Henna has been around for ages- literally. Ever since the Bronze Age, the Lawsonia inermis plant has been used for dyeing everything from hair and skin to leather and silk. It grows in tropical and sub-tropical arid regions like Southern Asia, Australia, and much of Africa, and people there have been using the plant for beauty for over 6,000 years. In many places, its use is tied to rituals and celebrations such as marriage, but people all over the growing region have used it for its anti-microbial properties as well as its powers of beautification on their nails, their hair, and their skin. It even followed trade routes to Europe and the Americas, and was a popular tool of the upper echelon as early as the 18th century. Even Lucille Ball was said to have used it to change her blonde locks into the flaming coif we know so well today! However, when chemical hair dyes became safe (well, safer than they had been) and cheap (well, cheaper than they had been), the practice of using henna faded out in favor of more easily-accessible means.

However, it's never been completely gone from the beauty scene, and in the past few decades, the earthy-crunchy crowd (into which I proudly include myself!) has led a resurgence in this little powdered plant's popularity as a rejuvenating natural hair dye that can really restore luster to lacking locks. But it doesn't only dye: henna also makes hair soft, shiny, and supple, curing dandruff and making heat and chemical damage less noticeable. The glorious, natural-ish red sheen is only one of the many perks.

Since I've been red for about two years now, with an interlude of bright blonde, my hair has definitely seen some damage. A few friends have been urging me to try henna for quite some time, but I have to admit, the length of time necessary for the dye has always turned me off to it - hey, I'm a busy lady! I don't get many days off, so I had to decide whether or not I wanted to sacrifice a whole day to getting goo in my hair. After a while and some more research, though, I decided that it was a jump worth taking, and I'm certainly glad that I did.

The first step was buying a teeny test-size amount of the henna I wanted to try. My henna came from Henna for Hair, a great resource for buying as well as step-by-step instructions and lots of other information. I chose Ancient Sunrise's Rajasthani Jasmine, which the website says is good for damaged, fragile hair, and originally only bought a few of the 3-gram tester packs. I did a gloss over my hair to make sure I liked the color/process and also to test for allergic reactions (super important! I wasn't too worried about it, but if you are, only do a small test patch). No pictures of that process, because it was pretty unremarkable- I had to dilute the henna a lot with conditioner to cover my whole head, so while I loved the parts that had a higher concentration of dye, the majority of my hair had nicer quality but little color difference. If you're curious, I mixed the henna with lemon juice as the package suggests and let it sit overnight; before applying it, as I said, I mixed it with an increasing amount of conditioner, starting at the front so my bangs would have the highest concentration (though you're supposed to start in the back). I covered it in plastic wrap and a towel for heat and let it sit for six hours.

A few weeks after the gloss- it felt much nicer, but looked mostly the same as it had before.

Last week, I decided to go balls-to-the-walls and dye my whole head. 100 grams usually works well for collar-length straight hair, but mine is quite wavy, so I bought two packs and probably used a little more than 150 grams total. My original gloss had only been mixed with lemon juice and then diluted with conditioner, so I went a little crazy with this one, using all the citrus in the house (two lemons, a lime, and an orange) as well as a strong brew of black tea, chamomile flowers, rose hips, and lemon rinds. I mixed in a little bit of conditioner right before I applied it, as well. I let the original mixture sit for about six and a half hours, though leaving it overnight would've been better, then applied to my hair and let sit for about three hours - if I weren't on a time crunch, I definitely would've left it on for far longer. I wrapped it in plastic wrap, and blasted it with heat from my hairdryer every so often- probably five minutes under the dryer every forty or so minutes it sat.

How sexy do I look?! Ladiiiiies....

Rinsing it was a bit of a shit show- I took off the plastic wrap and stuck me head under the shower, which I immediately regretted, because I suddenly found myself with handfuls of wet, vegetal-smelling brown goop.  I hopped out, and removed a bulk of the goop with paper towels before washing out the rest. I don't use shampoo, so I just rinsed until the water ran clean and poured on some conditioner afterwards. Then, of course, I had to clean the shower, which kind of reminded me of that scene in Spirited Away wherein Chihiro cleans the dirtiest tub in the bathhouse. You know the one...

Anyway, here's my hair immediately after rinsing:

Remember, never dye your hair in nice clothes! This tank had a huge gloob of henna from the first application.

The color is always far brighter immediately after dyeing - if you don't like that orangey hue, don't worry, it'll fade. And if you do like it, as I did... tough cookies, kid, 'cause it's gonna fade whether you like it or not.

