Momma Do at Naptime...

I have been MIA on this blog for a bit. We had our spring break a week ago, traveling 14 hours (one way) in the car up to Idaho for a family get together. We went to Yellowstone National park, as well as just general lazy family fun. :) Needless to say, there wasn't much time or effort put into any cute hairstyles. Even since being home, the girls have been sporting simple ponytails or braids.

I just thought I would post this- it's very similar to the Momma Do video I posted last, but the back is just two flopped piggies (just not pulled out all of the way) instead of pinned. I've found that I have worn this style many times the last few weeks- it's fast (about 10min) and easy, and you can do it on wet, dry, or crazy bedhead hair. (The last is my preferred style lately.) AND, it works great for any length of hair.

Plus, it stays in really well throughout the day- even when running like crazy, or I'm sweating my pants off to the Ripped in 30 video by Jillian Michaels. (Only 4 days in, but a great workout...I love her 30 day shred too if any of you moms are looking for super quick workouts.)

So that's it. Sorry for slacking on the styles! And these pictures were taken while I'm sitting in the little girls' room trying to get them to sleep. Both girls have taken to me either holding their hands while they fall asleep, or at least being near them in the room. Good thing there's laptops. :)

Fancy Maia...

Maia loves Fancy Nancy lately. She's been a bit impatient about fixing hair lately, which leaves me to ponytails most of the time, but today I asked if I could make her Fancy like Nancy. Of course she let me. :)

I started out with an anchor ponytail, then sectioned her hair and pulled it into that ponytail.

Maia's hair is super thin and fine- definitely different than Emma and Ruby's. For her I have to use gel or everything would fall out. One of my little tricks with gel is that I just squirt a blob into the sink and smudge my fingers in it when I need it. Much easier than trying to squeeze a tiny bit onto my fingers and hold the hair at the same time.

 I just did twists in the front, but knew that twists would fall out pretty easily in the back, so I did simple braids back there.

 When I'm curling the hair in a little bun like this, I always try to curl it in the direction that I want it to go. (So curl this section forward since it's supposed to stay forward, the sides I do sideways, etc.)

The only curl I secured was the back one with a tiny clip under the curl, only because I didn't want the braids to be covered.

If you enlarge this one you can see the front and back pretty well. I've said it before, but playing in the sink is one of my other tricks to getting little girls to sit still for a bit. Maia's all about washing hands, so it's a good distraction.

Momma Do- Side Braid...

Side braids seem to be all the rage right now, but I never can pull them off without the back hair totally falling out of the braid. Here is my solution to that problem-

I started out with two twists, then pulled them together to the side into a braid. I did it when it was wet, so hopefully that will help it stay in a little bit...Although I'm sure it will get nice and loose throughout the day.

I had a great video showing how to do the twists and all, but Michael came in half way through in his birthday suit so I can't use it. Funny thing is, it IS his birthday!!! Happy 6th to my little monkey! :)

Have a great weekend!

The "Where's my hairbrush??" Momma Do...

Whenever I am searching for my brush, I hear Larry the Cucumber* singing loudly, "Oh where is my hairbrush? Oh where is my hairbrush??" (If you're not familiar with the Veggie Tales, you're missing out on some very catchy songs.) :)

Anyway, It happens. Some days I just can't find it and I have to fix my hair without a brush. A pain for sure. So here's a good one for those kinds of days...

See, no hairbrush- straight out of the shower.

Start taking messy sections of hair and twisting them. I usually do three twising down on one side, and then three twisting down on the opposite side. Also, I try to not have the part right in the center of my head. For some reason I think it looks funny.

Just in case you wonder how I can hold and twist 6 sections of hair. My mouth is often my third hand when I'm fixing my hair. Add taking photos to that and it was a challenge.

Anyway, once the twists are finished, gather the rest of your hair into a ponytail (twists are still in your mouth at this point) and then pull the twists one at a time into the ponytail and then tie off.

This is a terrible photo, but it shows my hair better than the other one. I take half of my hair, kind of fold it up onto itself and then pin it. I then take the bottom section and fold it down and pin it. It makes a nicer messy bun. The no-brushing actually helps on this part- the hair strands are still sticking together pretty well from being tangled up in the shower.

