Candy Cane Pig Tails

Here is another Christmas Style and this one is completely original and from our own personal creation :) I had the idea that i wanted to do a candy cane style BUT i wasn't sure how i was going to pull this off or what i was going to use to do it. Since we are going to be moving lots of my supplies are packed away already so i had to improvise since i don't like re-buying things i already have :)

That is when the idea came to me and i didn't see anything like it online so i decided to go with the flow and this is what i came up with!

 Here is how i created this style and what i used to create it...

I began by gathering our wide tooth comb, Curly Butter, several clear rubber bands, white yarn, 4 red pipe cleaners, and 4 red pony tails.

I knew that i wanted complete candy cane replicas and i thought that creating pig tails to illustrate this would look nice. I got stopped all over asking how i did this and it is so much simpler than it looks. I began with putting red pony tails at the base of her pig tails and then took the white yarn and tied a knot around the base of her hair under the pony tail snug enough to stay in place but not super tight enough to destroy her hair at the base.  THEN i began to spiral wrap the white yarn down the rest of her pig tail and i did this in such a fashion that i was using medium tension so that you couldn't see any hair poking out in between the yarn.

This was also very proficient in making sure that when i was done i could "mold" the yarn into more of a candy cane looking form when i was done wrapping.

So i repeated this yarn wrapping on the other pig tail and then came the trickiest part of this style. I really would have preferred red yarn for the top portion but this was the item that was packed away and i sure didn't want to buy more since i have a few whole spools of it. So i opted for red pipe cleaners as these were all i had that were similar in effect.  I had to use two pipe cleaners per pig tail. I began at the base of the pig tail and tucked the ending of the pipe cleaner into and around the pony tail holder which secured it in place so that i could widely wrap and space it out spiraling downwards over the yarn creating the candy cane look. Then i added the second pipe cleaner beginning right on top of the first one and using a clear rubber band on top of it to secure it so that it wouldn't unravel.  I repeated this on the other pig tail.

I finally wrapped the pipe cleaners around the end of the wrapped pig tail and then added another clear rubber band to secure the endings of each pig tail. Then i went and "molded" the pig tails into the best candy cane shape that i could with what was provided by hand and in about 20 minutes the candy cane style was complete! I made sure not to wet her hair nor spray anything over top of the style because yarn gets yucky when wet and i sure didnt want to create a monster out of the yarn. This was a school style and a major success.

Cute, funky, simple and quick.

Merry Christmas and DON'T FORGET who Christmas is truly about JESUS NOT Santa!

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

Pig Tail and Braid Style With Yarn

Here is a short and sweet post illustrating yet another way that you could use yarn in the hair which is simple enough for those who may not know how to cornrow yet intricate looking enough for a professional to use. 

I call this the traditional pig tails with braids and yarn. I used the yarn in a non-attached type of way which makes it look like the yarn in woven in via the same method you would put in extension hair. In actuality it is just simply looped around the base of the pony tail twice and then braided into the braid.

As you can see i simply created pig tails using butterfly ballies. THEN i cut two separate sections of yarn that each measured double the length of her hair. I folded the yarn in half and then i wrapped the middle part of the yarn around the base of her pig tail twice so that the loose end pieces were coming from the back of the pig tail. I then separated the braid into three sections and i added the left two pieces to the left section and added the right two pieces to the right section. the middle section contained just hair. I braided a regular three strand braid making sure the yarn was on the top of the braid as i braided so that it would show from the front of the braid and not be hidden. I did this until the ending of her hair and then i pony tailed it off and cut the longer pieces of yarn that hung passed the pony tail holder. I repeated this for the other pig tail.

In about 15 minutes the style was complete and the tiny splash of color that is never permanent is a fun staple in our house and always comes about in various ways. Diva R loves having "color" put into her hair and she thinks of it as dressing up or role playing :)

 We used our normal products when styling.The yarn i used is Red Heart 100% Acrylic Yarn the ONLY hair suitable yarn in my opinion.

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

Easter Hairstyle Diva R's Bday Yarn Extensions Re-Styled

This was supposed to be shared back around Easter time! BUT i had just stumbled upon these photos that were on another camera that i some how passed up! So better late than ever...

For Diva R's 4th Birthday i added some funk to her hair with baby blue and white yarn extensions... To reflect on her Bday style click here.

What i used and how i did it is in the above linked post so i will just show what i did to re-style and add a few matching accessories to match with her Easter dress.

