much time. I'm learning I can recycle many hairstyles, get a couple of days out of them. . . the girls are getting perhaps the tiniest bit addicted to getting compliments on the hair. . .

I LOVED it! The Princess LOVED it! I've got to try this one again!!!! We got more attention for this one than ever - lots of high school girls. Ok, so now I'm hooked. Oh, I got the idea from It's A Girl Thing. She's got great step by steps.

As I'm finding more and more hair blogs I see more sites that have different hair. My Princess doesn't have really thick hair, although on further concideration, it's not really that bad. . . I find I can do some things on the weekend - including mini braids and curlers. . .

So this is actually a school morning and a day #2 style. I did the mini braids and hair headband Sunday night and put her hair in curlers then a poof (what DO you call that thing??) with her hair down in ringlets. It was inspired by (ok really copied from) "Tween Hairstyle, Princess Braids" from "The Story of a Princess and her Hair" website. It was lovely, we went on a field trip to the theatre that day. So this day two was just a smooth down of the headband, another poof with a side pony and curling with the flat iron. Thank you to Adopt a 'Do's how to curl with a flat iron video which you can see here.

I was so delighted that I was able to get a day #3. But I didn't take any pictures of day #4. If I remember right, it was a very messy version of the above!

Now for my real pièce de résistance - I found a terrific idea on Girly Do's By Jenn that I absolutely loved!

The top is the night before doing a dry run. I made 3 ponies like in Jenn's site. Little Bird's hair is too short for that so when I washed I sectioned her hair into 4 ponies. Next was my attempt to show in pictures what I did - the sectioning and curlers.

Gotta work on that.

I had Little Bird wear her hair in simple buns for school all day so as not to lose the curl.

Then I used probably 40 bobbie pins to get the look I wanted - my ribbon was probably a yard and a half long. I also added 10 flowers that I had hot glued to bobby pins. She looked very fairy-like!

And so as I learn more. . . I will post more. Meanwhile I need to organize my google bookmarks; my "hairstyles" folder is getting quite unruly! I'm looking forward to learning so much as I join all my new heros of the hairstyles. . .

Until tomorrow, Goodnight!