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.

Pull Through's & Cascading Curls

First off, you should know that I had no idea where I was going with this when I did this months ago, and secondly, I seriously think Bee had ants in her pants, because I took countless pictures, and had to delete the majority of them because they were all a total blur.  So please pardon the quality of some of the pictures!  Oh, and thirdly, I had no idea what to call this, so work with me here! :)  (And yes, I realize the flowers look like eyes or something on the back of her head.  She seriously wouldn't hold still to let me anchor them where I'd really wanted.  Ah, the joys of an almost 3 year old!)

Part the hair off center on the top of the head.  Then part from ear to ear.  On the right side of the head make a corkscrew/twist braid/rope braid and secure with a clip temporarily.

 

 Repeat on the left side, and temporarily secure it with a clippy or rubber band.  Let the twists hang out of the way for now.

  

With the rest of the hair hanging down in back, part it about half way down the head - again from ear to ear - but this time horizontally.  Secure each part of hair with a clip to keep the sections of hair apart.

  

 Leave the bottom section secured with a clip.  With the top section of hair, divide it into 3 smaller sections and temporarily hold them with clips.

  

With the far right section make a ponytail, and then do a partial pull-through (coming from underneath the ponytail.)  Don't pull it all the way through.  Leave a loop, and have the "tail" coming out on top of the ponytail.

  

 Repeat on the left side - forming a bit of a loop.  Cinch the hair tight at the base of the rubber band (as you would if it were just a pony tail & you wanted to cinch the ponytail tighter) to help secure your semi-pulled through hair.

  

Now, take your twists/corkscrews that have been hanging down in front and pull them back towards the middle back section you have parted out.  If you need to, twist them a bit again to ensure they are tightly twisted, as they sort of relax when not totally secured to anything.  Secure the 2 twists with the middle back section of hair with a rubber band, making a ponytail.

 

Take the ponytail and make another pull through - coming from the bottom up through the top of the hair.

This is where we encountered major "ants in pants syndrome" and pictures had to be deleted because they were total blurs!  So sorry there's a few pictures missing! Once you've finished the pull throughs up top, take the bottom section of hair that's been held separate with a clip and divide it into 2 sections.  Make 2 more ponytails, and flip them with pull throughs - again leaving loops and not pulling the hair completely through.

And again, after this, I just have "finished hairdo" pictures.  But with all the loose tails that are flipped over the top of the ponytails, curl them all nicely and arrange the curls to cover the parts, etc.  You can secure them with a few bobby pins, here & there if you need to. I was hoping this would make Bee look like she had more hair than she did, and had she been less wiggly on this day, it might have seemed like it, but I'm afraid, this style didn't do that for us!  I still liked it though, just didn't do what I was hoping for!

So nice that she finally held still for me to take pictures ... of the top of her head!

  

  

   

"It always feels like ... somebody's watchin' me ... and I have no privacy!!"  Stinkin' flowers! :)  Sorry - my husband made me do this!  Ok, so I had fun doing it - but I was so frustrated when I did this hairdo that she wouldn't hold still for me, and that the flowers looked like eyes!

And a mischievous -evil grin for the finishing touch!