 I just simply braided one big braid out of all of the bottom section cornrows and secured it in placed with one of our new bright pink butter fly hair ballies. Then with the sideways cornrows i adorned them with a bow a friend of mine made for Diva R, it matched her dress perfectly and it wasn't even planned!

 Then i braided one big braid from the side remaining cornrows and secured it with a hot pink butterfly ballie.

This was a super quick re-style and it took all of less than 3 minutes.

God Bless.

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

Final Yarn Braid Switch Up Plus Braid Out and Style

 Here is the last switch up style with the yarn braids that we did. Just a simple accessory change can make a big difference and this is the easy mode of switching a style possible :)

 Like our cutesy butterfly clips :) They are a new addition to our collection. I got them locally. They are as summery as ever and just the perfect size for bigger size braids. The pictures above were taken at the 6 days of being in mark. Still looking pretty good but they were starting to get loose.

OK OK So as you know after Yarn Braids we ALWAYS do Braid Outs :) Braid Outs do not last but a day for us, so we enjoy them while they last. Before i began taking down the braids i spritzed her hair with a little distilled water, then i began cutting the double tied ends CAREFULLY!

Here is what it looked like as i was taking them out.

Kinda funky and rag doll looking :) But as you can see the crimp is just gorgeous! I had spritzed the Bee Mine Juicy Spritz on her hair lightly as i was un-braiding. It is important to un-braid very lightly especially with yarn because it can be damaging if your rough.

It took about 25 min to take her hair down, the longest part is always cutting the tied ends because of the precision it takes.

I am also very careful when i do the braid out part of the style because if you un-braid quick and sloppily the braid out will come out poorly and you will have some twisted up half defined/half crazy looking and no definition of the resulting braid out. In other words it ill look like you just brushed your dry hair with the tangle teezer! EEK

So any who here is the resulting Braid Out from these yarn braids that Diva R kept in for 6 solid days!

(Diva R is SO SERIOUS into her programs LOL)

Here is the back view of the BO..

I will say that this turned out cute for sure, the picture doesn't do it justice! If the braids would have been smaller we would have achieved more of a kinky perfect crimp which we LOVE too :) That's why i like doing Braid Outs because the versatile-ness comes out every time because there are no two BO's alike!

Here is what we did on yesterdays super hot day for a cousins birthday party Diva R went to :)

Quick and cute loose side pony tail, as you can see the Braid Out wasn't surviving the heat to well :0 Still was cute and wavy on the top!

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

Yarn Braids Transformed for Soccer

So by now the yarn braids are 3 days old and they still look pretty good. Since Diva R plays Soccer I have to keep this in mind while styling, especially if its right before Friday comes :)  The rules for hair are that it has to pulled up off the shoulders, can not contain hard accessories and cannot be hanging in her face.

This doesn't leave much to do out side of the traditional french braids, pony tails, piggy tails and the like...

So since Diva R is wearing her yarn braids still i just figured id throw them in some low/looser styled piggy tails. I first spritzed a little distilled water throughout her hair, followed by the juicy spritz for her daily double dose of moisture, then i applied the Mixed Chicks Hair Silk.  Since it was a HOT day i knew that i would have to put something protective on her head. I use this to help in protect against the harmful rays. I can say this does a good job! i believe it is very true to its claim!

 

I used some regular Goody Brand pony tails with NO METAL on them. This was simple and quick, cute and easy and appropriate for soccer all in the same style! I don't like the idea of rubbing sun block in between her braids and such like that because of the residue, saturation and the whole bit. So i was glad to find that this product helps with UV protection.

 

Note to self: Next time don't do any less than 25 yarn braids on Diva Rs head because of how thin it is it really needs as many as possible :) I did 17 this time.

This switch up lasted one full day until i changed up something else for the next days style incorporating the yearn braids :)... COMING SOON

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

We Busted Out the Yarn Again!!!! With Instructions

This is our never ending saga with yarn :) I have had this yearn cut for a while now and i decided hey why not do some yarn braids again.

I feel that you can never go wrong with yarn braids whether they are single, boxed or cornrowed or even twisted instead of braided :) I like these very much, and quite often i catch people staring at her hair in amazement, curiosity and just plain awe.

I feel these are completely appropriate for little ones, versus doing extension hair all the time, i like yarn for the playfulness of it.

I was just parting and going, not trying for perfection just wanted something quick, easy and cute that i could use different colors with.  The yarn i use is the Red Heart brand acrylic yarn, i used carnation baby pink and a multi colored cool toned yarn mixed together.

