3 in 1 Braided Hair Tutorial

If you can do a simple French Braid you can do this tutorial (but if you're not sure this is a great french braid how to video!)

This tutorial is awesome because it uses the same basic foundation and then branches off into 3 different hairstyles!  Hence 3 looks in 1!

 I'll be breaking this tutorial into 3 parts to show you how.  

HAIR STYLE #1

Start by curling your hair.  

I use hot rollers (you can view the tutorial I did on how to curl your hair w/ hot rollers HERE.)

But you can use curling/flat iron whatever you prefer to use when you curl your hair.

Once your hair is curled you're ready to begin!

Start by portioning out some soft face framing tendrils in the front of your face.  This will help with the overall soft and romantic feel of the look.

Then on your left side take a small bunch of hair at the crown of your head. 

And french braid that bunch. 

Continue to braid it all the way down down as far as you can braid it and then secure with a tiny elastic.

I prefer using the same colored elastics as my hair color.

Now take a 2nd small bunch of hair roughly the same size as your 1st on the same side but from the bottom left nape of your neck. 

French braid the 2nd bunch all the way down as well.

And secure with elastic as well.  

Front

Side

Back

Now take your 2 tiny french braids and the rest of your remaining hair that is un-braided take it to the RIGHT side of your neck and french braid it together.

Basically your unwoven remaining hair acts as braid #1, and your 2 french braids each act as braid #2 & #3 respectively.

When you've braided it as far as it goes secure it with elastic as well. 

Front.

Right Side.

Left Side.

Back.

With hairstyle #1 it doesn't look like anything special from the front but I just ADORE how it looks from the back!!  (And yay you can totally see my white hair! I'm 30 ok? :)

HAIR STYLE #2

P.S. Shoutout to my MD girls for my House of Harlow ring! :)

Now if you prefer to be able to see the intricate weave work in the FRONT and don't care about the back.  This one is for you.

This starts off the same w/ the 2 french braids.. and the left over unwoven hair.  Keep everything on the LEFT side.. the same side you braided your 2 french braids (this is different from Hairstyle #1 because in #1 you move EVERYTHING to the right side whereas this one you stay on the left.)

And then you just braid it all together as a french braid the same way you did Hairstyle #1.

This one shows up in the front because the 2 tiny french braids you made were braided on the left side so they're "longer" whereas in hairstyle #1 you pull them over to the right side so the 2 tiny french braids get woven into the back and you can't see it as well on the front because you technically "run" out of hair by the time it gets to the right side.

HAIR STYLE #3

The final one is a continuation of Hairstyle #2.  Once you braid your hair all together on the left side you simply take it and roll it into a loose bun by wrapping it around itself and securing it with elastic, bobby pins and a little hair spray!

You'll definitely want to make sure you have some soft face framing tendrils in the front otherwise it can look a little too stiff and prom-y lol. 

 You'll want to wrap it at the bottom side of the nape of your neck so you can see it slightly from the front.

This one would be perfect for those hot summer weddings!  I didn't get a very good picture of this but it's very cute because it's like a traditional side bun but you can see little french braids woven throughout :)

3 different hairstyles that start out with the same foundation!

It would be perfect for spring/summer weddings, bridal showers.. and anytime you're feeling a little extra girly.

Tweet/Send me a picture if you try it I'd love to see it :)!

Easy DIY to protect your fashion jewelry!

I just discovered this little trick and I really wanted to share it with you dolls.  It's SOOOO easy I actually felt silly for 1. not knowing about this sooner and 2. not doing it all these years.  If you're like me you L-O-V-E fashion jewelry.. I can spend hours at Forever 21 picking up the latest and cutest things.

But one thing that drives me TOTALLY crazy is that deep down you know in a few months it's going to tarnish or the color is going to rub off and look yucky :(

The reason why it tarnishes is because of the metal being exposed to moisture.  SO to prevent it from being exposed to moisture all you need to do is create a barrier so to speak - all you have to do is paint over it with a little clear nail polish!!

WHAT?  THAT'S IT?  YUP!!  THAT'S IT! :)

I have a couple of pieces of fashion jewelry I picked up lately that I'll be using in this demo.  I try to wait until I have a bunch of pieces and then I do all of them at one time.

This is what you'll need

Your fashion jewelry!

Saran wrap, clear nail polish (any brand will do) and some tape.

I take a big chunk of the saran wrap and lay it on the table and then tape down the sides.

Lay all of my fashion jewelry flat on the saran wrap

Then I paint the top visible layer.  After I'm done I let it rest there for a couple hours or so.  Then I gently touch the LAST piece I was working on to see if it's dried (because then obviously all the rest must be dry too.) Once it's dry you flip over all of the pieces and repeat on the other side!

Just a little tidbit - the first time I did this I held the costume jewelry in between my fingers and painted over the WHOLE piece and then set it down to dry on a piece of paper and what ended up happening was the bottom of the jewelry became glued to the piece of paper I laid it on (*&(@*#&$(*#@&$ AND you could see tiny thumb prints that had dried into the clear nail polish from where I was holding the jewelry AHAHAHA :p

And that's it!  Easy peasy right?  Now you'll be able to enjoy your favorite fashion jewelry pieces for many years to come!

