Little Girl's Hairstyles - Bobby pin rolls 3-5 min

This style is really great on curly, short, or thin hair. If you have any cute bobby pins with flowers or gems on the end, this style is perfect for showing them off. If you do enough rolls, then it looks like they have a crown of flowers/gems. These are fast and easy. I do these on myself often as well. You'll need a bobby pin for each roll you plan on doing. I did three in this picture.

For this style, I started with wet hair, and did an angle part. You can part straight too, I just prefer the angle. On the larger side of the part, I parted off another section, about 2 inches wide.

Start twisting hair away from part. Start base of twist towards front of head, and pull it towards front of head, until you have a twist about 2 inches long. Giving your subject pretzels and parking them in front of the tv helps a great deal too.

Start laying twist down away from part, and the closer you get to the head, incorporate the hair on that side into twist.

Tuck the hair, in this case, on the left side, into the twist, until it's nice and tight and laying down, about 2 inches long. This can take some redoing, just keep trying until it looks about like this.

This is where you want to grab your bobby pin and open it. I like to use the longer flat edge on the side that's fattest, in this case, the right side, and the bumpy shorter edge on the less thick side, or left side here.

This shows how to position it. You'll have to enlarge this one to see it better. Lay the pin down flat to the head, and put one tip just to the right of the roll, and the other on the other side, so the pin straddles the roll. Push the pin in all the way, keeping it covered under the hair. This too can be tricky, so just readjust as necessary. It also helps to have bobby pins that closely match the hair color, as it will disguise it better.

This is what it should look like after you get the pin all the way in.

I parted off another section on that same side, using the same width as the first one. You can see that leaves some hair over the ear. The hair down by the ear is usually too sparse to roll, so I leave it. You'll have the same on the other side.

I do one roll on the others side of the part. This time I roll the opposite way, but again away from the part.

All three rolls finished. I decided to pull the rest of her hair back into a low pony to finish it. You can leave the hair down as well. This style is really great on curly, short, or thin hair. If you have any cute bobby pins with flowers or gems on the end, this style is perfect for showing them off. If you do enough rolls, then it looks like they have a crown of flowers/gems. This is a versatile, basic style, that you can incorporate into many hair dos.

With ponytail. Pretzels are finished.

Little Girl's Hairstyles - Horseshoe braid 10-15 min

You'll want the hair damp/wet for this, you'll neeed 1-2 elastics, depending on how you want to finish it. Start with a side part.

I started my inside out braid with a section this big. You don't have to use this much, or even go in as far as the part, but she has a lot of hair, so I start with a bigger section.

Always start with braiding the first 3 pieces alone, then start incorporating the rest of the hair.

You want to use the part as an axis for rotating around. As you wind your way around, pull hair in, originating from the part.

I frequently comb out the pieces I'm holding, as well as the hair that I'm pulling pieces up from. This helps keep it from getting tangled in your hands and it looks smoother.

Just keep curving around the head. You'll be manuevering yourself around quite a bit during this one. Keep taking hair from the part down.

Another view of how I'm using the part as an axis. And a view of my laundry on the floor. This is NOT necessary to doing fun hair....but just part of being a mom.

Braid to the ear, and then pull front section of hair, from forehead back, into braid.

At this point, you can put your elastic in, or keep braiding down.......which I personally don't like, since the angle of the braid might make it hang awkwardly. Please try to ignore that fancy couch.

If you put in an elastic here, put it in so it's facing down, instead of the way the braid is wrapping around her head. That way, your pony hangs down, and not towards her face.

I did two twist braids to finish her hair. Divide pony into two sections, and make sure it's thorougly wetted down. I like it really wet for these twists, it keeps all the little ends in and makes it look nice and polished. Take one section of hair, and divide it into two again. Start twisting both pieces the same direction. Once you get halfway down, start wrapping them around each other, in the opposite direction of how you started individually.

Keep twisting the separate pieces, as you wrap them around each other, down to the end. This is what it should look like.

Do the other section, and spray both topside and underside of twists with hairspray, and then all over the rest of the hair. All finished! I put a bow in at top of twists. You can see it in top picture.

This did take me in total about 15 min. Part of that was restarting her part, but each time you practice this, it should take less time.

Little Girl's Hairstyles - zig zag part--7-10 min

Sorry this picture is so dark. If you click on it and make it bigger, you can see the parting much better. This is just a variation of what you can do with a zig zag part. You'll need several elastics for this, and a rat tail comb would be useful.Get hair damp, and part in zig zag, in even sections. The easiest way to do a part like this is to do one splice at a time. Comb the hair away from the part on either side, proceed on. This will help keep the hair in their proper sections, as well as having the hair thoroughly damp.
After it's parted down, I section from each point down, and comb remaining hair away from part.