I go through and cut ALL the yarn before i start, this is the most time consuming part of yarn braids. 

So i began by washing her hair with our Bee Mine Botanical Shamp, followed by our Mixed Chicks Leave In, and then i moisturized it over night with our Bee Mine Juicy Spritz and let it dry because i DO NOT and will not do yarn braids on wet hair. This is because of staying away from getting the yarn wet which is a NO NO in our book.

  

The next morning is when i began, before we sat down i made sure i had our...

*Yarn pieces

*Scissors

*Rat tail comb

*Section clips

*Wide Tooth comb

*Clips of choice

*Distilled water spritz bottle

*Bee Mine Juicy Spritz

*Bee Mine Bee Hold Curly Butter

And some activities for the Diva of course :)

I planned on having this done as quick as possible while also hoping that i could get it to last as long as possible!

 

I started by sectioning the back of her hair first and moved upwards. I did this until i had 17 squares and i braided as i went and the good thing about yarn braids also is that no rubber bands are needed!! YIPPEE! breaks from rubber bands are one of the best choices for the hairs sake! I just simply loop one of the resulting strands of yarn around the hair twice and knot it twice. This stays undoubtedly and never comes out of being done.

I began by lightly drizzling her hair with the distilled water as a refresher before i started parting, then applied her moisturizer, finger detangled very well and then used the wide tooth comb to start parting our rectangles, once those were done i started parting the squares. I would section clip a few squares at a time so i could move from one to another.  I then applied the Curly Butter to each box from scalp to ends thoroughly so that it could help seal in the moisture while creating a nice hold so the braids will stay as neat as possible for as long as possible. After i did that i would add the yarn extension in and braid each box separately, for this style i chose to add in 7 pieces of yarn folded in half over the boxed section and i would just add it in and braid downward.  

This is where i would tie an end yarn piece around the whole set for security before i added the clips.

An hour and a half later not including breaks we were done :) I must say Diva is in LOVE with these yarn styles, she seriously brags about these to EVERYONE!

This style has been currently in for 3 days now :) Keep a watch for updates!

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

Today's Curlee Style: Braid Out from Bday Yarn Rows...

So of course i had to do a braid out after those awesome Bday Yarn Row extensions and it turned out so lovely that i had to share! Now before i get to that, the extensions were put in on April 22nd and were taken out April 26th.  I could have left these in for much longer due to them looking wonderful and minimal frizzies.  I was just dieing to see the expected gorgeous braid out and i don't like to leave yarn in for long periods of time because i like to wash her hair twice-three times a week and it happens to be a peeve of mine.

As you can see her perfect crimp throughout her hair is evenly distributed!!! I have learned over countless braid outs that the BEST way to achieve a major crimpage to your braid outs is to braid cornrows off to the sides of the head, NO STRAIGHT BACKS. Doing straight backs will leave weird gaps between your crimps and make it look more messy than crimpy.  Imagine a full rainbow, that is how the cornrows should be braided on the head either from left to right or right to left as you were braiding tracks in the hair for extensions so to speak is another way of describing the pattern. 

The middle pic in the collage is the aftermath of taking the yarn out :) I didn't have to use much yarn and it took all of 30 min to take i down and moisturize it.  My way of taking yarn braids down efficiently is spritzing the Juicy Spritz on her hair before i take them down and then using it again right after i take them out and shes good to go, as i go i finger detangle her rows:)


Through out this no-wash period i used solely the Bee Mine Juicy Spritz as her daily and nightly refresher and this product is the BEST ever and functions incredibly as a next day refresher and can be applied on top of previous applications over and over and it never builds up her hair and scalp drink this quenching potion! This is the perfect spritz to use over yarn also It has never saturated the yarn leaving her hair to saturate the juicy :)

Diva R's Mommy- Kim

Way Back Wednesday Style Reflection

Since we were just on the subject of yarn extensions i thought id do a throw back yarn braids reflection! This was her first ever yarn braids doo and i decided to do medium-large sized box braids with a brown multi colored 100% acrylic yarn! I chose the Red Heart brand as this is what i found to be the best and has always been the most recommended type of yarn to add into hair and i was all for trying to learn extensions. 