Black & Gold pave pyramid bracelet - t+j designs, I <3 Paris cuff - Forever 21, Bamboo crystal bangles - t+j designs, Thin pyramid pave bangles - BCBG, Panther pave bangle - Kenneth Jay Lane, Heart shaped ring & Pyramid stud bracelet - ASOS, Crystal between-the-finger ring - Ted Baker via ASOS


DISCLAIMER - The fashion jewelry will have a slight clear film on from the clear nail polish so some of your high polish looking jewelry will look slightly dull after you do it.. it won't be as shiny as before you painted the clear nail polish on.. but it will prevent it from turning brown or changing color!  So definitely consider this before you do it :)  Also depending on how well .. or rather how patient you are in painting the nail polish on (unlike me.. who towards the end just kind of dumped nail polish all over the jewelry) it'll result in a much better finish if you put on a small thin layer of nail polish on!

Curly Hair Tutorial

Hi girls!!!  This is the long awaited curly hair tutorial that a lot of you requested.. and have been waiting on for many months now sorry sorry!!  As some of you that have been following my blog know my life's been one crazy hot mess the last 6 months - moving twice (once to Texas and then to Germany) and all the traveling inbetween I couldn't get my act together.  Hahaha but now that we've settled in a bit I was finally able to tick off some things on my "To Do List"! (And YES a Shoe collection & Purse collection posts are on that list too!!! hehehehe)

I hope you dolls enjoy this tutorial! :)

Ok so I know everyone and their momma uses either a curling iron or a flat iron to curl their hair but I'm old school what can I say.  I don't have the patience to sit there and individually curl my hair added to the fact that I'm crazy clumsy and I'm completely incapable of using a curling/straight iron without burning myself at least once EVERY single time I use one.

The best part of using hot rollers to curl my hair is that it takes me about a minute to set them in the rollers and then I go about my business of doing my make-up and getting dressed by the time I'm done getting ready I take the rollers out of my hair and I'm good to go!  Sometimes I've even done some light housekeeping like washing the dishes or straightening up the house with my rollers in. hahaha.

So I let the rollers heat up for about a hour before I put them in.. you can honestly put them in after about 15 minutes but I like them to be nice and hot when I put them in because I don't use any hair spray afterwards I find that it makes my curls look kind of "crunchy" and "stiff" no matter what hairspray I use. 

I pull my hair up into a really high pony tail and then divide it into sections.  

For this look I was going for big glam curls so I divided my hair into about 6 sections.. 3 on either side of my head.

I take one chunk of it and put the roller at the tips of my hair and start rolling inwards all the way to the top of my head and pin it in. 

Repeat until you have all of the sections of hair rolled and pinned up. 

The end result should look something like this.  I know a lot of girls that use hot rollers don't put their hair in a pony tail and they just simply take a chunk of hair and roll it all the way up however I've found that that way it's a bit too beauty pagenty for me hahah.  With part of your hair tied up in a pony tail it allows the top part of your hair to be smooth and then gradually more wavy at the bottom.

I use the biggest rollers out of the different rollers.  I don't really use the other ones because they make the curls look too "tight".  This was the only hot roller set I could find in Germany.  In the USA you can find lots of options at your local Target or Walgreens and I think my rollers back in SF were actually even bigger then these and they generally run about $30 bucks a pop. 

Finished my makeup now it's time to take the rollers out!

You'll want to kind of fluff your hair and smooth it out when you first take the rollers out.  

There you go!!  

This is obviously more for a glam night out so if I want big glam hair I divide my hair into sections and use about 6 rollers and if I just want soft pretty waves I divide it into between 2 to 3 and if I just want a little bounce I take the ENTIRE pony tail and wrap it around just 1 roller (I use my hair ties and wrap it around a couple of times because it's too much hair for the metal hair pins to hold up).

I prefer to not use hair spray because I don't care for how it feels and I also like that my hair slowly "falls" as the evening goes on and turns into soft, pretty feminine curls.

I hope this helps!!  If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! 

You guys have to let me know if you try this and how it turns out for you!! :) 

Heidi Braid Tutorial

I got a couple of requests to see the Heidi braids better as well as a tutorial to see how I did them. 

So here you go!! :)

Part your hair into two equal parts as you would do to begin any pigtail braids.

Braid both sides as regular braided pigtails.

Take one braid and pull it over to the other side.

Loop it around to the top of your head

Pull the braid all the way to the top of your head. 

You can adjust to where you want the braids to sit on the top of your head.

I use these mini clippies to clip them into my hair. 

Try to find the same color clippies as your hair so that they blend into your head.

Clip braid into place.

Tuck the little "tail" underneath the braid to hide them.

Repeat for the other side. :)

There you go!

Hope this was helpful!

 I'm planning to do a curly hair tutorial soon since a lot of you have asked for that as well!