There ya go. A nice easy do that takes about 5 minutes. I made this little twisty. I thought it would be fore Emma, but it's to big for her tiny little noggin. Lucky for me. :) (Super easy and no sewing! I'll post a tutorial on these soon.

Just for fun, this is what Ruby looked like when she woke up this morning. It was a good day for sure.

*Thanks Julie for the correction! Larry is a cucumber! :)

Momma Do times two...

This was a fun, easy momma do for a Sunday. I started out with a full head of flat iron curls. Then I sectioned out the front portion, enough for two twists. Pull back the rest into a clip, just to keep it out of the way.

Now, IF you have thicker hair, or you are just not good with bobby pins, pull out one little section of hair that is UNDER the top layers of hair, and back about 6" from the front of your head. You will use this section to tie off the twist so it will stay pulled back. (Some people use bobby pins here, but my hair is too thick, and won't hold as tight, so this is my little trick.)

I find it is much easier for me to do the back twist first- while holding the hair for the front twist in my mouth. (I'm sure there's a better way- maybe a clip or something, but my mouth is easier.) :)

So, twist back that section, rubber band to the little piece of hair that is near the back of your head, then repeat with the front section (pull out another piece of hair to tie this one off to, or it will be too big of a "bump" on that part of your head.)

This was cute left down with curls all over, or (after church) I pulled it up into a curly little ponytail. Nice! Two twists, and two different dos! (By the way, my little brother told me to smile during my pictures- so Tim, this little cheese is for you!) :)

Twisted Sister...

This do has lots of simple twists. I started with 5 sections of hair, pulling the very back into a simple ponytail. Start twisting each section back and banding with the ponytail. On the front section, I did more of a fancy twist, pulling in sections of hair as I went back. Once it is all done, curl ends, and if you want, pin it up into a little messy bun.

Twisted Mom...

No real explaination needed for this one. A twist in the front going to a bun in the back. Easy Peasy!

My table does not always look like this by the way. I had some girls from church over to make some cute hair clips. Fun stuff. :)

Simple Braid and Twist

I was just trying to get Emma's hair pulled up for the day since it is actually raining pretty good today in Las Vegas. I did a simple braid, then started on the opposite side and did a twist around her head to the side. put it all in a little bun and she's good to go.

After all of the work of putting it up, and this is what she does before leaving for school. :)

Mom Do...and an early gift...

Two simple twist backs going into a messy ponytail- easy peasy today. :)

*I convinced Santa yesterday to give me my Christmas gift early, so somewhere in the world, a worker is packing up my new Canon SX200 IS- it's my new love, and hopefully I'll have some good photos to share with you soon, and you wont have to suffer through my focusing issues anymore. (Hey, at least you know what time it was when I was fixing hair, right?) :)

Inspiration: Jane from New Moon

So I finally got to go see New Moon over Thanksgiving break, and ever since I've been wanting to try this hair- If you don't know the book, Jane is one evil little vampire, and in the movie she has a super cute, simple do. Here's a couple of screenshots so you can see what I was going for:

The front has little twist backs, and the back is a french twist- both of which are easy to do separately, but combine them and it gets a little tricky. I started with the twist backs first, but then I couldn't secure them well enough while I did the french twist, so I had to improvise a bit.

It ended up that I did the french twist first, and then did the twist backs and combined them with bobby pins. This would be really pretty for an elegant do, or just simple for playing outside. :)

*Do you have an idea for my new "inspired" collection? Leave a comment with your ideas!

Day After Do...

It seems like Monday's are always a bit busier getting out of the house than usual, and I almost always end up doing something using what she had on Sunday. Here's a cute day after do using the twist braids from our church do yesterday- I actually learned how to do this "Hawser Braid" at Babes in Hairland, super cute and was pretty easy.

Have a good Monday!

~R.

iCopy iCarly...

So I really don't love that my little girl is growing up enough to watch (and enjoy) shows like iCarly on Nick, but one thing I love about the show is her friends hair (Sam) I love that even though her character is a super tough tom-boy, she always has super cute curly hair. Whoever has the job of curling her hair really takes it seriously- it looks great every single moment of the show- and it makes me jealous. :)

Anyway, When Emma was sick this past week, we were watching the very first episode of iCarly on Netflix, and Sam's hair was super cute, so I copied it. Nice. :)