I used the Lets Jam Extra Hold Gel at this time and it worked well for us :) No special treatments or anything beyond hot oil treatments at this time... I secured the beads in a different type of way. I took the beads and put them on the beader as i normally would and then put them on the ends of each braid and then i took one strand of the yarn and wrapped it up the outside the bead and back down through the center of the bead and then u rubber band the ending strands of yarn including the one i looped back through the bead and they stay on and aren't even wrapped on the hair meaning that just the yarn is taking the rubber bands abuse and not her ends :) I thought this turned out great :) It was super easy and i can definitely do all types of extensions just from messing around with the yarn.

The style took about 2 hours from beginning to end...

It stayed in for a week which is usually longer than any styles will stay in regardless of anything. But these stayed great looking for probably even longer than a week if i would have kept them in :) I thought it would be note worthy to take a picture while i was taking them out...

The crimp is POPPING and this level of crimp was simply created by braiding as tight as i could as gentle as i could, and the yarn helps form a GREAT crimp that's why i am a fan of using yarn for braid outs because the crimp is so defined afterwards and it last so long :)

Here is the after math of taking out the yarn braids :) I did fluff her hair slightly with a "pick" and POOOF... <3

This was one of most major 'poofages' we have achieved :) It was super full and fluffy as a cloud :) The fluff-fro is everyone's all time favorite in both of our families and beyond it seems :) This Braid out lasted several days...

Diva R's Mommy- Kim

PARTY TIME!!! Part 3 and a Side Note**

Finally the day of her party arrived!! This is something she has been looking forward to since last year! Her birthday isn't even as special to her as her party is.  So i went back and forth for so long bout what type of style i could do Diva Rs' hair in that could be suitable for Easter as well since it was the very day after her party... I had ordered a special custom bow for Diva and the style had to pretty much be created with the bow in mind.  I was thinking of a pony tail design, but then i envisioned incorporated coordinating yarn extensions into a combination cornrowed style for lack of better words.  Adding a funky different-ness to her rocking unique outfit. So i went downstairs and got white and baby blue 100% acrylic Red Heart yarn since i have bags full of it, gotta use it up somehow! I cut up a whole bunch of LONG pieces of each, long enough that i could fold each in half twice and it still be longer than Diva R's hair length.

Her hair was washed with our Bee Mine Botanical Shampoo followed by our NEW conditioner that i will not be unveiling at this time, topped off with the BM Juicy Spritz. I let it air dry for a few hours and then i re moistened it with our distilled water and added a little more Juicy Spritz. 

I parted her hair from just above the ear on her left side across to the top of her ear on the right side (ear to ear). Creating a top and bottom section to work with. I left more hair on top, purposely.  I decided then that i wanted all of her hair on the top to be designed going to the right side of her head so i could end it all in one big yarn loaded braid. I applied generous amounts of Bee Mine Curly Butter as i began cornrowing my sections that i parted as i went with my rat tail comb. I did the top half first so that i could finish the bottom half in the morning because if i did this reverse the back would be all frayed up over night. I added 5-6 LONG folded in half pieces of blue and white yarn together per EACH cornrow as i braided.

(This is looking gorgeous already!!!! Oh it just POPS with excitement, i haven't cut the yarn pieces to be in sync with each other as of this point yet :))

I'm still only using the satin pillow case over her pillow for her over night hair protection... Minus the bonnet.

Here is the finished Birthday doo without the accessories :)

(and yes i did plan on leaving the extra length on :))

In case anyone is wondering how i secured the yarn on the hair at the ends by using no rubber bands or accessories, its super simple!!! I took one of the single strands of yearn and wrapped it around the bunch of them and looped the end through the hole and lightly tightened it so that there was no play in the "loop knot/slip knot" that i created keeping them together just like a rubber band would MINUS the rubber band.

I pretty much just tied the "slip knot" right where her hair ends so that the knot is under the hair endings.

Here is the Diva getting her nails did before her party sporting her COMPLETE Birthday Style, Toodee bow and all to match her lovely special Birthday outfit :)

 Here is a close up of the bow and shoes :) The shoes were Diva R's personal pick, i was going to have a bowtique make her a custom pair of shoes but needless to say the deal we had fell through, she had me believing she was going to make these and have them ready for Diva R's party BUT at the last minute she couldn't do them... (While there were tons of other orders going out that were placed after mine.)  Upsetting, highly... SO by choice i went back to our original plan which turned out to be the best plan presented to us anyways... Because i will NEVER pay 70 plus dollars and shipping for a pair of shoes i can buy of much better guaranteed quality for 45 OTD... SMH at crooks...Diva R has been talking since September about the "Twinkle Toes" shoes and i held off getting those for her up until April because she kept stressing she wanted these because another girl had them and that is one thing that i consistently worked on with Diva because "Mommy will not buy something that you like only because someone else has it." I STRESSED for several months that we want things because we LIKE them personally, not because someone has them or wants them" So after she became in tune with that notion we were all for letting her pick out her very own pair. The catch was that they had to match her Toodee themed outfit, she agreed and these were the first ones she pointed out and they became the ones she chose :) As for the bow, it is a custom Toodee bow to match her custom shirt we got her made with her name on it with a Toodee applique above it :)