Twenty-four hours later, in my normal-person disguise:

Three days later, the final product!

As you can see, the henna evens itself out to a very natural-looking shade of red. My job loves it. I, personally, am kind of torn. While I really like the shade, and it's definitely office-appropriate (which I really need it to be), it's just... dammit, I wanna be one of the cool kids with the crazy hair, too, ma! I miss my fire-engine red...

However, I am very happy with it, and will almost certainly be experimenting with more henna in the future.

♥ For more information ♥

Henna for Hair

Free e-book: Henna for Hair How-to

Henna on Wikipedia

More natural dye options

Ever since giving my one-month notice to my soul-sucking corporate desk job, I've been having what you can call daydreams or delusions of grandeur about changing my hairstyle. While my soon-to-be-ex-boss is very open to the crazier side of life and would have had no problem with me doing any number of ridiculous things to my appearance (he poo-poo'd a septum piercing, though...), public relations and customer service is one of the biggest parts of my job, and there is no way that people who are going to be spending amounts in the five-digit neighborhood on our products would take seriously a girl with blue hair and piercings. Even though the guy signing the checks wouldn't have cared, it would have made my job ten times harder; for two years I've acquiesced to boring and bland.

this red...

Now, since I'm going to be leaving my job while I'm away at school, I don't have such trivialities to waste my time with, so I've been planning a whole-life makeover that would include my hair, dorm room, tattoos, and maybe a few piercings if I'm feeling up for it. Since I don't currently have a job to worry about besides the business projects I've been working on myself, and the main place I've been putting in applications is Hot Topic (don't judge me!!), I don't find myself overly concerned with how people will think of me in this light. I've been vanilla for probably four or five years; I owe it to myself to have a few months of fun.

But now that I have the option of changing my hair, I find myself facing a dilemma. I've been collecting little tidbits of ideas for the past few months as to how I want this style to look - natural red with hints of blue, soft curls, side bangs, versatile and without much styling needed - but now that it's come time to start seriously considering making salon appointments and the price tag, I find that I need more guidance and a more concrete idea before tossing over what could be some of the last of my hard-earned money for a while. If you're also looking into redoing your 'do, here's a few steps you can take to start.

First of all, remember that you don't need to have an exact picture in your head from the very beginning - if you did, you wouldn't be reading this! It's okay to have a blurry, lucid, half-formed idea in your mind when you start out. For example, for months all I've known is that I want to try out both natural red and bright, deep blue - it didn't even occur to me to try them both together at first! As long as you start out with some preliminary ideas, the rest will come with time. This is what I consider "laying groundwork."

...plus this blue....

Okay, so you know you want it chocolate brown, or bright pink, or super short. Awesome- you have your foundations. The next step is to clear those foundations up with some more details. For me, it was at this stage that it occurred to me to mix my two color ideas; I knew that a whole head of blue hair was definitely not the way to go right off the bat, and that I would get bored with only red for a long time, so it was a natural progression. I started focusing on style. To do this, think about your hair now. Figure out what it is that you like and dislike. For example, I think my hair currently is a great idea in theory: I like the idea of a side bang with soft, natural curls, but unfortunately I live in a climate where that isn't always achievable without lots of work, between humid, frizz-inducing summers and dry, static-laden winters. I've been frying my hair by straightening my bangs all the time, and I've been tying back my hair almost every single day for the past few weeks; I also know that just letting it grow is not working out for my hair type and that I need some layers or other types of fancy cutting to tame it into the style I want.


Okay! So I figured out what I wanted to keep and what had to be changed. Now comes the fun part: eyecandy. Flip through your favorite mook - my choice was GLB volume 36 - and see what pops out at you. Another great resource is your favorite photosharing website - my drug of choice is Tumblr, but We Heart It is also up there- anything that'll let you do a tag or keyword search. Almost daily I searched for "blue hair" and "red hair" until I came up with the best depictions of the shades I wanted. That's very important - to us, "brown" or "blonde" may seem like all the adjectives we need, but a stylist often has many different options of each color. To avoid hair regret (and having to empty your wallet for it, too), it's best to go in knowing what you want and having the resources to properly explain it.

...in the style on the left!

