Alice in Wonderland Hairstyle #1

I recently went to see the new 3D movie Avatar with my honey and, of course, there were a bunch of previews for new movies also coming out in 3D.  One of them being Tim Burton's version of Alice in Wonderland.  I must honestly say, I'm not a huge fan of his, but I do love Alice in Wonderland.  Well, a friend of mine challenged me to do a hair do or two off this new non-cartoon Alice in the upcoming movie.  So, over the next many days I'll be posting a couple of hairstyles that I've tried to recreate, based on the little bits & pieces you get to see of Alice's hair in the trailers of the movie.  Alice is played by Mia Wasikowska & I believe in real life she has beautiful long blond hair.  I think Bug's hair, before I cut the several inches off it would have worked even better for these do's - but we made them work!  The Red Queen, and The Mad Hatter (of course played by Johnny Depp) have quite freakish hair, but Alice, on the other hand, has very elegant, curly, and beautiful styles throughout the show.  So I hope you like what I've got to show you the next several posts!

These 1st two pictures are clips from where Alice is peering down the rabbit hole - just before she falls in.

Not the best - but here's a frontal view.  When you see her running to the hole, you can tell she's got a very natural look going on here - nothing pulled really tight, or "plastered" to her head, as I tend to do sometimes!

Also, I apologize, as some "steps" may be missing, because since I only have 2 hands, at times it's hard to take a picture and do "the step" as well.  So hopefully what I show you will make sense.  This is a 2nd way that I did this style, the first time she'd had Curlformers in her hair.

Begin by parting the hair smack down the middle.  Then part it from ear to ear.  Use a clip to hold the hair in front of each ear apart from the back of the hair for now.

Add a bit of body to the back of the hair by curling random strands of hair.  We used our flat iron.  As I mentioned, the 1st way I did this (I'll show that one another day) I'd had her hair in Curlformers, so this step wasn't necessary.

  

With your fingers, loosly "comb" the hair into a loose pony tail at the nape of the neck.  But leave a few hairs out underneath the ponytail.

  

Here's underneath the ponytail - and the loose random hairs I left out.

 

Divide the ponytail into 2 and with the section on the left, make a very loose rope/twist braid.

  

Rap it around the left side of the head and secure towards the top with a claw clip.  Secure the twist to the head in places with bobby pins so it will stay put.

  

Repeat on the right side of the ponytail.  Bring that rope/twist braid around on the right side of the head, and also secure on top with a claw clip.  Using bobby pins, secure the twist in spots around the head as well.

 

Once you have the back wreath secured, move to the hair up front on the left side.  Loosely take the hair and twist it a bit, adding a little as you go - twisting toward the back of the head.  Not really like a French twist - there was no exactness to this.  Just twist the hair into itself sort of!

Once you reach the top of the ear, secure that part with a bobby pin.  (Hide it better than I did in this pic!)

The with the hair you have hanging down, do a loose rope/twist braid

 

And bring it around the head to the right - sort of over the area where the base of the rubber band from your ponytail sits.  Secure it as needed with bobby pins.  Tuck the ends of the hair in where ever the tail of your hair ends up and secure with bobby pins.

  

 Repeat with the hair on the right side.  Then pull it around towards the left and secure it with bobby pins wherever you need.

Now - once you've tog all the hair wrapped around, if you need to, finish securing the hair on the top of the head.  If I'd of pulled Bug's hair a bit tighter, I'd of gotten the ends to cross over better - but alas, with the hair cut I gave her, it's a bit shorter now!  Just twist & arrange the hair as necessary over the top of the head!

Then with the loose hair you left underneath it all, using a small curing iron make nice little ringlets all over!  And I pulled a few hairs out in front of the ears as well to add a bit of curl too.

Alice, also had a few little flowers in her hair, so we added these fun ones from Gimme Clips to pretty it up.

 

  

  

Our "little Alice!"

  

 And the finished product from the back view.

  

What do you think?  I know it's hard to tell from such a far off view - but I don't think it's half bad!

