We hope your Valentine’s Day was wonderful and that you were able to get in a cute heart hairstyle or two over the weekend! This week’s style is one that will work on any age and can be made as tidy or as messy as you like. This is actually the style Bee wore on her birthday. (It’s hard to believe it’s already been a year since she was baptized! How time flies!) She recently turned 9 and couldn’t make up her mind what hairstyle she wanted on her birthday, so this is what I came up with. We liked it so much we recreated it for our tutorial today.
I’ll also admit that my fingers seem to frown upon braids with more than 4 sections, hence my Cheater or Faux 5 Strand Braid that I shared a couple years ago! However, my way of cheating in that tutorial probably won’t work for this one! This style turned out quite pretty, if I do say so myself! And I didn’t even cheat!
Outside of hair pictures, we don’t share a lot of pictures from home here on the blog. If you follow us on Instagram (if you don’t – please do by clicking HERE!) you’ll see more than just hair pix! We recently shared this one from Bee’s birthday. She’s currently obsessed with blobfish. If you don’t know what they are – Google it! They are gross in my opinion, but she thinks they are great! So she requested a blobfish birthday cake to match her stuffed blobfish she got for Christmas! Not my favorite cake I’ve ever made, but she loved it! So the hairstyle we’re recreating today is what she was wearing in this picture.
Step 1 – Divide out hair from each side of the head like you are going to make a half pony. However, don’t part completely from ear to ear.
Step 2 – Draw both sections of hair toward the left side of the head and secure with an elastic in a small ponytail
Step 3 – Flip the ponytail up and over the elastic & pull it down behind the elastic
You’re making a “flipped ponytail” and you may find a Topsy Tail
Step 4 – Gently pull on the part of the ponytail that are now twisted from flipping the ponytail to add some texture
Step 5 – With the small amount of hair below the elastic, make a regular 3 strand braid & secure the end with an elastic
Step 6 – Divide out a small amount of hair from behind each ear and draw them toward the right side of the head & secure with an elastic
Step 7 – As before, flip the ponytail up and over the elastic & pull it back down behind the elastic
Step 8 – Gently pull on the twisted edges to “mess” things up a bit & add some texture
Step 9 – Create another 3 strand braid below the elastic & secure the end with an elastic
Step 10 – Divide remaining straight hair down in back into 3 even sections
Step 11 – Using the 3 straight sections of hair & the 2 braids from above, proceed to make a 5 strand braid
I created my 5 strand braid a bit different than others may do it, so you can do it however you are familiar with making a 5 strand braid or follow my instructions below.
Starting on the left side (moving toward the right) take the straight section and pass it over the first braid, under the next straight section, and over the 2nd braid. Then on the right side (moving to the left) take the far right straight section and pass it over the straight section, under the braid, and over the straight section. Back on the left side you will begin with a braided section. Pass it over the straight section, and under the next straight section, then under the braided section. You will continue this “weaving” process all the way down to the end of the hair.
Step 12 – Secure the end of your 5 strand braid with a clear elastic & adjust the braid as needed
If you are doing this on an older girl, you can pancake this and “mess” things up a bit more if you like. Where she’s a bit younger, I prefer things a bit tidier and neat!
FINISHED!
This is the one from her birthday (along with her newly painted nails she wanted to show off!) It turned out a little different but I love them both!
And if you still don’t think your fingers can handle doing a 5 strand braid, please check out our Cheater or Faux 5 Strand Braid!
And as long as I’m sharing our “cheater” styles, if you struggle with French braids, try our French Braid Cheat Hairstyle. We’ve had lots of people tell us this helped them!
Comment and let us know if you like 5 strand braids! Can your fingers handle all the strands?!