So i had based all of the accessories off of the outfit that i had originally seen on Etsy.com after days and days of searching, emailing, not being responded to being told what i want cant be done and on and on that went... Until i found a shop that had EXACTLY what i was looking for and it was customizable!! and 45.00 later for the shirt and tutu including shipping ......

Diva R is geared up!!!!! and READY to party!!!!

Toodee

I seriously called the whole world it seems trying to get someone to make us a Toodee cake but had no luck at all :( Because of copyright and all that jargon that they were scared of infringing upon.... So we had to pick something else that THEY could do and out of all the ones to choose from Diva R picked a Tiana cake and I was so happy she chose this one because this was just too cute and i loved the detailing of it myself.

(Please excuse the added clip arts i added to cover her name)

This year we decided to do it at Chuck's again for many reasons... BUT this wasn't just any party at chucks, we had the most banging party at Chuck's that day!

This was Diva R and me in the ticket blaster!!!! This was the coolest experience ever! Her tutu kept catching all of the BIG prized tickets that were worth 50-200 each! So i was just picking them off of it :) We both had to wear some goggles and let me tell you, the Diva was very skeptical about this and i nearly had to step in first before she would...

I tried lifting my shirt up to catch em all in my shirt (like back in the day when my brother and i used to go to shoe carnival and get in their money machine we would pin our chin down on the neck of our shirt and lift up our purposely BIG t shirts from the bottom and just bag the cash and coupons like it was nothing LOL the employees sure didn't look forward to seeing us every time we came in LOL) BUT it didn't work for the ticket blaster it seemed as if the tickets just keep circulating around us so i caught on to grabbing them off the ceiling and we ended up getting near 3,000 just from the TB alone. 

And as usual we ended up having hundreds of tokens that we were sure wed never spend entirely so game galore!! She likes the shooting games because Daddy plays shooting games! Look how serious she is!

Here is Diva opening a present! and this just so happened to be one of the FAV ones she got, The Tangled Tower :) and it was from us :) Yay Mommy and Daddy!

Our baby girl had the best Birthday ever!!! She is still raving about it :) and her hair got MANY raves at Chuck's, where Chuck's is just happens to be in an urban mixed area so there were lots of cute styles all around BUT none were half as unique as hers!

Diva R's Mommy- Kim

Side Note
**Ive seen alot of "white" girls cant do hair comments on the web, or that certain styles don't look good on "white" or "black" girls hair and my thought is....Who in the worldly form designates certain hair styles to certain color of people??? This was part of a discussion i seen online, the terminology used here is NOT my terminology I was quoting what they were saying, for those who don't know i am very ANTI racial terms and we DO NOT allow that type of talk in our house... How can a parent refer to their daughter and other little girls as B******.... I mean seriously?? Praying for these people...

Happy Hair Styling :)

FYI- If your looking to start a blog or begin on a hair journey just ASK QUESTIONS!



Hope everyone liked Divas Birthday elements as much as we did :)

Diva R's Mommy-Kim

Yarn Row Extensions- The Second Time Around

Well, i decided to do yarn braids for the second time now, and this time i did them in corn rows versus single box braids like last time.  I used multi colored acrylic yarn that i bought from Walmart for 2.00 each roll :) 

I washed her hair with Kids Organics olive oil and Shea butter shampoo followed by Organix Coconut Milk Conditioner.

Here is the style half way done :)

I used 4-5 24inch strands of yarn per "Yarn Row"

Here is the complete doo :)

I used Bee Mine Luscious Balanced Cream Moisturizer pre yarn rowing followed by Bee Mine Curly Butter as i began yarn rowing. All in all this style took an hour and a half with two breaks. Diva R loves yarn braids officially so i told her we can keep them in for as long as they will stay :) Usually we don't keep hair styles in longer than four days due to frizziness.  

Tomorrow will be a braid out :) Will post pics...

Diva R's Mommy-Kim