Fun Turkey Bun!

Before we start in on this fun & silly hairdo - just a reminder, if you haven't sent them yet -- I'm planning on doing a "Curlformers" hair share in December, so if you haven't sent me pictures of the results you got from using Curlformers, send them my way a.s.a.p!   Thanks!

Ok, so I couldn't resist.  Bug has got a fun "Thanksgiving Feast" tomorrow at school and as I happened to look at our coat closet door that is covered in Thanksgiving turkeys and crafts the girls have made in school, I suggested to Bug how "fun" it might be to have some turkey feathers in her hair for her little Thanksgiving feast at school.  She got all excited thinking I had some real feathers (which you could use btw - but I just don't have on hand.)

Last year I'd come up w/our basic bun w/a little bit of turkey tail, but this is taking it a bit further! So this is what I ended out doing!  Despite it's "silliness" - she loved it & is excited to sport it tomorrow for her feast.  And afterall, fun is the name of the game, right?  Especially in Kindergarten!

You can start this anyway you want - with just a basic ponytail.  But I'd already had her hair pulled back into corkscrew/rope braids into a ponytail, so we just left things as is, and started working on the ponytail.

If you are using pipe cleaner, and not real colored feathers - cut your pipe cleaner in half.

 I used 5 different colors, but you can use as many or as few as you like.

 

 Then shape them into "feathers." 

 

Stick the ends of the pipe cleaner (or the end of your real craft feather) underneath the rubber band that is wrapped around your ponytail.  Once you have positioned the feathers where you want them, wrap another small rubber band around the base of the ponytail, to ensure the feathers are really seucred.

At this point, you could almost leave it if you want.  But I wanted a bun.  I did a loopy looking bun that starts with a loose corkscrew/rope braid.

 

Make whatever kind of bun you want and secure it well with bobby pins.

 

Once you've got it all bobby pinned and secure, feel free to move the feathers around a bit to shape/form them to however it looks best.  You can stop here if you want.

 

But Bug informed me it needed a head!  I laughed that I had googly eyes somewhere in all my craft stuff, but couldn't find them - so we opted for this.  We took the other half of our red pipe cleaner and formed it like a turkey head, and then added a small orange piece for a beak.  This is all "rough" but you get the idea hopefully!  I wrapped a bit of tape around the end so the sharp edges wouldn't snag in her hair when I put it in.

Add the "head" wherever you think it looks nice, and secure with a little bobby pin.  And voila!  You've got a fun turkey bun!  So very festive for Thanksgiving! LOL :)  Bug thought it needed a "waddle" (since she's learned about the correct parts of a turkey apparantly!) but I said it was good enough! 

 

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving 

holiday full of food, family and friends!

If You Want To Know...

You can find out who won the hair accessories that were up for grabs - head on over to Hairland's Shareland to find out!  Thanks to everyone who played along!

I've got some more fun & interesting giveaways coming up next month, so stay tuned.  Also, if things are a bit slower around here, it's obviously due to the holiday, as well as I'm headed to Vegas after Thanksgiving and will be gone for a fabulous 5.5 days.  I'm hoping to get a few hairdo's to post while I'm gone, but trying to get everything ready for Thanksgiving, as well as to leave the babes w/family, etc. will be taking plenty of my time.  So don't think I'm MIA - just know I'm off relaxing - doing absolutely nothing while my husband is in meetings all week! LOL :)  Can't get better than that!

Gimme Clips Giveaway

It's going to be another snowy weekend here at my house, so head over to Hairland's Shareland for a fun giveaway.  We love these accessories.  And you've got  2 great sets to choose from, so go check it out!  These would be great to give for Christmas, and with Thanksgiving approaching, it's my way of saying THANKS to YOU!

Remember, don't enter the giveaway here - but over at Shareland.

Cascading Pinned Up Curls

For starters, I've just got to say THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH to all the gals from SITS that stopped by to share the SITS love for my special day yesterday.  And for all of you who joined the "Hair Obsessed Club" - Welcome!  I had such a great day yesterday, and now I've got a ton of blogs to visit & e-mails to reply to, so I've got my work cut out for me!