If you do choose to go to a stylist (which I recommend, for a big change like this), it's kind of out of your hands from this point. Just keep your eye on the scissors and make sure she isn't going too short, too layered, or just too far from the plan. This is the part I'm worried about, and the reason the last professional haircut I had was when I was about 11 - I just have problems trusting other people with my appearance. Blame it on my astrology - Taurus is self-important and beauty-obsessed, and Scorpio Moon is eclectic and fancies themselves utterly misunderstood, so the idea of trusting someone else to define my aesthetic in a way that I'd have to deal with for months just never struck me as a good idea. The only reason I'm going back is because I need inspiration and would like to see what someone else can do with me. Sometimes trusting the artist is not a bad idea... I'm just hoping this is one of those times!

I've always had a love-hate relationship with bonnets. On the one hand, they can be infantalizing and childish. On the other, while lolita headwear certainly runs the gamut of whimsical creativity, there is nothing that is so iconic as the bonnet. All other types of hair accessory can, with creativity, be worn with normal clothing (though the traditional headdress would probably be a bit difficult), but the bonnet is so crazy, so extreme, so quintessentially lolita that there is no way they could be anything else. I have a policy that everything I buy for lolita accessories must be able to be, in some way, worn with regular clothes, so buying a bonnet, especially if I don't know how it would look on me, seemed utterly flippant.

I did dabble, though - I bought a pink BABY bonnet in the... fall or winter, I believe, but decided that it didn't suit me - the brim was wired strangely, the color didn't jive, the lace wasn't right. It was a bit too sweet for me - I decided that the bonnet that was truly for me was an ornate buckram one, Tripe Fortune-style, with chiffon and lace and bows and maybe even roses. So my quest for the perfect bonnet continued, to my own internal chagrin.

In February, at the Chocopologie meet-up I hosted, I chatted crafts with Caro-chan of F*** Yeah Lolita. She showed me a beautiful netted fascinator she made and mentioned that she would be opening up an Etsy shop soon. We talked inconsequentially about Etsy for a moment, and then she said that she was going to be adding real, handmade buckram-frame bonnets to the shop once she perfected the pattern. I DIED. I probably gave her whiplash from the torrent of babbling I let loose, about how long I'd been wanting one, how awesome Triple Fortune was, insisting she let me know when they went up, was she taking commissions... luckily for me she put up with my outburst of utter crazy, bless her heart.

Fast forward a few months, to about April. I got this absolutely beautiful dress commissioned from I Do Declare for my birthday and a photo shoot, and while I wanted to make a circlet for the photo shoot (what's a queen without her crown?) , I was at a loss as to what to wear for my birthday party - I couldn't wear the same thing twice, of course!! (Communal groan from the audience, I know, I know) I wracked my brain, and then thought back to that conversation. While nothing in her Etsy shop would have matched, I remembered that she said she was taking custom commissions, so I sent her a message. We hashed out a design over e-mail, Livejournal message, and text, and finally figured something out for color and style. She requested a month to make the bonnet, but because of delays from the post (she contacted Kelsey and asked her to send some fabric swatches and then scraps when she couldn't find a good match), she actually ended up making and getting the bonnet to me in a matter of days.

Construction: I cannot get over how beautiful this bonnet is. I've never seen anything like it in person - it's exquisitely crafted and the work is beautiful. When I think about how, due to time constraints, she only had about a day to make the entire bonnet, I am stunned. I don't think I could make anything that crazy-awesome no matter how long I took to do it. The quality of materials is also lovely. The fabric was the leftovers from my dress, so Kelsey and I originally selected that, but the accoutrements Carolyn selected (lace, ribbon, etc) are very high-quality as well. The stitches are all hidden and those you can see are tiny and neat. 5/5.
Communication: As I said above, Carolyn employed every means of getting in touch with me possible, including livejournal message, e-mail, and text message. She sent pictures over the phone in real time to get my opinion and help make decisions, and demonstrated an admirable knowledge of her subject in her recommendations, as I had no idea what would look better in most cases. She gave me detailed updates whenever possible and was always patient with my silly questions and long response times. 5/5.
Shipping: No problems here, either! I was originally only getting regular shipping, but since it was so close to the party, as a birthday present Carolyn paid the difference for next-day shipping so I would have it in time. It arrived in perfect condition just before noon on the promised day and wasn't shaken up, crushed, or generally damaged at all. It was packed in a plastic bag in a box padded with paper. 5/5.
Overall: I normally have an intrinsic problem with giving anything a perfect score, simply because pop music and sitcoms have made me wary of anything deemed "perfect," but here I cannot give anything less than 15 out of 15. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the product I received, everything was perfect and to my exact specifications, and I would recommend Ophanim and Carolyn's work any time. Caro-chan, thank you so much for an amazing addition to my wardrobe!!