 

I've got to admit, I'm not a fan of working with total dry hair.  I much prefer damp hair because I don't feel like it slips through my fingers as much.  So to help a bit with that, I misted her hair at times with hair spray to help tame the fly aways, etc.  But this hairdo isn't about exactness, or sleek & smooth.  It's beautifully done, yet loose and very natural.  I don't know how to quite describe it - but that's my take on it!  Stay tuned for another Alice style coming soon!

And don't forget -- 

If you're wanting to catch the new Alice in Wonderland in 3D . . .

 ON

 To See:

 

Twisted Flower Girl Hair

This hairdo comes as a request from a reader - Jennifer H., who's little girl is to be a flower girl this week at a wedding.  She requested the hair be mostly down, and since she has a harder time w/french braiding and such asked for it to be without any of those - and since her dd's hair is a beautiful red, she wanted it to stand out against the ivory dress she'll be wearing.  I hope this works for you.  I always worry about doing "requests" - so I'm sorry if you don't like this! 

I was working with hair from a earlier hairdo, so I apologize for the fly away's, etc.  Start by loosely pulling the hair back from the temples on both sides, and securing on the back of the head with several bobby pins so it will stay put.  Crossing them to make X's usually does the trick.

 

   

 Then at this point grab the hair like this ... and watch my video ... I couldn't take step-by-steps on this and it was tricky making a video, so I hope you get what I did here.  It's really not hard, but tricky doing it w/a camera!

  

Once you make the twist/knot/bun thing, secure it with bobby pins to cover up all the bobby pins you had holding the hair back from the first step.  Then with the hair above the ear on the left side of the head, make a twist/rope braid.  Secure the end with a rubber band.

 

Take the rope braid and drape it around the edge of the twist/bun and secure it with bobby pins.  Leave the "tail" of your rope braid showing - it hopefully will be off to the right side of the twist/bun.  We'll come back to it eventually & curl it.

 

On the right side, do the same thing, making another twist/rope braid.  Don't make it as long, because you'll only be tacking it up part way around the twist/bun.

 Bring it up to the edge of the twist/bun on the right side, and secure with bobby pins.

The tail of this twist should just come to the middle/bottom of the bun/twist.  Secure it with bobby pins, and let the tail hang down into the rest of the hair.  Add as many bobby pins as you think you'll need to hold it all in place.

 

Add accessories, and curl it nicely.  Be sure to curl the tails of the 2 twist/rope braids with a smaller curling iron as well as the ends from the twist/bun so they really show the curl.  I curled the rest with my flat iron.  If you're really wanting a ton of curls, have at it - or use your favorite curlers. 

  

  

And the finished product:

 

Sorry, from this angle, the rope braid on the left kind of got hidden underneath the middle bun/twist so be sure to anchor them not too far underneath that they'll show around the entire bun/twist.  This would look fabulous with several more smaller little flowers tacked around in the hair (instead of the 2 bigger ones I use) - and even more curls in back.

My 3 New Loves

I've been meaning to write about my 2 new (hair related) loves for a while, and I've recently added a 3rd to the list, and seeing as how it's the day of love tomorrow - I figured what better time to share them?!

But first - if you are still looking for V-day heart hair ideas -- head HERE for the few I've done.

Ok, on to my new loves.  First is our new brush.  It's a Conair anti-static brush.  I know - you all probably have one of these fabulous things, but I've always eyed them at the store but didn't want to spend that much on a brush.  (You should know by now I'm cheap!)  Well these were on a close-out rack at a store recently for 50% off, so I did a silent jump for joy and grabbed the last one.  Bug has the most sensitive head and with her really long hair, plenty of knots at times.  This has been the answer - big time.  So, if you've yet to get a brush similar to this - I'm saying it's worth the investment.  I should have done it sooner!

 

The 2nd new love is this Herbal Essences Shampoo.  It's "degunkify-ing" and works great to get out all the crap that builds up on my hair, as well as the girls.  Plus it's kinda cool cuz it makes your scalp tingle a bit - which is a weird, yet cool feeling!  And of course, it smells oh so yummy!

 

And here is my 3rd love.  My funky leopard print hair cutting sheers. 

 There's a lot of things I said I'd never do -- first being that I'd never cut my husband's hair.  Well, guess what he's been having me do for the past 6 months?  Yup - cut his hair.  I still hate it, and it makes me sooo nervous, but I do it -- because I love him -- and it saves money.  He bought a pair of barber clippers and let's me have at it!  