So - on to the hair do for the day.  The ironic part of this hairdo, is that we put our ever so FABULOUS Curlformers in on a Saturday night so Goose could have some beautiful curls for church on Sunday.  Then she woke up not feeling well and so I ended out keeping her home.  So despite the fact that she'd slept in them she also had the Curlformers in for a good chunk of the day and when she felt up to it, she agreed that we couldn't let curls go to waste without trying something new with them.  So, hence the fancy-schmancy hairdo and a stinkin' T-shirt to go along with it! LOL

For those newbies here - if you haven't heard of Curlformers - these are the best invention in the world when it comes to hair.  We have a total love love love relationship going with Curlformers! :) To learn more and see all we've done with them you can go HERE.

Anyway, I purposely pulled the curlers away from Goose's scalp, so the hair closest to her head would not be curled, because I had planned in my head what we'd be doing, so I didn't care if it wasn't curly clear to the scalp.  Before I put the Curlformers in, (sorry no pix with them in this time) I did a zig-zag part off set on the right side of her head.

Leave 3 nice curls in front of the left ear untouched - and 2 curls on the right side for alter.  Starting with the hair just behind the left ear take one of the sections of hair that forms a ringlet and make a twist braid/corkscrew.  (You'll work with the hair in front of the ear eventually.) Go HERE to see how to do a twist braid/corkscrew if you don't know how.  Don't braid clear to the end, because you want those curly ends to be free.

Then once you've twisted about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down loop it back up to the head and secure it to the head with 2 bobby pins making an X.

Continue making twists with sections of hair, and securing them to the head until you get around to the other side of the head by the ear.  Don't use the hair in front of the ear quite yet.

From the back you'll have curls and twists all over.  The top of her head has no curls on it - so it's almost like if a man were bald on top and had a bunch of curls around the back of his head! :)  Ok, not really, but hopefully you get what I mean.  There is no real exactness to this - with curls there really never is for me - but you'll just want it that you've got curls cascading all over the back of the head.

Now for the left side.  Once you've got all the back secured with bobby pins (add as many as you need to feel like the hair is secured.) take the ringlet closest to the ear (I had 3 remaining ringlets/curls up front on the left side). . .

and make another twist braid, again leaving the ends free and curly.

Bring it back towards all the other curls, sort of making a U shape, and anchor it with a bobby pin on top of all your curls from the back.

With the remaining 2 curls up front ...

Gently pull them towards all the curls, and get the swoop of the curls positioned how you want them up front

and anchor them back in all the curls on the back of the head.  Pin and arrange these as looks best on the head of hair you're working on.  I do this since Goose doesn't have bangs.  Arrange the curls from these 2 sections however you need around the back with all the other curls.

Then on to the right side.  You should have 2 curls still.

 

Take the curl that is closest to the ear and make another twist braid, leaving the ends free and curly.  Pull it towards the left, up and over the top of the head and anchor with bobby pins.

Then with your last curl at the front of the head, make yet another twist braid/corkscrew.

Pull it straight back so the curly ends of it join into the other curls.  Secure with bobby pins.  Then you're done. 

Here's a view from the back once you're all done.  Not so much just curls around the back of the head anymore.  It's much fuller & piled on top too.

Add accessories to pretty it up even more.  These wonderful flowers are from Gimme Clips.  Despite the T-shirt, they just looked fabulous in her hair.  The flowers are on bobby pins and just slid so easily into the curls. To find more about them you can read about them on this old post of mine. Here's a view from the left side.

And the right side.

And a view from the top-

And an extra cheesy grin!  I think she was feeling much better by the time we were done ... I'm thinking she probably would have been able to "survive" church, but oh well!  She looked extra pretty hanging out at home anyways! :)  I really loved this do - with the holidays coming up, this would be a great one to wear to a holiday party or special event.

** Remember, doing styles like this, with curls, no matter what method you used to get curls, there isn't a total exactness to it (I know -that's not always what you want to hear!). Do what looks best on the hair you're working with.  Play with it, arrange it how you want, experiment & remember to have fun! **

IT'S MY "SITS" DAY!

I think due to time differences across the country, this was supposed to post on 11/17/09, but I'm posting it early .....

Give me an "S" --

Give me an "I" --

Give me a "T" --

Give me another "S" --

What does that spell?  SITS!!  YEAAAAHHH SITS!

Thanks to my fabulous neighbor for loaning me her dd Miss H to help us with the letter "I"!

To all my SITSa's coming over from The Secret's in the Sauce (aka SITS) 2 of my Babes (cuz the 3rd one was at school!) wanted to say:

We are soooooooo excited that you took the long trip to Hairland to come and share in our special day! (We're so excited, you might even be able to hear us squeeeeeling! :-) ) 

If you don't know what SITS is, you've got to go over and check them out.  They are a FAB-TAB-U-LOUS community of bloggers that are all about supporting other bloggers and leaving comment love wherever they go.  I joined back when there were like 800 members, and now there are 3800+! Cool beans, huh?   I've met so many great ladies through SITS and found so many neat new blogs because of them.  Anyway, today am I their featured blogger and so many of my "SITSa's" are here to take a look around Hairland!