A few years ago, I moved into my own apartment. It was less than a month after graduating high school, and I found myself in a rinky-dink studio apartment with absolutely no money after rent for anything more than Ramen noodles, Pop-Tarts and Wendy's. I couldn't have been happier. However, you can imagine what a diet like that did to my health, and without money for the fancy lotions and potions I was used to pampering my skin with, I had to learn how to make due with what I had. Luckily for me, what I had was a corner store, a few dollars, and the Internet. With these simple tools, you too can build your own beauty regime for pennies! (/commercial)

My absolute beauty stand-by is, to this day, baking soda. For about $0.89 USD, you can buy a few months' worth, depending on what you use it for, and it does almost anything. Anything I need done, I use baking soda first, and if it doesn't work, I proceed from there. Usually, it works. I exfoliate my face with a tablespoon of baking soda mixed with about a teaspoon of water; I gently rub the paste in circles over my face and neck, then rinse. I follow it up with diluted apple cider vinegar as a toner, and my skin has never been softer. My hair is another thing I turn to baking soda for: normal shampoos are not only expensive, but they can also be bad for your hair because they strip natural, healthy oils as well as grease from your hair. Baking Soda, on the other hand, simply dries the grease from the outside of the follicle without penetrating through it and removing the good stuff. I use a tablespoon of baking soda to about a cup of water as shampoo, and the same concentration of vinegar to water for conditioner - if you have very dry hair or get very greasy, you should look into the No Poo method, as it's called! It also helps preserve your dye job, if you roll like that. No time to shower before dashing out the door? I run some dry baking soda through my hair at the roots, and it dries up the grease and keeps it looking nice until I can shower when I get home. It's also a natural deodorizer, so you can use it in place of deodorant if you have sensitive skin.

A few more tips:

• Have a zit? Cut a clove of garlic in half and rub the cut side on it. Garlic is a natural astringent, so it will drastically reduce redness of new pimples that haven't formed a head yet. If that garlic won't work (say you can't stand the smell, or the zit has already popped), hold an ice cube on it for as long as you can before you go to bed at night. This will soothe the inflammation and the blemish will be noticeably less red by the next morning.
• If you have bags under your eyes, cucumbers are not an urban legend! However, if you want something stronger, put two spoons or used black teabags in the fridge the night before, and place them on your eyes for as long as you can manage. The chemicals in tea are naturally healing, but the cooling affect is really the star here, so metal spoons work too.
• For another great homemade exfoliator, mix one part kosher salt or sugar with two parts olive oil, or use this great aspirin face rub.
• Lemon juice can be used to strengthen nails and give them a natural shine. Dip a Q-tip in fresh lemon juice and rub it onto your nails for a few minutes. Leave it on for about ten minutes. This can also lighten the white parts of your nail.
• After you're done brushing your teeth, gently brush your lips with the toothbrush. This exfoliates them which makes them smooth, can help with chapping, and makes lipstick stay on longer and brighter.
• Some foods that can be used to make great face masks are honey, yogurt, avocado, and oatmeal.
• Hot Oil treatments are great to add shine and softness to your hair. Take a few tablespoons of olive oil (the length of your hair will determine exactly how much you'll need), heat it in the microwave for a few seconds (it should be warm but not so hot that it burns you) and rub the hot oil through your hair. Cover with a plastic bag and leave on for as long as possible, preferably over night but at least thirty minutes. Then, the trick to washing it out is to rub shampoo into your hair before getting it wet. Oil and water are NOT friends, and so if you saturate the oil with shampoo before wetting your hair you'll have a much better time of it.

Darling readers, what are your favorite home beauty tips?

Also, yet another new layout! I know, I know, I made the last one like a month ago and there are blogs who don't change their layout for months or even years, but... they're just so much fun to make! I went with a sort of "room" theme for this one, with things that reminded me of a Victorian parlor (striped "wallpaper" with pictures in ornate frames and pretty chandeliers). Also, for the background, it was originally pink but I made it blue instead - if you made it and want credit for it anyway let me know! I lost my original source...

