Friday Favorites - It's all about the hair

It's pretty vain of me to be as obsessed about Katie's hair as I am. But I'm not going to apologize for it because I love, love, love her hair, and doing her hair up pretty is one of the things in life that truely makes me happy.

Here are some new favorites:

Goody's "petite" bobby pins (I found them at WalMart). I love the shorter length for Katie's hair because regular bobby pins are just too long.

These "braiding rubber bands" from Sally Beauty Supply. I can't even tell you how much I think these are wonderful!! We have tried every type of rubber band known to man, from Target, WalMart (four different kinds from WalMart), and even Family Dollar. I know I got another kind from Sally before, too. But they all sucked. I actually don't mind the ones that you find in the baby section at WalMart, but I have to double them up. And they cost twice as much as these ones you can find at Sally (you can save even more if you have a Sally's card), so it's like it costs four times as much when I use them. And I really like that these are clear because we are always out of pink and have way too many red and blue ones when we buy the colored ones .

It's been a while since I've posted my favorite hairdos, so here are some from over the summer and up to the present:

French Braid Loops

Don't these pictures make you miss summer?! As much as I'm loving cooler weather, I'm not looking forward to the weather a month from now. This is my favorite easy but impressive-looking do's. Two french braids, then loop them up and rubber band them at the nape of the neck. Fluff out the ends and add bows (or flower clips--these are my favorites, aren't they so full and pretty?). This is a great 'do for a swimming party because it looks really cute and fancy, but you can pull out the bows and loops and it's a great "hold-the-hair-out-of-the-eyes" 'do, too.

Fishtails!

So fast and so easy, I taught Adam to do them (not that he ever will!).

Ribbon Headband

(Don't mind the blurry face shot--Katie hates when the camera "blinks" at her, so she's always dark and blurry in pictures.)

Waves

This took way to long for the final product, but I still thought it was pretty cute.

Ringlets

(these final pictures were taken today)

I finally convinced Katie to let me curl her hair!! And isn't it just stunning?! Katie and I were looking at Curlformers on Babes in Hairland, and I think those beautiful curls convinced her that it was worth taking the time to do her own hair that way. After watching a demo on YouTube of Curlformers, I went to Sally myself and drooled over them. I really don't mind using the curling iron on Katie for ringlets (I have pretty good control and vision of the hair on the back of her head), but I would really love them for my hair. However, the $60 price tag is just too steep for me to just go out and buy them (I'm so cheap with things like that!), so we're using the curling iron for now. But Katie and I both are hoping Santa has a Sally's card and delivers some to our house this Christmas ;)

Summer Hair

Summer means more time to spend doing hair in the morning!! Here are some fun 'dos we've been doing.

Cousin Hair
I watched my nieces and nephew two weeks ago, and was so excited to try out different colors, textures, and lengths with hairdos. Here's what I came up with.

Katie's hair that day:
K: (Such a fun blondie, but it's been so long since I've done shorter hair, I had to be creative. I remembered how much easier it is to do messy buns on shorter hair, though. I've linked to how to do these knots farther down in the post.)

R: (Oh, the beautiful red hair! I thought her hair would be coarse and difficult to work with, but after doing it, I wanted to do it every day! It was so soft and stayed where I put it. So fun.)

Park Hair
We were going to the park for a family birthday party on a warm evening, so I wanted to have Katie's hair up and out of the way. I didn't intend to take pics of her hair, but since I had the camera out, I snapped some shots. You can see how fuzzy it gets after a nap. Anyone have ideas on how to prevent that?

Top View

These knots are super easy and quick, and actually helped with parting the hair for the french braids. Theres a tutorial for them here and there's a video for them here. I got the idea for this 'do here.

Back View

Side View

Up 'Do

I'm afraid of up 'dos because they always fall out after about 30 min to an hour. This one didn't. I looooooved it, too, because it was so cute. I just parted her hair in three horizontal sections, ear to ear, and french braided across, braiding down to the ends. Then I twisted the three braids together and into a bun, securing it with a rubber band. Added a fluffy hair tie, and voila! Easy peasy and stayed all day. This is a simplified version of this 'do. I really had fun with the "Frenchbraids with Flair" series she was doing.

And our new favorite hair tip, for all those rubberband-heavy 'dos, like the first picture I had in this post: a seam ripper. I got the idea from Jess. Awesome!

A few more fun hairstyles

The instructions for this one can be found at Jess's blog here.

This one is a fun 'do for swimming (but you'll need stronger rubber bands than what I had, they broke, and the 'do came undone).

I parted the hair into four horizontal sections, all from ear to ear. The front row I divided into 5 sections, alternating rubber band colors. Then I divided the next row into four sections. I divided the front sections in half and added them into the second row's sections as I went. Again, I alternated rubber band colors.

