(Why are these photos a little fuzzy, you ask? Because I was trying to evade a couple of 8 month old twin attachments!)
Recently my daughter decided that she wanted short hair. *sigh* I still think it's pretty cute!
Knowing that her hair was very much like mine, I slightly tried to discourage her. I know how much work styling short hair can be. Mouse, gel, spike it, slick it, air dry it and let it poof??? Wake up in the morning and one side is sticking up weirdly. I let her do it. And on the mornings when she doesn't want to do it....it poofs.
But, as competition season approaches we must find a neat and fun way to style her hair. Today we came up with some cute spikes in the front. Maybe even add another row behind it.
To accomplish this style you are simply dividing the hair evenly with a pin-tail comb and making small pony tails. I would still finish each pony tail with a spot of gel or pomade to keep the spiky look.
With my daughters hair, since it is very thick, I would also use some product in the back of her hair and spray it to keep it from POOF!
How do you style short hair for competitions? Or is your child's hair such that you don't have to do a thing? I would be very interested to see pictures!
Short Hair, Spiky and Trendy.
Rows of Braids with Low Twists
The great thing about doing this kind of twist is that it's perfect with heavy, thick hair and makes it easier for them to do things like back rolls over it. The long, flat twisty roll doesn't get in the way like a traditional bun does. You can also do this with braids instead of twists, but it will work best if you separate each ponytail into 2 braids, thus making 4 braids total to tie together.
The braids on top were done by my daughter's coach. I didn't get to see how she did it, but I know she did cornrow type braids. It took her about a half an hour to do this.
Gather the rest of the hair into very low pigtails. Make sure you put them close enough that when you tie the pigtails together, there is enough to wrap around (see pic below). Now, with each ponytail follow these instructions:
1. Divide a wet ponytail into 2 sections.
2. Using your index fingers, simultaneously circle sections clockwise, tightly, about halfway down.
3. While holding each twist in place, begin wrapping the 2 sections together in a counter-clockwise direction. You will be transferring each section from hand to hand as you wrap them.
4. As you do step 3 you will, every so often, repeat step 2 until you get to the bottom of the strands and secure it with a small ponytail holder.
Take the pigtails and tie them like you would a shoelace.
Take each end an continue to wrap them around. The right one will wrap back under what you already tied and the left one will just continue over the top of the left pigtail.
Gather the ends in your fingers and pull them together as tight as you can so that you can secure them together in their own little ponytail. You want to secure this one as much as you can. Spray this end with hair spray.
Simply tuck the pony tail end behind the twisted roll and spray. I have never had a problem with this coming undone.
This roll should be low enough to avoid trouble with back rolls. Otherwise you have to make it really high on the head, which I have also done.
Take a picture of your accomplishment and have fun!
Sections and Twists
For this style I made a straight line from behind one ear to the other, gathered the back section into a loose ponytail (to get it out of the way), and separated the front into 3 equal sections--making sure the middle one was centered--and wrapped each in a small ponytail.
I made another straight part about 1 1/2 inches behind the first and separated it into 4 sections. Each section was parted to line up with the middle of the sections in front of it and include half of the hair from each of the sections it touched.
I was left with 4 ponytails. Instead of dividing each ponytail into 3 strands and braiding, I divided into 2 strands and twisted. It's tricky and I'll post a video soon. For now, try this:
1. Divide a wet ponytail into 2 sections.
2. Using your index fingers, simultaneously circle sections clockwise, tightly, about halfway down.
3. While holding each twist in place, begin wrapping the 2 sections together in a counter-clockwise direction. You will be transferring each section from hand to hand as you wrap them.
4. As you do step 3 you will, every so often, repeat step 2 until you get to the bottom of the strands and secure it with a small ponytail holder.
Don't you love the Webkins in the background? We love them. We have many. We treat them as family.
After you have done all 4 ponytails, you can gather them up into a regular pony tail like I described HERE in step 4 and proceed with a bun or leave it in a regular ponytail.
5 French Braids
Similar to the main character in the movie Stick It, this hair style takes 5 french braids combined into a ponytail in the back. In Stick It she has 3 braids. Start with wet hair and work some mousse or gel into it before you start.
1. Separate the front section of hair from the back. Secure the back with a ponytail holder to keep it out of the way.
2. Separate the front section of hair into 5 equal sections, securing each with a small elastic.
3. Work each section into a french braid until there is no more hair left to work in. At this point you can either continue the braid to the end of the hair or secure it--leaving a loose tail.
4. Carefully move braid out of the way and brush remaining hair into a ponytail. Make sure it is high enough to fit the shortest braid. As you hold the pony tail place each braid in and secure as tight as possible. My daughter has very thick hair and I wrap it just as tight as possible. If you chose loose ends to the braid just brush all into a tight pony tail as usual.
5. From this point you can leave the pony tail or work it into a bun per your team rules or preferences.
6. Spray with plenty of freeze hold hair spray. Don't forget to smile at the judges.