On this, I alternated each section between a pull through pony and a regular pony. This is a pull through.

To do a pull through, secure a regular ponytail. Take the end of a rat tail comb and divide pony in the middle. Wiggle it to separate hair enough for you to easily pull hair through, and fold pony end over top and pull through.

After hair is pulled through, split pony in two and pull to tighten.

This is what the pattern looks like that I did, keeping the parting going at each point. Do other side the same, and I finished here with simple ponytails. My girl's hair is curly enough that when it's wet, I can curl it around into ringlets and I spray with hairspray. You can curl ponys or braid or twist--whatever you have time for. Again sorry it's so dark. Enlarge to see detail better.

Little Girl's Hairstyles - Keeping your little gal's hair healthy!

Here's what I think about using certain hair products, especially on little girls' hair. First, it's important to understand what type of hair they have--just like you do for yourself. Little girls' hair doesn't have the same oils and/or texture as adult hair, and most hair products out there are made for adult hair.
That being said, they can be useful! Here's just a few dos and don'ts--but just in MY opinion.

If your little girl's hair is straight:

• Don't use gels or mousse, except very sparingly, if you are leaving it down. This tends to make the hair greasy and weighted down.
• Do use lightweight hairsprays to keep styles in place. Also, starting a style with damp, even wet hair, goes a long way to keeping it in place and smooth. I also will use a lightweight gel (I like Paul Mitchell super scultping lotion) before doing a style with lots of braiding, to help keep ends in.

If it's curly:

• If leaving hair down, a lightweight mousse is great. You can apply to damp or dry hair and scrunch. A leave in conditioner is great to define their curls and keep them soft, and is what I like best for young girls' curls.
• Pomade is super for smoothing small pieces into shape, but again, very sparingly.
• Be careful to not overspray or spray too close with hairspray as well......no one wants to send their little darling off with cute hair and white flaky residue.

Also, little girl hair doesn't usually need to be washed every day, since it doesn't tend to oiliness like in an adult.  If I haven't loaded my girls' hair up with loads of hairspray, and they have managed to avoid getting it in their food that day, then I'll skip it. I shoot for every other day, and I still use baby wash/shampoo on their hair (my girls are 4 and 6), because it's gentle and doesn't strip away the oils that keep their hair shiny and healthy. I always use a good conditioner and let it sit for a few minutes after. Don't rub their hair with the towel, but blot and gently squeeze to remove the water, and use a wide toothed comb (not a brush!)to comb wet hair,  Keeping their hair trimmed (every 8-12 weeks) regularly will also keep away split ends, breakage, and damage from elastics.

Enjoy that Happy Healthy Hair!

Little Girl's Hairstyles - Full side twist- 3 to 5 min

This is fairly easy and quick and works well on shorter hair as long. Here's both girls with twists.

First, you'll need only 1-2 elastics, depending on how you'd like to finish the hair, and a comb. I like to have all the hair damp--I use a spray bottle and spray it well, on top and underneath, since you'll be pulling the hair underneath up. Part hair into slant, and comb down smooth. Having the hair damp will keep the hair smooth and help stray pieces stay in longer.
Part off small section, about inch deep, and split hair into equal parts. You'll be twisting bottom piece up over the top.
This shows the first section of hair that you'll incorporate into the twist. First twist the two pieces around each other, and then after a full twist, then bring the first section in. I'm holding all 3 here so you can see them clearly, but I do not bring in the left section until after the right and middle are twisted around once.
Incorporating first piece after initial twist.
Continue to bring up sections and twist in, just like you do when french braiding. To keep the top of the hair from bunching, periodically comb it down, and keep the twist tight, close to the head.
I like to use my pinky on my right hand to part the hair I bring up in the twist, but whatever works best for you!

This is where I stop the twist--right above the ear. I then comb back the hair that's left in the front and make it smooth, and pull it into the twist.

It should look like this once all the hair is in. Keeping it tight, this is where you put in your elastic.

To make the stuffed bun on the side, after securing the hair in the elastic, on the last pass through, I pull the hair only thru halfway.

I then fold the tail up and over.

and stuff it back into the elastic. You can pull on the hair after it's secured to adjust and make it look even.

If your girl's hair is too short for the bun, you can leave it in a ponytail, or braid it down. I spray with hair spray to keep it in. Clip in a bow or flower on top. Side and back view. All done (and so was she!)