Pink? Polka dots? Hearts? You know what that means - I've roped Victoria into another one of my hair-brained schemes for the benefit of my lovely readers. "Hair-brained" is certainly applicable this time, because here's a hair-spiration post featuring this season's hottest style: Braids! From mainstream to mori-girls, everyone has decided that the braid is back. I've always adored braids as a cute, simple way to jazz up any style, especially in summer when you don't want all that humidity melting your hairspray away. Since my hair is so dark, details don't photograph on it well, so I recruited Victoria to help me out (she sat complacently on her cellphone, figuring out how to link it to her e-mail). Here are some of my favorite braided looks for lolita:

The Crown Braid: An old favorite of mine, it's a touch tricky and takes some getting used to, but if you can master it, the affect is understated but very glamorous. Just take a small section of hair from just above the ear, and start braiding as close to the root as possible. If you can, hold the hair over your head while you're braiding, as this will cut out any lumps that may form when you lay it over the crown. Then... lay it over your crown. Here I secured Victoria's braid with a bobby pin that matched her hair under about three fingers worth of hair behind her ear. If you want, you can adorn the end of the braid with a bow or flower corsage, but here I didn't think it would be necessary, especially with how cute it is to have the pink braid over the blonde hair. A pearl headband behind the braid would be very classy as well.

Crown Corsage Braid: Ahh, so you've mastered the crown braid, eh? Well, here's the level-up. Instead of a regular braid that you pull over the top of the head, take a small section and french braid it across, behind your bangs if you have them. Once you get to the end, curl the tips of your hair around a finger, then keep rolling until you have a rose-like corsage. Secure with a few bobby pins. I can't claim credit for this look - I found it off Youtube tutorial. I can't find it now, but if anyone is interested I'm sure I could dig around for it!


Pigtails With Pizazz: And here is my favorite braided style- sick of normal braided pigtails? take a medium-sized section from the crown at the front of your part and braid it - when I do it on myself I can just do a regular braid, but for some reason Victoria's hair wasn't taking it, so I did a french braid itself. I think this looks much more streamlined than my usual style, but I definitely wouldn't have the patience to do that on my own hair! Maybe if I'm styling someone else's, though. Adorn the ends with anything you would use on normal pigtails, or for added cuteness channel mori-girl and stick some small wildflowers or feathers straight into the braid itself.

Before cutting my hair, I did a demonstration of some of my favorite styles. Now that I'm getting used to my new coif, I think I'll talk a bit about working with short hair for my fellow cropped cuties!

First of all, short hair itself is often regarded as more of a style than long, so it requires less effort. That doesn't mean you get to slack off, though! If anything, it means you need to take better care of your hair. Short hair shows greasiness and frizziness much more than long in my experience, so get a few good products or procedures you swear by - for example, I wash my hair with baking soda &vinegar right before I go to bed, then sleep on it, scrunching it to form curls periodically while I'm trying to fall asleep. Keeping your hair clean, shiny, &healthy is important no matter the length, &it is especially so for us shorties because we'll have less going on with the way we style it. Have a few stand-bys for bad hair day protection - longer hair can just be put into a bun or braid, but for us, not so much! Almost all of my friends swear by snoods, but other hats or claw clips if your hair is long enough will work well too. And for prevention, invest in a good dry shampoo, which will clean your hair without being washed out if you're in a rush, or keep some baking soda or baby powder on hand &lightly run it through your hair from roots to tip. It'll dry up the grease &ickiness, but don't do this for more than one day in a row or it'll be noticeable.

When I had long hair, I used it to accessorize itself - tiny braids or loose loops were staples for lazy days because they could hang with my waves or be pinned back for extra cute. Now, however, I find myself relying much more on outside implements like clips, headbands, and hairbows. I got a pack of glittery, bright-colored clips from Hot Topic on super-sale recently that I adore, which I really recommend - keep a few hair clips or bobbypins in your purse in case you find yourself wanting to snazz up a bit in a pinch. It's very important to invest in accessories if you have short hair - cute little star-shaped hair gems, flower bobbypins, and feathered headbands are all some of my favorites for daily wear. For lolita, I wear... well, all of those of course, but also mini-hats, hair bows on elastics or bobby pins, and of course, headbows. The latter presents its own unique challenges - long hair will be able to hold its own with a huge, head-eating bow, but short hair needs to be highly teased or otherwise styled HUEG so it doesn't just look flat &dead in comparison to your big, perky bow. However, a side bow looks very sweet with short hair of almost any type - curly, straight, boy-short, etc - and depending on your type of hair you can vary the size &style. For example, a long, flattish sidebow looks nice when my hair is curly, but when it's straight I prefer a double-sidebow headband. Do your own experimentation, though - head to your local Claire's or Icing store &try on their selection to see what works best for you.

