PEANUT'S CRAZY HAIR DAY

Well today was CRAZY HAIR DAY at my daughter's school.  I love the hairstyle I decided to do for her.  The truth is that this is a style I love to have for her on a regular day, I simply made it a bit more colorful by adding colorful rubber bands and a ton of clips to make it "crazy".

After seeing my Twist Braid tutorial video and becoming an expert :-) you are ready to do this style in no time at all... it is actually very easy to do.  Here it is again in case you haven't seen it.  (as I mentioned in my other post, the volume is low so you will have to crank it up)

Begin with pulling the hair into a tight ponytail.  It creates a better effect if the hair is slicked back into the ponytail.

Take sections of the ponytail and do various, small twist braids.  If you are doing this for a spunky look, then make the twist braids smaller and do more of them (as I have done here).  If you are making a more everyday look then perhaps you should stick to making 4 or 5 twist braids.  

When braiding, leave a bit of hair at the ends (this makes it easier anyway). 

After making twist braids using all the hair in the ponytail begin to twist the hair around the ponytail and then clip the ends of the hair against the scalp.  Again if you are looking to make an everyday look then put the clips evenly apart against the scalp in 1/2 circle formation (or sun as I like to call it).  

It is important that you remember to twist each one around the ponytail first or it will be way too long.  After clipping it you may want to use a bobby pin close to the center of the ponytail to keep the sections in place.  

A bit blurry, but you can see how I am taking
the twist braid and twisting it around the pony.
You can also see where I am pinning it in place. 

Keep repeating this with all the braids and place them in different locations.  Of course more "displaced" if you are going for something funky and more strategic if you are going for stylish.

Again, I OVERDID IT on purpose with the butterfly clips - it's crazy hair day after all! And, then I HAD TO tease the ends... You have many choices with the ends:  tease, curl, leave alone... it's up to you.  But.... If you can find it in yourself to look past the clips you can see a really cool bun-ish style.  It's almost looking like a sun with it's rays.  Then I sprayed it with glitter - OF COURSE!

A view from the top with the teased hair

My Crazy Little Peanut!

Twist Braid Video

The fastest most simple braid I have done on my girls is the twist braid.  It also looks really great and makes other ordinary styles look extraordinary.  So, as much as it is out of my comfort zone, I did a very small, tutorial video on the twist braid so you can see how truly easy it is.  The volume on the video is a bit low (I am sorry for that - It was early in the morning) so turn up your computer volume :-)

Mama is SAD!

So I know it was bound to happen, but my "Boo" came downstairs with a .... wait for it..... headband in her hand and said "Mama can I just wear my hair down?"  GASP!  Then when I looked like the sad little mama she giggled.  Poor little me.  


However, I still have the power (I tiny bit of it) and convinced her to do a bit of something with the back. The truth is she has a ton of hair (like many of our kids) and if I simply let her go all day with a headband I will be pulling out knots like crazy.  Not to mention kids (even 8 year olds) simply do not keep headbands in all day.  So, here is a simple way to make sure that when the headband comes off their hair is out of their face. 

Although you can do this style very easily without the tool I used, I found this awesome tool in my daughter's playroom that makes the twist braids a cinch! I believe it is found at Walmart or other toy stores like that.  I did 4 twist braids in under 2 minutes.  

If you don't have a tool like this, or it the hair is thick (it won't fit into the tool) then split it into two sections and twist both sections the same direction (individually) - I prefer to the right.  Then, twist them together the opposite direction (in my case to the left).  


SO clearly not my MAMASALON style, but I had a tad of success in this sad moment :-) 
On the other hand, I had a very happy 8 year old! 

Even Gymnasts Go To Prom

Prom!?!  Thank Goodness Mine Isn't There Yet.....

So my one of my daughter's gymnastics coaches sent me a picture of her prom dress.  Yes, I do feel old.  In fact, my daughter's head coach, was the coach to this same girl!  Time flies - so sad. 


Anyway, as I looked at the back of her dress I wanted to come up with a style that would work for her, but would also work for younger girls as well.  Perhaps this would work for Flower Girls, Jr. High dances or even dance recitals.  This hairstyle probably would be fine for gymnastics practice, but I highly doubt my daughter's coaches would approve it for competition.


There are a few variations (depending on the thickness of your hair). I did my daughter's with four braids, but I have seen it done with three thicker braids and it looks a bit looser, but really pretty for an older girl.  You would need more pins for the three braid style to hold through the night. 
I think I will try the three braid variation soon and post it.  I have to convince my daughter .... hummm time for a bribe!  


Start by evenly dividing the hair into sections and securing them with loose bands.

Then take the band out begin braiding them one at a time.  

