Little Girl's Hairstyles -The Quad 15-20 min

This idea....like so many others, started out as something else. Then I got stumped. My husband, seeing my dilemma, offered an oh-so-timid suggestion. I thought, "what the heck", and tried it out, and voila! Sometimes it works, sometimes it's a quick ponytail day. Luckily for me, this one turned out nicely (especially since I was in a NOT so nice mood already. Another story for another time.Good hair = nicer mommy).

Start with the usual super soaked head. Part off front section to middle of ears like so.

I did an inside out braid (of course) just in the middle of the section, and braided down as far as I could.

I did the same on the other side, and pulled them together low in the back. Pull them tight when securing them with the elastic.

Next, I flipped those braids back over her face (oh they love that), and parted the rest down the middle. To begin the french braid, I parted off a small section on an angle, since I wanted this to angle down around the curve of her head, and not just straight down (thus showing off the joined braids more).

French braid down a little past her head, and secure with pony. I flipped back over the joined braids for the full effect here.

Do a matching french braid on the other side.

Braid down past her hairline again (this helps keep those little neck hairs from being pulled on when you slap it all together).

Use your third hand, and pull them all together.If you are feeling adventurous, you could braid the tail of the joined braids down past the elastic......but like I said, my mood was not an adventurous one at the time.

Pull it all in nicely, and then I braided the bottom portion. If the hair isn't long enough, then you can skip this part and leave it in a pony.

And Kapow! I was secretly thrilled on my insides with how cute it turned out. I love when I can admire my work all day long. Which is what I did with this one. It was just that cute.

See? She knows Mom is happy at this point.

Want to know the best part about this hair style? It turned out to be a two day do. It stayed in well through the night, and in the morning, I undid all the braids, pulled the two front sections into little ponys. Because these two smaller sections were way more kinky than the rest, I just pulled them back into a low pony, like they were in the joined braids, and stuck a bow in it. It was marvelous for church. Fast and lovely.

Little Girl's Hairstyles -"A" puffy braids with stuffed buns 7-10 min

So now that I've started this blog, I notice that whenever I shut my eyes, I see hair. Hair this way, hair that way. And for some funny reason, I keep seeing puffy braids in the shapes of letters. Maybe it's because I'm doing preschool at home with this little one, and we are learning how to write the alphabet. So, here we have it. My attempt at the letter A. Maybe I'll try all 26!

Start with wet hair and parted in a small square about 1 1/2 inches all the way around.

This is just to show the next section of hair that I parted off, another larger square.

Divide that section down the middle and part existing pony in half and split between the two new ponys.

Next, part another larger square on one side, as shown, and pull top pony in. Next, part a middle square, like the very first square, and pull half of previous pony in.

Finish with completing the last square, as shown, pulling half of middle pony in, and the pony above it.

Split remaining hair down the center, and pull two remaining halves of bottom ponys into a stuffed bun (see how to do a stuffed bun).  If her hair is long enough, like my girl's here, just keep stuffing second half in and adjusting hair so it doesn't look like just two halves, but more messy and unprecise. I will stuff in with one finger and then another, sorta like typing. :)

On the other side, do the same thing. Here I wasn't happy with how my 'stuffing' turned out, so here's a fix:

Adjust the hair so it's more rounded and even, and then slip a clear elastic around it, and if necessary, you can stuff more hair into that.

I like it looking more 'piecey' rather than two big folds.

Stick in some pretty bows....give it a good spritz of the 'spray....

And it's "A" winner! Okay...so it's more of a triangle. We'll have to manage.

This top part would also work great for shorter hair. You can skip the bun part and just make little ponys.