Overnight Braids

Miss Kenz didn't like getting her pics taken this day so these are the best shots I got. This is a basic do for sleepovers. The kids (all 4!) slept at our friend's house the other night so I wanted to put something in Kenz's hair that would need nothing the next morning. All I did was part out 6 sections of hair and braid. I didn't even braid to the bottom of all the sections. It was a really nice random hairdo that stayed put. These pics were taken the next day so I realise there are a couple of fly-aways!

Haircare - Questions!

So, I've been doing alot of "hair research" lately. Learning about different types of hair and how people care for their/their kids hair. Now it just so happens that in conversation last week I was talking about hair with an aquaintance and I was comparing different types of Hair. Now Kenz and I appear to have the same brownish/blond thin, dry hair, so this aquaintance was surprised when I said how different our hair was. An example I used was washing hair. My hair gets greasy, not healthy greasy - greasy, greasy if I don't wash it every day or every other day at the most. Now Kenz on the other hand I only wash with shampoo once every 1-2 weeks. We rinse through the week and have to add moisture to hers every day or it gets so dry it breaks in my hands. Now this person I was speaking with was looking at me shocked by this point. "You only wash her hair every 1-2 weeks? Doesn't it get dirty?" I kind of looked at her like she was nuts. I admit, for someone to not wash "white hair" every couple days definitely isn't what we are taught. In fact I wash my boys' hair more often then Kenz's. But seriously, do people really think I would let my daughter go with dirty hair? Just because I'm not shampooing doesn't mean it's not clean.

Another point I made about the difference in our hair is that my hair is thicker than it appears. I've gone to numerous salons that always mis-judge how much hair I actually have and how thick it is. Kenz has thin hair. This same aquaintance then went on to say that maybe Kenz has thin hair because I don't cut it enough! We trim Kenz's hair (just the very ends) every 2-3 months, just because I'm growing it long doesn't mean it's unhealthy and needs to be cut every couple weeks, her hair is growing quickly, when it starts to split we trim it. Why does everyone assume that modern little girls need bobs these days?

Anyways, enough of my rant. My question is this, how do you care for your kids hair (or your hair!)? Since Kenz has such different hair from what I'm used to I'm still working on a routine and trying to figure out what works to grow her hair long like we want without breakage. So I'm curious, how do you care for your (kids) hair and could you give a brief description of your (kids) hair? Do you ever get anyone look at you funny for something you've done in your haircare routine?

Curlformers Part 2 - The Results!

Well, I must say that I am very impressed with my first attempt at curlformers and I will say that they were definitely worth the investment.
To begin, when I bought the curlformers I only bought a single package of 8 because of the price I wanted to try them before investing a huge amount of money. I was 2-4 curlformers short of being able to do her whole head but I figured that was fine because of what I was planning to do in her hair anyways.
So Thursday night we washed hair and put in the curlformers. I'm also going to note that I did NOT use ANY product in her hair for our trial run, not the night before, not the next day, not at all. Friday morning we overslept and were running late getting out of the house. To do her hair I quickly took out the two back curlformers and I was already impressed!
Next we did a really loose and quick braid up the back of her head and then took out the rest of the curlformers and put everything into one pony.

Here is the result: Beautiful curly pony.

Side view:

This next pic is Friday night when we took out the pony and the braid, note that the curls are still holding great without using any product!

the last pic is a bonus pic of Saturday morning after sleeping on the curls from Friday see that the curls are STILL intact! (Just a little messy!)

Overall we had a great first run at using curlformers and I can't wait to get out and grab another 8 pack for Kenz's hair. One more note I want to add is that Kenz has very straight, thin hair. It does not hold curl from anything else! This product really works :)

Giveaway!