As you can see my gloves made an appearance.
Too tired to take them off for pictures.  Gotta
love being allergic to hair products :-( 

As you can see by the picture below, in this style the braids will be hidden so you can get away with stopping the braid if you have layered hair, putting a rubber band in it, and then restarting it.  

Depending on how you want the style to end you will want to leave hair at the end of each braid: anywhere from 2 inches (if you are tucking the hair in), about 3 inches (if you are going to rat the hair for a funkier look or put small curls for a cute look) and up to 4-5 inches (if you have long hair and want to cascade curls down).  Please remember that if you choose to cascade the curls you should pin them in place as they can weigh down your hair and can cover up the style you worked so hard to do.   I left about 3 inches as I assumed I was going to rat her hair or curl it - I figured I would decide on it when I was done.  


Continue braiding the same way with all four sections.

Now you will simply be knotting the sections together.  Begin going left to right (for these instructions lets call the braid on the far left "braid 1" and the far right will be "braid 4".


Take Braid 1 and Braid 2 and tie them together. Then pull the ends of the braids to the knot is laying against the head.  You will then repeat this.  Now, Take the longer braid which is in position 2 and tie it with Braid 3 the same way you just did with 1 and 2.  Then, take the longer strand and repeat the process with Braid 4.  Always making sure you are pulling lightly at the braids so the knot comes up and lays against the head.  

When you tug at the braids they should come up and
lay against the head like this.  I tugged after knot 1
Then repeated and did knot 2 to make it easier.
Then I went on to tie strand 2 with BRAID 3. 

When you are done with all your knots you should look like this :-)  LOVELY!  

By the way... Don't worry about the lines you see from parting the hair.  

We will take care of those at the end.  

When you are all done knotting your braids together, gather the ends in your fingertips as shown in the picture and secure the ends with a rubber band.  I suggest using a band that matches your hair color.  However, my daughter wanted it to match the green in her shirt :-)   Then you can add only one or two hair pins IF you see that the mini ponytail you made is pulling forward.  I tried this style on my hair and it pulled forward, but it didn't seem to on my daughter.

  Now since this was for my daughter I just tossed in a ribbon.  However, you can fancy this up for a wedding or prom.  There are so many accessories you can find at your local store that are super cheap!  In fact a friend of mine asked me to help with a wedding this summer so I have kept my eyes open and found a few for her and her little Flower Girl daughter (you can see some of the ideas at the end of this post).  

I wish my picture of the finished style had turned out.
I just tucked in the few hairs that were going astray. 

Love the side view.  The accessories below show some of
those gems that they sell that go in like corkscrews.  If you
tuck in the top and simply put simple gems on the sides
this would be stunning! 

Anyway,  at this point you can tuck in the ends, curl them, spike them... be creative.  As far as the lines from the part go, simply spray the hair lightly with hairspray and take a fine-toothed comb like the one I have pictured below and comb downward joining the hair together.  You will see them disappear.  Then you can do an overall spray of the hair.  

you can see the lines in the pictures above... this is after
combing them out. 

Here are the accessories I found at my local drugstore.  I have always seen them at stores in the mall too, but I always get my bank account in trouble when I go to mall accessory stores so I stay clear!  ha ha ha 

Obviously I am not trying to advertise for any of these companies, but the accessories are cute and they can be found easily :-)

THE 5 STRAND BRAID

I have always wanted to do a five strand braid.  This morning I intended to do it on my older daughter's hair but, as you will see in one of my next posts, I found myself trying a prom-like hairstyle on my oldest, so my "Little Peanut" became my FIVE STRAND BRAID model.  Here was my only problem - Peanut has the thinnest, wispy hair you can imagine AND apparently the jury is still out on a Sunday School hair cutting mystery that forced us to layer her hair!  So, at least I tried it and did enough were I could show you.  Since the hair began to fly out, I looped it under, tied a bow and called it a morning :-)

**Just comment if you have questions for me **

I have noticed that many people do these different ways.  The good news is that they all look the same in the end!  I only used half of her hair so I made a ponytail with the hair I wanted to use and then secured the rest of the hair to keep it out of the way.

Now this is a little cheat I use when doing any multiple strand braid (more than a three strand) I loosely put bands at the end of each section.  This keeps the strands separate and they are loose enough for me to move them down as I go.  You will notice that in this one I decided to put a green band on strand ONE.  I did this to make it easy for you to identify.

When you look at this picture the 6th band you
see is the secured hair, not a 6th section

So to begin the braid, you will take the 1st strand (green) and go OVER the 2nd strand.  

