Cindy Lou Who and Crayola Markers

I don't know about everyone else, but every year, the week before Christmas is spirit week at my kids' school. Today is Crazy Hair or Crazy Hat Day. This is also the first year that Makenzie has fallen in love with Cindy-Lou Who from the Grinch. So of course for crazy hair day she asked for Cindy-Lou hair. This was actually relatively easy to accomplish. We parted out a circle-ish section of hair on top of her had and stuck a plastic cup on her head. We then pulled the hair from the circle up and around the cup forming the cone shape. We added a bow on top and curled her hair hanging down. We then took the remaining hair and did two braids pulling them up and bobbing pinning them into place. We then curled the ends of the braids down. It took about 20 mins total because I was trying to find a cup that we couldn't see through her thin hair.

 

For Aidan, we used a green crayola marker and colored the front of his hair, then gelled it up into place. Super easy and took less than 5 minutes.

Sometimes the best hair...

I'm a hair mom. I LOVE having Kenz's hair done and looking all pretty every day. She enjoys picking out styles to wear and helping me come up with new ideas. HOWEVER... doing hair is one of those things that to be honest, doesn't always get done the way I would like it to. However, throughout the last few years I have learned a few things. The most important thing I've learned is not to panic. In the early years of hair-doing, if a style fell out, or a hat messed up her hair I would worry. Especially if it was an event of some sort where pictures would be taken. It took me a good couple years to loosen up and relax, we've learned that not every hair has to be in place, and in fact sometimes the best hairstyles for pictures are loose and natural. For example, recently my husband and I took the kids to a local park to walk around and shoot some random pictures. In the car on the way Kenzie's hair fell out and she stuck her hat on her head and we just went with it. When I got home and I loaded the pics onto the computer I was actually quite happy with the way her hair looked natural and comfortable. Here are some pics for examples:

Belle Hairstyle

I know it has been a long time since we've posted any hairstyles, but we have a few photographed and ready to be posted again, so we thought we would add some new ones.
The first style that I'm going to post is not one that I thought of, actually The Story of a Princess and her Hair did an amazing tutorial Right Here. The only thing that we did different, is for the bump we just bobby pinned it in place and put a headband under the twists instead of the bracelet around the bump.
Here's our version:

Double Criss-Cross (take 2)

     Back two years ago, I posted this hairstyle and although I've done it once or twice it isn't something I do very often on Kenz. BUT I love it. I just find that it has a bit of an elegant touch done with french or dutch braids. To see the original post click here. Back the first time I did it Kenz's hair was much shorter so the ends of the braids were just tucked under and pinned. Now that her hair is longer we braided to the ends and then formed a braided bun at the nape of her neck and pinned it securely. I added these cute little flowers and we were all set for church. I think one of the things I like the most about this style is that it looks pretty and elegant and I was done within about 20 minutes.

Purple Streaks

     Miss Kenz is a girly girl. But more than being a girly girl, she likes to experiment with different ideas and new things. Recently she has liked colours in her hair, so a while back I bought some pink hairspray at Claires and we would occasionally streak her hair with that. The only problem I found was that it could take up to 10-12 washes before the pink would come completely out even though it is supposed to wash right out on the first try.

     So in chatting with other people, someone brought up a different way to colour streak hair - using Crayola markers. Yep. We experimented on a small section of hair and I was amazed at how easy even dark colours washed out. Now today Kenz was in the mood for a make-over morning. She loves to give me make overs and she loves when I do make-overs on her. When it came time to do her hair she initially wanted the pink hairspray, but I didn't want to have to deal with it in her hair for two or more weeks, so we decided on purple crayola marker streaks. The look so cute yet so grown up in her hair, but they were fun and she loves the way they look.

     To do her hair this morning, we started with a basic centre hair part and clean, dry, hair. Then I take a small chunk of hair from by the part line and use paper towel underneath so I only get the chunk of hair I want coloured. Then I used the marker to colour the hair. I did two streaks on each side of the part and two small hippie braids crossed over to the back to finish off her look. I wanted the purple streaks to be visible but not too much for her - after all, she is only 5! But, she's happy with it so I'm happy with it. Makeover  = Success!

     I love that Kenz lets me do her hair still and that it gives us time (almost) every day together to bond and chat and have fun. I also love that she has her own personality that knows what it wants. I remember back when I only had my older boys, I used to see girls with streaks or crazy colours in their hair and I used to think to myself: 'my daughter would never be allowed to do that to her hair!'. Ha! The things that have changed since I became a parent!

Headband - Still my favourite

Out of all the fancy hairdos and things we do with Kenz's hair, I have to admit the simple braided headband is my absolute favourite. It doesn't matter whether it's french braided or dutch braided, twist braided or any other braided, I just love the way it always looks so clean and shows off most of her hair without having to do much. I also love that a french or dutch braided headband usually lasts at least 2 days in our house. Doesn't she look cute? (Dutch braided headband, with off centre part):



Sorry for the blurry pics, but you get the idea!

Weekend at Nannies

  The kids (all 4!) spent the weekend with Nanny (grandma) to give Dad and I some peace and quiet. Before they left Nanny asked me to put Kenzie's hair up so she didn't have to do anything with it. This is what we came up with:

  Yes, surprise surprise, it's lots of braids. I always find this the easiest for her when she's away for the weekend. It's a wakeup and go style.

Dress Giveaway!

Anyone with a little girl needs to head over to Megan's Closet and check out the giveaway going on for the ADORABLE dress!
Click Here!!

The extent of our hair-doing

 Winter hit hard here last week and even before that it was cold. With three kids to get ready for school in the mornings, one to get ready for daycare, and myself to get ready for work, we've opted for simple multiple day styles lately. Kenz has sported alot of braids. We find they last a few days, stay somewhat together even with the winter hats, and have so far kept the endless lice at school away. So this is alot of what we are doing. Pretty boring eh!

Simple Twists Pulled into a Pony

I really liked the look of this simple and sweet hairdo when we did this the other day. We've been mainly sticking with french/dutch braids these days so this was a nice change from that too.

It was really easy and only took a few minutes. We did four ponies across the front of her head and then twisted each side together to form twists. Put the twists in a low ponytail and a bow. Easy and done!