Since I'm currently posting about Curlformers, I thought I would include a link to a giveaway going on right now over at Beads, Braids and Beyond! Check it out!
http://beadsbraidsbeyond.blogspot.com/2010/03/curlformers-giveaway.html

Curlformers Part 1

So I've seen the posts by many others and decided I wanted to try curlformers. Now, I am no hair expert. If you saw my hair you would be appalled, I don't even own a curling iron! (Yes, it's true!) So I researched these curlformers and being that I'm in Canada, could not find them anywhere. So I visited the Sally's website and tried to order them... only they don't ship to Canada. Finally I found a brand new Sally's store pretty close to where I live. Great, I visited the store yesterday and picked up my first package of 8 curlformers for Kenz's hair. At twice the price it's sold on the website I wanted to be sure they would curl Kenz's pin-straight hair so I only grabbed one package. I've gotta say that I was impressed.

After Kenz had her bath and washed her hair last night I went to work putting the curlformers in. Pretty easy. Only 8 wasn't enough for her head (I figured it wouldn't be). So we did the top part of her head and she went to bed, I left the back out of the curlformers because I knew what I was planning for today. Anyways, here are the pics of Kenz wearing her curlformers, later on I will post part 2, with the results :)

Stay Tuned!

So after a long winter's break, Kenz and I have decided we want to continue blogging this spring. But why have we been away you ask?? Well, we live in Ontario Canada so while winter is wonderful and we love the snow, we wear alot of basic braids and ponies that I don't need to worry about under a warm winter hat. As much as I love fancy styles and I still did quite a few over the winter months, it just wasn't a regular thing. The second reason we haven't been doing alot with hair is because Kenz's hair has been SUPER dry and really prone to breakage, you might even see a bit in some of the styles we're going to post, thankfully with the warmer weather it seems to be less dry and able to tolerate her hair being done more often. But the good news is the snow is gone and spring has sprung, even way up here in Canada. So stay tuned because we're back and we already have a few styles waiting in our folder to post :)

The "H"

If you haven't noticed, I've been really into doing simple braids lately. They're quick and easy and almost anyone can do them, and not only that but there is so much you can do with them!
This is a pretty quick and easy style again. Basically it's two ponies with braids in the front and back joining each pony. Once the braids were added and the ponies were done, I took a small chunk of hair from one pony, braided it and added it to the other pony. Added some bows and we were out the door.
Take a look, it looks like an "H":View from the back, underneath the left pony:Just another back view, I apologise for my pics on this do, they weren't the greatest and there weren't very many:This is the best front shot I got, she did not want her pics taken!

Braids to the Side

Here's a quick and easy do to spice up the same old ponytail. Now I'm not a lover of side ponies or buns or anything. I like symmetry. But for some reason we've been doing a lot of side do's on Kenz the last little while and I still think they're cute.
This one wasn't meant to be what it is, but it worked.
To do this one, part the har just behind the ears and put two little ponies in the front and two in the back. Braid the front ponies and add them to the back ones. Take the left back pony now and braid it adding it to the right one. Now form a messy bun, or whatever you want from here and add a bow to finish the look. Takes less than five minutes and still looks cute.From the left side:From the right side:From the front:

Headband Style Braids

So I don't really have the words coming to me tonight to describe this hairdo, so hopefully the pics will do a decent job. Basically it's 2 (regular) braids in front and they are joined to a (regular) braided headband in the back (2 braids in front, 4 in back). Cute for those with trouble frenchbraiding a headband or for those with daughters with shorter hair in the front.
A view from the front-top: View from the top-left:

View from right side: Front view:

Oh, and because the braids are basically a little braid, then elastic, then little braid, elastic, etc... this one can stay in a few days for a trip to Grandmas (yes, this is what she did, it still looked perfect when she came home, and Grandma just had to comb out the back hair!)

Twisted and Braided Ponies

Again I didn't do step by step pics because I didn't think this would be as cute as it is, but this style I think may have made it onto my favourites list. It's fairly quick and easy as well so most people can do this style.To start off, part the hair down the midle and divide each side into 3 (or more) sections and put each section into a pony. Now cross the top two ponies over each other twice (so the same sides hook into the next elastic) and hook to the next pony. Continue down to the last ponies and braid the ponies to the bottoms. It really is simpler than it sounds and cute too! Here's a back/sidish view:

A view from the top of her head:From the back, all finished! We didn't add any bows or accessories today but it would be cute with bows to finish it off and match her outfit!