Little Girl's Hairstyles -Criss cross braid with fish tail braid 20-30 min

This is the top view of what we did today.

I started with damp hair. I always say to use just wet hair, because I don't love putting a lot of product on my girls' hair, BUT, I neglected to mention that using a small amount of lightweight gel at this stage, when the hair will all be braided, or done tightly, can be handy in keeping the hair smooth, especially in little braids. I didn't use gel on this style, but it might have held the fish tails in better for longer.  You'll need 6 elastics, and maybe a clip.

First I made a center part; you'll only need to go as far back as her ears.

This shows the part farther back than you'll need to go.

Here you can see I only went to the ears, and then combed the rest of the hair back. Part off each side in equal sections, leaving room for four braids in the front.

To begin braid, comb hair forward toward face, and begin braid close to front. Since this only reaches to pony, I wanted to have more braid showing, rather than starting at the back or middle of section.

I like braiding backwards, or inside out--just my preference. You only need to braid just past where your back pony will be. Do 3 more braids in even sections in the front.

Next step is to part the back evenly into ponys. This is how I do it to get it even each time. Position comb in middle of her head on top (that's my daughter's hand holding the comb for me, my right one didn't shrink-- I had to hold the camera),

and with my left hand (or whichever) I place my thumb in the little dent in her neck, which is the middle of her head, (I lifted her hair to show you),

then bring the comb straight down to your thumb. Now here's where I ended up with missing pictures. They only showed how after this point, I comb the two sides away from each other, and spray with water, to keep them separate. You can clip off the other section, but that's just one more step to me, since I want it wet anyway. This way you can make sure your part is straight before you put it in ponys.

Next, after you part, comb hair up to high pony on one side, and take the bottom front braid on that side, and skip one, and take the next, so it looks like this. Lay braids flat and put in elastic. After you get the loose hair and braids secure, take out the small braids.

To start fish tail, comb hair and spray well. Divide into two equal sections.

Begin by taking small section of hair from right side, and bringing it across.

Repeat on other side. Each time you pick up a new piece, just incorporate into the new side--you don't have to keep the sections apart like in a reg. braid. Just make sure to try and get your new small pieces equal in size.

The trick with fish tails is to keep them tight, and the pieces even . I use my thumb in the middle to keep it pinched tightly.

Make sure to draw your pieces from the top of the underside hair, as I'm trying to show here.

This does take some time, so you can end the braid wherever you think it will look alright. I left her 3 or 4 inches on the end.

Back view. Spray tops and bottoms of braids with hairspray.

Front view. She's looking over at the TV, because Max and Ruby came on.  In case you couldn't tell, I park my girls in front of the tv to do their hair, and they are infinitely more cooperative and happy. Having a snack doesn't hurt either.

Little Girl's Hairstyles -Small puffy braid 5 min

This picture is not the best for showing off the hair style, but it was the best I could get at the time. That's what happens when your model is 3 and full of sassafras.

This is what we started with. She had slept in the 2 side twists and braid (see previous post) and since she's always begging to leave her hair down, I decided to do this, since you don't have to get the hair wet, and it works well when you want to leave the rest down.

I used 5 elastics for this style. I first parted it on the side. I left it dry, but to get all those little fly away pieces around her face, I lightly sprayed the pieces with hairspray, and then combed them. To begin, part off a square section of hair.

Secure it with an elastic, keeping the pony to the far outer edge of the square. Then part off another square, but enlarging it on both sides evenly.  Secure with elastic, again to the outer corner.

Part off a third section, and repeat. I left a small section over her ear. I just prefer how this looks when you are leaving the rest of the hair down. I think it blends in better.

Finished first side.

Repeat on other side, but only with two sections.

I combed through her wavy hair with just my fingers, and sprayed very lightly with hairspray. You can't see the front from this angle, but I thought it showed how the front sectioning didn't take away from the back.

The goofy grin again along with the finished ponys. Since I used all different colored elastics, I didn't use any bows, but they do look cute with this style too. Of course, because bows are cute on little girls. Big bows. The bigger the better I say.

Little Girl's Hairstyles - 2 Side twists to low braided pony 7-10 min

This is a pretty quick little do, well at least, faster than you'd think. You'll need two elastics for this version.

Start with a side part, and fully damp hair, including underneath.

Grab a 1 inch or so deep piece to begin twist. See full side twist post on how to start your twist. Sorry I didn't picture it here. What was I thinking?

Do a full twist before bringing up hair from underneath. Keep combing hair down to from crown to keep it smooth on top.

When you get to the middle of her head, secure it with an elastic or clip. Make sure you can take it out easily with one hand, since you'll be holding the other twist when you come back to this point.

Do same twist on other side to the middle. This is the trickiest part--keeping the hair in the middle from poofing up, and then getting the other twist ready to join to the second twist.  Just keep your left twist tight, and pull down the hair smooth in the middle, then undo your first twist's elastic/clip.

When you can get them together, twist both sides down 1 or 2 times more, to pull them away from the head a bit. This will make it more comfortable on her little head.

Secure with elastic. You can braid, curl, or do a bun here. I did a regular braid down, after spraying it with water again thoroughly, and combing it out.

Spray with hairspray, and stick in a bow or flower and she's all sorts of marvelous!

Little Girl's Hairstyles - Gum in the hair oh my!

Yep, it happened. Gum in her hair. I figure I'd post this, to let you know what worked for us, since I was pretty sure I was going to have to cut it out, and have to lop off all of her hair.

Peanut Butter.

Lots of it.

Take a big hunk and just massage it into the gum. I had to do about 5 or 6 hunks of PB, since it gets crumbly, but it crumbles the gum out along with it.

For some reason I tried using hairspray on it at first, but that was not a fixer.

She smelled like a PB cookie all day (even after I washed it), but I managed to save her hair, so I could deal with the odor. Needless to say, she is banned from gum for a long while.

Little Girl's Hairstyles - How to do a basic part

So, I am putting this in, because my husband is always asking me (when he's trying to help out and do the girls' hair.....which unfortunately has HAD to happen sometimes), "HOW do you part it?" So I thought, well, there might be others who want to know an easy way. SO here ya go: Start with the end of the comb like so.

And like so. I like the fat end of these combs, since they don't get tangled in the hair as easy as the narrow end.

Pull in whatever direction you need, straight, angled, zig zag. Use your other hand to separate the hairs away from the tip of the comb. I couldn't do that here because I don't have three hands.

Use your comb to pull hair away from part, and comb down. Don't worry, I had to repart this one to get it straight. It happens. All the time. If you are doing a zig zag, or the back of the head, only do one direction at a time. Part it off, comb the hair away from the part, and move on to the next section. Combing the hair away and spraying it with water will keep the hair out you don't want when you work on that section.

Voila. A semi-straight part. It's hard with one hand!To part down the back of the head, for two ponys, or whatever, see this post: Back Part