hair

THE HEART BRAID

photos/design/post by Kristin Ess

Since it’s wedding season, we thought it would be a good idea to do a post on flower girl hair. Wee ones need beauty too! It’s a very “sweet” look and will keep a flower girl’s hair out of her face all day. This braid may be a little “young” for some, but  it will probably come in handy at some point! To be totally honest, I’ve worn it and you can’t tell it’s a heart until you’re standing above it. It just looks like two braids running down the back of your head. The hardest part about this braid is starting it, so if you’re doing it on yourself, you may want to enlist a friend who’s good with braiding help you get it going. Here’s how it’s done:

1. Part your hair into two sections by splitting it down the middle.
2. Starting at the crown of your head, make the curve from the top of the heart. Stop at the back of your ear. Don’t worry about going all the way to the bottom of the heart, only go to your ear.
3. Clip that hair out of the way as seen above.
4. I like to do this braid using an “inside out french braid” instead of regular because it shows the shape more, but you can do either! Start french braiding at the part (as seen above) and curve the braid around to your ear. At this point you’re only using hair from outside the heart shape, not the hair that’s in the clip.
5. Braid it down to the back of the ear and then take the clip out. Now you can start joining in that hair. NOTE: don’t start joining in hair from the inside of the heart until you get to the back of the ear. That’s the trick!
6. Braid all the way down to the nape of the neck and clip it off.
7. Do the exact same thing (or have someone help you do the exact same thing 🙂 on the other side.
8. Once you get to the nape of the neck on the other side, it gets a little tricky. I like to take my 6 pieces (3 pieces from the left braid and 3 pieces from the right braid) and join them all together. Then I split it back in 3 pieces and do a regular braid all the way down.
9. Tie it off with a clear elastic and you’re done.
10. For added texture, I like to pull gently at each piece of the braid!

Good luck little ladies!