Oh my gosh - where are my manners?

I forgot to introduce the 3 Babes of Hairland.

Here they are - Goose, Bug & Bee

 Long story short, I'm a mom who has 3 beautiful daughters, which means there is a lot of hair to do at our house.  (And might I add, my husband is OH SO PATIENT - and oh, so very supportive of me & all this hair stuff!) I'm not sure when or how it happened, but at some point in time, I decided braids and pony tails weren't enough, so about a year and a half ago I started my hair blog with step-by-step tutorials on things I do in my girls hair.  I feel like in today's world, there isn't enough time spent together as a family, and so when I do my girls' hair, it is time well spent, where we talk about just about anything under the sun.  It's just good bonding time and I look forward to it every day.

BUT don't think this site is just for those w/little girls.   IT'S NOT!  You'll find  quick & easy  styles, styles for your toddler, clear up to the most fancy schmancy updo's here at Hairland for you, or some cute little head of hair, so please take some time and look around.   Some people tell me my site is for the "Hair Impaired!"  Regardless, feel free to check out my "Hair Index" up there towards the top on the right side that says "What R U in the Mood For?"  There's even videos on some of the styles. :)

My first post is my favorite -- if you love head bands but can't keep them in place - this is one of my many ideas to solve that problem -- My Dressed Up Headband

Or if you like doing messy buns, but can't seem to get them to work for you, or don't like how they turn out - go try this one:  Messy Bun - My Way

And last but not least, a twist on your standard 3 strand braid - The Uneven 3 Strand Braid

And for a bonus read if you have a bit of extra time & want to learn more about me and my obsession, er, love/hate relationship with hair ... you can read about how this happened HERE:

Thanks so much to all of you who came over from SITS to say hi & I hope you'll come back often, and maybe even join our "Hair Obsession Club!"  We have a lot of fun here at Babes in Hairland so thanks for making our day extra special!

Toddler French Braids

First off, I've got to pat myself on the back, as I feel like I've finally got a hang of French braiding.  Gasp - yes, I have a hair blog and I've stunk at French braiding (at least in my opinion!) I mean, I could do it, but I never really like how things turned out.  But with practice, I've gotten better.  And as the old adage says - practice makes perfect!  I still am not the queen of braiding, but I'll actually let the girls go out of the house sporting one of my braids now! :)  For this one, you'll need to know how to French braid.  I'll eventually put my video on here, but I don't have time for that yet!

Anyway, back to the hairdo.  This is nothing earth shattering, just something I thought I'd share because chances are some of you out there deal with this problem too (and who knows- w/all the many, many hair blogs out there, this possibly has been done elsewhere!)  Bee finally has enough hair to braid, or French braid.  BUT - she still has a lot of the little short hairs/baby hairs up front around her face.  So trying to French braid towards the front of her hair is a joke for 2 reasons.  One being those baby hairs, and secondly, trying to get her to tip her head the way I need her to so I can get a grip on the hair and braid it is just rediculous.  She's pretty good at holding still for short periods of time, but I still am usually working on a moving target.  So the other day I decided to try something else.

I made a side part, and then parted from ear to ear - making 2 little ponytails up front and secured them with rubber bands.  Then I did a zig-zag part down the back of the head to divide the rest of the hair in half. 

Starting on the left side ponytail I made 4-5 plaits of a regular braid in the little pony tail working towards the back of the head.

Then once I had braided far enough down the ponytail and I was over the hair hanging down in back - that's when I started adding hair into the regular braid, to start making a French braid.

Continue adding hair, as you would to French braid, and braid until you run out of hair.  You could stop at the nape of the neck and leave the rest in ponytails, or I could have flipped the braids up to cute-sify it some more, but I left it as is - 2 basic French braids, just started from a ponytail, into a regular braid, and then into a French braid.

 

And because she was in a silly mood & her sister wouldn't let her have her Halloween vampire teeth, she opted for putting a claw clip in her mouth for "scary teeth!"

Anyway, by doing the ponies up front, it helps all those little hairs stay put, she doesn't have to crank her neck to some weird angle for me, and we still get cute French braids out of the deal!