Tips, Tricks and Accessorizing Braids

Now that we are mostly through the summer I have realized that braids are perfect for hot summer days!  You can pull hair up and off your neck to keep you cool.  It’s also nice to keep away those tangles as your girls flip, run and ride their bikes!  And another fun thing with braids are their accessories!  They are fun to combine with a headband, bows or a hat.

But not all braids are created equal.  Are you a braid newbie, or does your husband ever do your daughter’s hair.  If so, these tip and tricks to getting perfect braids may be just the thing you need.

• I’m a really bad mom and I’m going to admit this but I do plop my daughter down in front of the tv sometimes while I do her hair.  Especially if it’s something that is going to take some time.  She doesn’t want to stand long so it makes things easier if she’s watching the Disney Channel.
• If you have younger kids try sitting them on the counter and hanging their feet in the sink.  Then give them something to play with like their toothbrush or the squirt bottle.  Make it fun time to get their hair done.
• Now for actually doing the hair!  First, make sure its all brushed and free of tangles.  I’ve started buying a detangler from Target or Walmart that you can spray on your hair before you brush.  You don’t have to but my daughters hair has gotten so long and it just makes it easier to get out some of those really stubborn knots.
• Then make your part.  You can start from the front of the head and go all the way down the back of the head or go from one side to the next.  You can also do the part in the middle of the head or I actually like to do my daughters part on the side.  The tip with doing a side part is once you get to the back of the head, move your part over to the middle of her head.

So the above picture shows the part off to the side and then the bottom picture shows how I moved it over to the middle of her head. (it’s still not that straight now that I see the picture! oops!)

• When you make the part I prefer to wet the hair with a squirt bottle just to make it easier.
• Then you can use the teeth of the comb or you can use the point on the end of the comb too if you prefer.  I use it both ways.
• If your working with different sections of hair keep them separated with separate elastics.  Just leave down the section you are working on and once it’s braided work on the next section.  This will make it so much easier to get those perfect braids.
• If you want a tight braid hold the hair tight as you cross the strands over each other.  My daughters hair is super straight so I think it looks best when it is in a tight braid.  But if you have curly or wavy hair I think a loose braid looks really cute and casual for those nice summer days.  To accomplish this just don’t pull the hair tight when you braid the strands over each other.

This is a tighter braid

• I usually braid the hair all the way down just because we have less tangles by the end of the day but it is also really cute to just braid the hair half way down the strands.
• When you are doing more than one braid try and eyeball it so the braids start at the same height on both sides.  It doesn’t have to be perfect but it looks kind of funny if you have one really high on the head and then one really low.  This goes with French braids and regular braids.  Try and get them even on both sides.  A good tip in achieving this is to line them up by her ears or eyes.  Then you can match it on the other side.

Now once both sides are done its time to accessorize!

First spray with hairspray then add the, bows, flowers  headband or hat and your all ready to go enjoy some sunshine!

If your daughter doesn’t like headbands or hats you can add little ribbons at the bottom of the braids to cover up the elastics or you can just go natural and leave the hair as it is.  Any way you do it is fun and just adds personality.   (Oh and if you’ve done French braids that have gone from the top of her head all the way down you can take them out the next day and have beautiful wavy hair!)

Anybody have any other tips or tricks that I need to know about? 🙂