Our Renaissance of Hair Styling

A few years ago, Janae was really into having her hair done.  I'd found a website called "Princess Hairstyles," where a mom had pictures and tutorial videos on how to do little girls' hair.  Most of the styles took a lot of sitting still, a lot of little elastics, and quite a bit of braiding, but Janae would sit and let me try them out.

One of my early braiding attempts.



This lasted for a month or so, and then Janae went through a long phase of not letting me touch her hair at all. 

I believe, of course, that this "hands-off" period was a direct result of all the attempts at princess hairstyles.  I am not good at braiding, parting, or removing elastics without ripping out hair, and I think Janae noticed that hairstyling=pain. 

Since then, it has not been unusual on a Sunday at church for me to look at the little girls with complicated-looking hairstyles and sigh.  I wondered if--with a little practice--I, too, could give my daughters that princessy look.  Still, practice was not possible--unless you counted throwing a hairband onto Janae or Alaina's heads as they tried to run out the door.

Recently, though, hairstyling in our house has been making a comeback.  One evening Janae asked, "Remember those princess hairstyles?"  We looked up the website and spent at least an hour scrolling through the pictures and seeing how the various braids and twists were done.

This has now resulted in hours of mother/daughter fun.  Janae still walks away if things are taking too long or having to be ripped out and re-done, but for the most part she is willing to let me try to do her hair.

We started with regular French braids,

but have now also conquered the basket weave,

some flower/snail/cinnamon rolls,

this quick and easy twist,

and some ribbon braids.

Alaina has even started joining in once in a while,

although we all know she still prefers something more along these lines:

 Janae, too, will most often choose to have her hair left alone, but it's nice to know we can try something different once in a while :)