Time Saving Hairstyles for Girls

When I got pregnant with my first child, I knew it was going to be a girl.  The same thing happened with my second child, except I knew it was a boy.  Isn't it funny how we can feel these things sometimes?  When I got the confirmation from the radiologist that she was indeed a girl, my mind started going wild imagining all the cute clothes I would put her in, fixing her hair, painting her fingernails and toenails, mommy/daughter dates...  I was pretty darn excited!

Fast forward to mid-January 2012 when I went in for a scheduled c-section.  (The little stinker turned breach at 37 weeks.)  They pulled her out and the first thing the doctor said was: "She's beautiful!"  The second thing he said was: "Look at all that hair!"  And it was true.  She was born with a full head of beautiful, soft, dark hair.  For the first few months I just styled her hair in a sweet little baby faux-hawk.

But within about 4 months, her hair had grown long enough that I had to keep it back with headbands or small flower clips (nothing she could swallow, of course).  Let me tell you what, that girl had some awesome bedhead!

11 months

My daughter is now 4.5 years old and getting her hair fixed is just part of the routine.  But being 4.5 years old also means that she is a busy, active girl who loves to run outside, wrestle with her brother on the ground and put blankets on her head as she pretends to be a hatching baby chick.  The hair that she had as a baby has continued to grow and she now has as much hair as I do!  We even use the same hair elastics because nothing else can stand up to her thick hair and active lifestyle.

Look at this cute little sassy pants!

In order to keep her hair tamed, I've come up with a few simple, time-saving tips for keeping your girl's hair out of her face and ready to keep up with her.  To learn more about these great tips, go visit my first official post as a contributor on Time Saving Mom.  Head on over to TSM to read the full post and be sure to leave some comments!  (Feel free to leave comments here or there.)

And if you missed my interview on TSM about how I save time and balance life, you can read that HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

**UPDATE 12/17/16**

Amanda has decided she is no longer going to be running the Time Saving Mom blog so that she can focus her efforts in other areas.  She offered to let me move my content from there to here so that nothing would be lost.  Below is the post that originally appeared on Time Saving Mom on October 24, 2016.

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As a little girl growing up, I was always asking to fix my mom's hair.  Of course, it looked fabulous with all the ponytails and headbands and bows.  *wink*  But I actually got fairly good at it.  My mom went to beauty school at the same time she was in high school so she learned all the necessary skills to do almost anything with hair.  This is why I never went to a salon for anything until I was a senior in high school and wanted my hair done for Prom.  This is also why my mom never when to a salon--she just had me do her hair.  I can't count the number of times I gave my mom a perm or highlighted her hair.  When she wanted a braid, she asked me to do it.

Fast forward to the 20 week ultrasound of my first child five years ago.  It was a GIRL!  I immediately started dreaming of putting her in cute outfits and fixing her hair.  When she was born, she come out with a full head of dark hair.  I had to start pulling it back with clips when she was 5 months old because it grew so fast!  Because she has so much hair, I've had to fix it for a long time, otherwise she'd just end up with a mop.  Talk about bedhead!

My daughter is now 4.5 years old and she has as much hair as I do.  We even use the same elastics because her hair is so thick.  It's crazy!  But because she is still a little girl, she is always running around outside or rolling around on the ground with her brother and her hair can get a little...wild...to say the least.  So I've had to be creative in the way that I keep her hair tamed.

Here are a few tips:

• Shampoo and Conditioner:  Gone are the days of using baby shampoo to wash my daughter's hair.  To keep the tangles to a minimum, we use both shampoo and conditioner on her hair.  The combination shampoo/conditioner doesn't do much for her so we have a bottle of each for her, plus some spray-in conditioner for any remaining tangles.
• Wet Brush:  I learned about these about a year ago and they have changed my life!  And by default, my daughter's life.  I always brush my daughter's hair out withing about 10 minutes of her getting out of the bath because it hasn't started to dry yet.  Using the wet brush get tangles out easier and that means less tear for her and less frustration for me.  You can find them at beauty supply stores or online.
• Fixing Hair While It's Still Wet:  When hair is try, or even half-dry, it starts getting hard to manage.  Think about when your hands are slightly damp and you run them down a dry surface.  They stick or catch, right?  Same goes for hair.  It's easier to manipulate when it's wet.  My daughter has a couple of annoying awesome cowlicks and I don't have to fight with them as much when her hair is wet.
• Use the Right Elastics: I know many little girls who don't have a lot of hair or their hair is super fine.  Other girls are like my daughter with thick hair.  And then of course there's the whole spectrum in between.  For my daughter, I have two different kinds of elastics that I use: plastic and rubber.
• The plastic are thinner and stretch out more easily so they can generally only be used once or twice at most.  I use these for smaller ponytails, but will often double them up.
• The rubber are thicker and can be used more than once.  They also hold the hair more securely.  I use these for larger sections of hair and have never needed to double them up.

The final tip I have which makes our lives easier is that I generally fix her hair at night right after her bath.  My daughter is in preschool this year and the mornings she goes are busy.  I'm sure you can relate if you have school-age kids.  The last thing you want to worry about is doing hair.

Today I'm sharing 7 different hairstyles you can do for your little girl (or big girl) that will stay in even with and active lifestyle.  When it comes to doing little girls hair, it's really just a combination of braids, ponytails and twists.  If you know how to braid, that is just another tool to add to your skill set.  If you don't, you can always learn by having something teach you or watching a YouTube video.  As you get more comfortable, you can try more complicated hairstyles.  (I really like the ones from Cute Girls Hairstyles.)

Ponytails
Ponytails are the most basic way to fix hair.  But that doesn't mean it has to be boring.  By using multiple smaller ponytails, the hair will stay in better because it's held in more than one place.  I've included an example of how I use multiple ponytails to create a fun look that stays in.

Braids
Braids can feel intimidating if you've never done them, but there are so many great YouTube videos that you can watch to learn how to do different kids of braids.  I generally stick to French braids and Inverted/Dutch braids.  In my daughter's case, the Dutch braids stay in better overnight because they are easier to pull tight, but I love using French braids as well.  Below are a few examples of hairstyles I do on my daughter regularly.

Twists
Twists.  Topsy-turvys.  Flips.  Whatever you call these, they are awesome because they help keep the hair in place, plus they add a little visual interest.  These are perfect for most hair types because the elastic stays close to the head and they are easy to tighten up.  To do a twist, you make a ponytail but don't tighten it up to the scalp.  Use a rat tail comb to separate the hair above the elastic/ponytail into two, creating a space.  Then flip the ponytail up and through the hole.  Pull the elastic tight by splitting the ponytail into two and pulling outward.  Below are a couple of my favorite ways to style twists.

Combinations
Most of the hairstyles I do on my daughter are a combination of at least two of the styles above.  For example, today she has a twist and a braid.  You can often make a hairstyle last a couple of days by leaving the hair partially down one day and then pulling it all up the next day.

And there you have it!  I hope you learned some new tips that will save you some time!  Thanks for stopping by and please comment with any questions you have.  I'd also love to hear if you want more posts like this one.