Then you go UNDER the 3rd strand

You obviously can see that I am wearing gloves in these pictures.  You have discovered personal information about "Mama" :-)  I happen to be allergic to some sort of ingredient in a lot of hair products.  Ironically, it wasn't until my daughter was in the hospital that a nurse (thank you Rosie!) helped me figure it out.  So, since giving up hair products wasn't an option, I throw on some non-powered gloves if I have to use serum, shine spray, etc.  So, no you don't have to copy this to make these styles LOL although that would be funny! 


Now with your left hand you will have to hold that side.  The next step is to take STRAND 5 (yes you have skipped 4) and go OVER the 4th strand.

You will continue to work with strand 5 and go under the next strand (which happens to be the green strand).  

You will then go back to the left side and continue to repeat this process.  
Let me put this into very simple terms.  
START on the LEFT and go OVER, UNDER
Then go to the RIGHT and go OVER, UNDER
Back to the LEFT - OVER, UNDER..... Repeat, Repeat Repeat.  


I was doing it loosely so so I could take pictures and I found that it was really easy to pull tight so I didn't have to redo anything.  

See the mystery Sunday School haircut hairs! 

GIVEAWAY WINNER... WAIT... WINNERS!

So..... I am so excited to announce we have TWO winners to our first giveaway!  Apparently there was a slight tech-y issue and we had a few submissions after I had already put the names in a drawing and selected a winner. 

Because of this and it was the tech issue was confirmed, I decided to select put the new names into the bowl and re-draw!  

CONGRATULATIONS TO...

KATINA WALIA and ERICA ANGELO 

Erica is currently choosing from the wide selection of Clare's In Stock Bows and Katina's daughter has selected the Oh-So-Cute LadyBug Bow from Custom Bows by Clare!  

I hope you become as addicted to Clare's bows as I am ladies!!

All of you can check out Clare's amazing bows by clicking HERE

Now Katina, I will get you to do the competition styles (and convince your coaches to approve them) Ha ha ha! 

Check out our winner's styles:
Erica had won for one submission, but had her name in the drawing twice for two submissions, one for each daughter.  So I figured I would feature both of her hairstyles.  
Erica prepped her princesses for a festival and had a challenge because her youngest is also the one with the shorter hair so that is a double whammy! 

Katina, a fellow "Gym Mom" prepped her daughter for school.  You can see that, like many busy moms, Katina had to shoot the picture with her phone before her daughter jumped out of the car for school :-) 

THANK YOU AGAIN LADIES FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!  
Now Stay Tuned for a Giveaway next month as it may involve a VERY FAMOUS GYMNAST and a certain 

BOOK that she just released!!

Stay tuned: WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER

 GIVEAWAY WINNER 

OK GUYS STAY TUNED!  I will announce our 1st giveaway winner later today! Hummmm I already know, but I may have a surprise up my sleeve! 

2nd Try Worked Better- Then a Variation

Well I was feeling so good about being able to complete the last hairstyle (yes, my chest was puffed out a bit).  Hey, like I said, I am not a professional.  I am a regular mom so when these ideas and things I see on the Internet actually work I tend to get excited.  Also, I may have mentioned this before, but I like the puzzle aspect of hairstyles.  Meaning, I will look at other individual's "how to" blogs or websites, but never videos.  If I can't figure it out from pictures and notes then I will wing it.  It actually becomes somewhat of a game to see what I end up with.  
So back to my 2nd try on my last style... THANK GOODNESS it actually was not only easy but a clear success!  This time I was able to complete this style (including the parting of the hair) in less than 15 minutes!  Here is a picture of the finished product the second time around! Click here for for step-by-step style instructions (scroll down for the variation)

We tried a bow and decided it doesn't work for an 8 year
old, perhaps for a younger girl it would be adorable!

Trying a Variation  

Then for school this morning my daughter decided she wanted this AGAIN since I had previously done it on a Saturday and a Sunday so her friends didn't see it.  Ughhh  this time I was working with frizzy hair that had been braided all night long.  So I gave in but decided she was now being given what I lovingly call the "HALF MOON" variation of this style.  It does require some hair pins but I only used 3 - it could have been 2 if I hadn't had a huge bump in the hair. CLICK HERE FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON HAIRSTYLE

How does my dog always manage to get in pictures!
Camera Hog!

For the Half Moon variation start with the part slightly higher up on the same right side and take pretty much the same size chunks of hair in.  You can always take slightly larger chunks of hair towards the end if you see that you have too many.  However, by starting a bit higher up you shouldn't have that issue.  Follow all the same directions but the french braid will stop at a half circle.  Continue the braid up and over the head, lay it down flat and tuck it into the circle  (I have to pin it to make it lay flat - I pin it after I tuck it into the hair).  Funny now that I look at the picture I guess calling this a French Braid French Twist would work too!