Fishtails, Fishtails Roly Poly Fishtails

Ahh, the elusive fishtail braid.  I see these are getting more and more popular.  I’ve known how to do one since I was a kid, but its never been a go to style for me.  I do love a good side braid though.  So, I saw this on Pinterest:

            

It comes from the blog A Beautiful Mess which is actually one of my favorite blogs.  I have quite a few things from their blog I want to try.

And the best part is all you need is some yarn!

I chose yellow, pink and blue.  The blue did not show up so much because my hair is so dark, but I still like having a darker color thrown in the mix.

   

So the first thing I did was parted my hair all the way around and pinned the top up with a claw clip.   I took small pieces of hair and tied yarn around that piece.  Make sure the yarn is longer than your hair.

          

When I fishtail my hair I always secure it with a pony holder or else its just a mess.  I take it off once I’m all done.

                  

The next step is to just fishtail like normal.  If you don’t know how to do a fishtail you can find tutorials all over the internet and youtube.  A Beautiful Mess also shows you how.

When you get to the end tie it off like normal.

     

Now what I did was just cut all my loose ends of yarn and then chose one of my colors and cut a new piece.  I wrapped that around to cover the hair tie and loose ends.  Then I took of the hair tie at the top of the fishtail.

                    

It wasn’t necessarily a quick hair style, but I really like the effect so I would definitely wear this.

                                           

Beachy Waves Without the Beach

After my failed upon failed attempts at the sock bun curls found on Pinterest (and blogged about here) I saw another easy looking technique. Figured I’d try it. Why not.

So here is the beachy waves pin:

                      

I start with washed and dried hair. I’ve been using the Frederic Fekkai glossing system. So far so good with that. I used it once before and wasn’t a fan but it was just a little sample that I won at Lord and Taylor during a sale. I figured I needed some repeat business in order for it to work so I gave it another shot. It was on sale. Shut up.

                        

So, my clean blown out hair.

                                  

For reference I use a Rusk straightener.

                             

I take my first piece of hair and wind it around my finger.

                           

And clamp it into my straightener. This is not that easy. You have to be careful and I did suffer a couple minor burns. If you have a protective glove wear it. I do not. No biggie though. You don’t have to have ALL the hair in the straightener because its the kinks that are the important part. This style is all about random summer waves so you aren’t going for perfection.

                                

You only need to hold it there briefly. You are then left with a kinky, choppy kind of curl.

                                  

Here’s what my head looked like when the entire one side was done before I fluffed it up.

                                 

So once its all done I sprayed in some Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray.

                                      

Now I just comb it out with my fingers and style as usual.

Final result front:

                         

Final result back:

                         

And about 10 hours later before bed:

                         

All in all its a decent technique but it didn’t take me any shorter than if I curled it all with a curling iron. I liked it more later in the day when it started to fall out a bit.

                                             

Sock Bun Curls: Moment of Truth

So, there’s this thing that has gone pretty much viral on Pinterest. Sock bun curls. I love curls. My hair is naturally curly, but not this kind of curly. I can do this kind of curly with a curling iron, but it takes time. So when I found this I thought “Right on! Finally something that’s quick and easy”. So I had to try it right away. I tried this over and over this past summer. I tried it different ways, wetting my hair different amounts, adding some hairspray to get it to keep better, and even doing two buns, one up high and one a bit lower. My hair was super long at the time so I thought maybe it was just too long and heavy. Since then I’ve gotten my hair cut (quite a few inches taken off) so I figured maybe now I’d have better results. Still no. So I recreated it again last night to just take one final stab at it.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this here’s how it is supposed to look:

                               

Pretty amazing, right? Here’s also the video on You Tube that started the craze. Her’s turns out wonderful. And she’s so cute!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FV-YO46E8Y

So ok here we go. I started with clean, dry hair and a sock rolled into a donut. They also sell gauzy type donuts at any store that carries hair supplies. I’ve seen them at Target, CVS, etc.:

                                 

                                            

Next I put my hair up into a loose ponytail on the top of my head.

                                 

I then wet it a bit so it was just a little damp. Damp enough that it would still dry overnight no problem even being rolled up into a bun. Lastly, I put in the sock and rolled it into a bun just like in the video.

                             

Now the bun is a different story. I will and have worn my hair in just the bun before, just a little further back on my head. Even then when wearing it all day, I get no curls when I take it out. So I go to bed. Its comfortable to sleep in so at least that’s a positive. Then in the morning I take it out and I get this:

                             

                         

So as you can see, glorious curls? Not so much. I think for my hair the problem is when I wet it it brings a bit of frizz out. So when i take it out in the morning there’s that added frizz element to whatever semblance of curls there is.

So this is one technique I think I will be abandoning. It sucks to have to do it with the curling iron, but the result is way better than this.