And the 2nd thing I said I'd never do is cut my girls hair.  Well I caved on this one too today.   My sister is the beautician and usually trims the girls hair up periodically when she comes to town, but the last many times she's come she hasn't had the time, so I caved.  I bought me a pair of sheers (not "real" ones that cost $100 from Sally's like real salon people use - but a $13 pair from Wal-Mart.)  Embarrassingly enough, Bee had NEVER had a haircut.  No, she's 3 now and never had one.  The other 2 girls had their first haircut around 2 years - which is a long time to wait, but 3 years?  Wow.  Anyway, now Bee can say her mommy gave her her 1st hair cut.  Ok, so it was a trim, but still, I evened things up a bit and it looks so much better.

 The pic below is after I'd trimmed it.  The angle of the pic may make it look not so even, but it really is!  I'm so proud of myself! :)

And while I was at it, I trimmed Goose's and took several inches off of Bug's (hers needed it the most.)  She was kinda bummed because she was hoping to do Locks of Love soon, but she's just going to have to wait a little longer.  

I've watched my sister cut enough heads of hair, and I watched many videos on YouTube on how to cut hair -- just to be sure I'd get the best result.  Not that watching a video on YouTube is going to give you the full know-how by any means -- but desperate times right?!  Anyway, my girls are all trimmed up, and things turned out swimmingly if I do say so myself!    The YouTube video I used to have linked is no longer available on YouTube for whatever reason ... sorry!  But if you're brave enough, I say invest in a little pair of hair cutting sheers, and rather than paying $10-$15 to have a little trim on your dd's hair, have a go at trimming her hair yourself.  Just remember do a little bit at a time because there's no gluing back on if you cut too much off!

Heart Wreath

I realize most of you probably wanted heart hairdo's for today, being that most kids have their Valentine's Day parties at school & such.  So I'm sorry this is rather tardy.  (No pun intended!)  Life just proves to never go as planned and Bee has turned over a new leaf -- a tantrum leaf.  I'm not liking it one bit.  So my days lately are full of tantrums and tears instead of other things I'd rather be or need to be doing.  But I did manage to squeak one V-day hairdo out this year.  So here you are!  Doing the heart wrapping the hair in rubber bands, as I did a few posts ago, made it seem "wreath-ish" to me! :)

Start by making a 1/2 ponytail - parting the hair from ear to ear and secure with a rubber band.

 

Divide the pony tail in 1/2 and then using the Rubber Band Wrapping technique, wrap each section most of the way down the hair.  We used red rubber bands since it's V-day and all!

  

 Then bring the ends of each of the wrapped sections of hair together, and secure together in a rubber band.

  

Here's where she wasn't sitting still and none of the pictures turned out.  But after you secure the ends with a rubberband, flip the hair up onto the top of the head and shape into a heart.  Or something that sort of resembles a heart - like ours! LOL  

Secure with a little claw clip to the top of the head to hold the heart shape.

  

Then take the tails of the heart and divide in half and bring down towards the base of your original ponytail. 

Then with the rest of the hair that has been hanging down, pull that into a pony, incorporating the little tails from your heart into the bottom ponytail.

  

 Her little ends barely reach into her bottom ponytail, but it worked!  If you're working with shorter hair, if you make the heart smaller, that will help make the tails a bit longer to reach into the bottom ponytail.

  

You could do a pull through here if you want, but I opted for a bigger claw clip and clipped it around the base of the bottom ponytail and a bit of the ponytail.

  

 When you let the hair back down it should cascade nicely like this.  If you don't have a claw clip, you can do a "Cascading Waterfall Pony" like I did forever ago in THIS post.

  

Here's where her multiple personalities shine through.  Might as well see our true colors! :) These pictures were taken just seconds apart.  I never know what I'm going to get from her!  Ah, gotta live this age!

  

   

 

 

There you have it.  Our Heart (ish) Wreath!  Happy Valentines Day everyone.  I hope you have a fabulous weekend.  For us it's a 3 day weekend, so we'll be kicking back & chillin!  Hope you can too!