So, what can you do? Here's a brainstorm of some of my favorites:

• Pull the front sides back &secure with a barrette or bobby pins and a bow comb. Bonus points if you braid them!
• Similarly, starting at your part, twist the hair tightly in on itself all the way across your hairline, behind your bangs if you have them. Secure behind your ear with a bobby pin. Cover the pin with a rose corsage.
• Gather all of your hair across the crown by inserting your thumbs behind your ears and pulling back. Secure with a ponytail, then curl the shit out of it. Top with a tiara.
• Too short for full pigtails? Using a similar method as above, gather the hair from your crown into two small ponytails above and slightly behind your ears. Use small bows or hair clips in these so the accessory doesn't overwhelm the style.
• If your hair is at least chin-length, you can probably do french braids if not regular ones. Try two small ones, it's easier on short hair than one because the hair doesn't have to reach as far to join the braid.
• Put your hair in pin curls before bed. Wake up &take them out. Instant pseudo-curl-fro - tease to enhance! Wear a small sidebow with it.
• In the end, if you miss long hair, you can always buy a wig or clip-in extensions - they're easier to wear with short hair sometimes, too!

Starting out: long hair

I've been seeing a handful of hair questi0ns recently floating around the lolita sub-interwebz. Whether it be full posts or passing comments on outfit photos, it seems like out beloved long-haired lolis are hunting for more creative ways to twist their tresses. As I've been putting myself through a bit of a physical transformation myself, I figured I'd use this opportunity to showcase some of my favorites - a last hurrah for my long hair before I savagely chop it off.

Note that these aren't your standards - this is assuming you've worn out the ponytail, pigtails, two braids, etc &are looking for more interesting looks to make their own.

First: the Sidebraid

Very simple! Pull all of your hair to one side of your head, &braid. Adorn with flowers or a multitude of bows. Tada! Note that this will be harder if you have any type of layering in your hair, especially in the front, but I like it with the stray pieces personally!

Second: the crown braid

To do this style, you can either french braid your hair across the crown of your head or, if you're like me, you can employ the cheater method & start with a sidebraid (above), pull it across the crown of your head, &affix with bobby pins, concentrating on the end. I've decorated mine with twist-in stars here, but you could also use flowers (a rose corsage, or even a crown of flowers fixed behind or in front of the braid) or a clip-in bow over the end where the bobby pins are.

Third: Loop braids

Clearly I have a thing for braids. This is the last braided style, promise. This is pretty classic &rather well known, but I decided to include it anyway. For this style, make two low, braided pig tails. Loop up &affix the ends with a hair tie or pins. Tada! I think it would be really pretty with ribbons wrapped loosely around the braids, or flowers stuck into them, but decorating the tops with bows (as seen) or a rose corsage can also be very beautiful.

Fourth: Side bun

The side bun is one of my absolute favorites - buns in general I have a lot of fun with (stop it, I know what you're thinking!) This is a simple chignon, but instead of in the back-center of the head, it's jauntily on the side. It's simple - pull your hair tightly against your scalp into a ponytail where you want the bun, then twist the hair loosely. Twist the twist of hair around the base of the ponytail &use a hair tie to fix it in place. I like this style a lot, as well a side ponytail and the above-mentioned sidebraid because it adds interesting geometry & messes with the symmetry one usually sees in lolita coordinates.

Fifth, sloppy buns

Fifth, another very simple but super-cute look is two sloppy buns. No longer for working out &track suits, the sloppy bun adds a bit of frivolity &childishness to a coordinate when doubled &worn low near the ears - wow, do I sound like a retro infomercial, or what (Ooh, swish!)? To do this, just put your hair into two low ponytails. Pull the hair all the way through the first time, but the second time around, leave half your hair suspended in the elastics. They can then be decorated with bows or flowers or... I don't know, fake fruit? I don't know, I'm running out of ideas. Anything you'd normally put in your pigtails. Could be cute for a country look with plastic strawberries or cherries pinned above them!

Sixth, the faux bob

Sixth and finally, the faux bob. I have absolutely no idea how to do this as Victoria Suzanne did it for me, however she has instructions on her blog here.

The final style I wore on this day was a single long braid down my back, tied with a hair elastic at both the top and the bottom. Well, technically, the last style would have been the bob I had after taking scissors above the top elastic &chopping the entire braid off.

Hair, post-chopping

This photomanip brought to you by: hanakolovely brushes &Candyfuture gradients. Sorry, I got a little carried away. Hope you like it! It's started curling up already, so the ends now do a little 60's style mini-flip. Tres mignonne!