I clipped up the third row and divided the bottom row into three sections. I divided the third row into two sections, and then came the tricky part. I divided the second row's sections in half, crossing over the middle two, and divided the center bottom section in half, adding all the sections into the third row's two pigtails.

It sounds a lot more complicated than it really was. But it did take a little while. The hope is to keep it in for more than one day, which you can do with the right rubber bands.

Speaking of hair . . .

It's been a while since I've posted a hairdo, mostly because we've been so busy that Katie is lucky if she gets her hair done. Here's one we tried yesterday:

Here's a close up of those cool braids at the top:


They're "scrunchie braids" I saw over at Girl Hairdos & Ideas, and they're super easy. Jess, who writes that blog, is in my new ward. I walked into Primary on Sunday and saw Isaiah's teacher and thought she looked familiar, and then I saw her little girl up at the front and realized I did "know" her! She was doing a demonstration Friday night for a few moms and invited me to come and learn some new stuff. Be prepared, I'm going to have more cute do's to show off!

I *heart* hair!

We're getting ready for Valentine's Day around here . . . what? Yes, I know it's still January. However, one of my best girls, an old roommate from SUU, Kelly, loves Valentine's. It's her favorite holiday. And about a thousand heart-shaped sugar cookies later, I started loving it, too. Eight years later, it's still fun. (Pssst . . . I'll share a secret with you: It's waaaaay more fun when you have a Valentine! The kind that you can kiss whenever you want, but especially on February 14th.)


So, where was I? Oh yeah, we're decorating with hearts and stuff around here, that that has extended to our hair. Did you think I had stopped experimenting with Katie's hair? No, I just am too lazy to get the camera out most days. But this is a camera-worthy hairdo, perfect for your long-haired little Valentine, that I got from this hair blog. It was way easier than I thought, and it stayed in for two and a half days! (Again, I am really lazy, but it really did still look good the second day.) Katie was so sad when I took it out before I bathed her today. I promised her we'd do it again in a couple of weeks. And maybe while we're at it, I'll paint little hearts on our nails . . .

A different kind of hairdo . . .

I didn't think it phased Isaiah at all that I was spending time on Katie's hair and taking pictures of it when it turned out cute. But he has been complaining that his hair is too long, and I finally took him to the barber shop (one of his very favorite places) this week. Friday, he asked me to gel his hair and spike the front, and when I was done he said, "Okay, now that I'm all handsome, you have to take a picture to go on the computer!"


So here's his moment of fame:

More Hair

Here are some new hairdos we've tried this week. The first one we did yesterday; it's a slanted part (which the pictures don't show very well) with the top half in upside down french braids, joined in the middle.

This morning Katie asked for braids that went around her head, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try a "hair headband" and see how it worked for us. Next time I do this, I'll make it wider so you can actually see the braid when the hair is down. The first two shots are with the hair pulled up so you can see what it is (two upsidedown french braids, starting from a side part, meeting in the middle at the nape of the neck), and the last is what it looks like normally. Don't mind Katie's stoned expression. She's got a bit of a cold and she's watching a show on the laptop (our motivation and distraction for fancy hairdos).

It's all about the girly stuff

For the last two nights I have not slept well. Whether or not it is related to the pregnancy, my insomnia is at least affected by it. I sometimes have a hard time getting back to sleep when I wake in the night anyway, but how much harder is that to do when I have a little body doing somersaults inside of me for hours on end?! Last night I got between 4 and 5 hours of sleep, and that was with a mercy hour--Adam getting up with the kids just as I was finally drifting back off to sleep, otherwise it would have been less.


So, did I take a nap this afternoon? No.

I made bows!! Who can resist brand new ribbon just begging to be shaped and wired and glued?! Here's my latest batch:

This is a really bad picture; they really are much cuter in real life. But I had to show you the fun things I was inspired to make after finding this amazing hairbow-making site! I've been making bows for Katie since she was a baby, but nothing I've made compares to those adorable pinwheel bows! They're my favorite. The streamer bow on the top left was inspired by It's A Girl Thing (thanks to Shelli for the link to that site--it's feeding my addiction!).

Can you tell what I've been thinking about the last couple of weeks? Nothing but little girly hair! Here's another 'do Katie and I came up with the other day.

Pretty simple, needed some bows, of course! Now we have some for next time . . .

Beautiful Hair!

Now that swim lessons are over, and we're coming back into normal activities in the next few weeks with the end of summer, it is more worth doing Katie's hair! This blog has inspired me--check it out if you need fun ideas for doing your girls' hair! She frequently does giveaways for hair accessories.


Today Katie asked for "upside down hair." Here it is:

Directions: Part hair in a zigzag part from forehead to nape of neck. Clip off one section. Part one side across the crown starting at the ear. Clip off top section. Gather bottom section into a ponytail, pointing up. Add this to top section and gather into a high ponytail. Bunch into a messy bun and secure with a rubber band or bobby pins. Repeat with second section, matching the middle part.

Happy hairdoing!