Ribbon as a Headband

There are many ways to get a ribbon to stay in place and act as a headband (as it seems intuitive that it really should be able to do on its own; alas, I've never met a ribbon that does).  This is one of the ways that Little Miss and I have experimented with lately.  She wore a version of this to be Alice in Wonderland for Halloween this year (with a light blue ribbon), and it would also work nicely for Snow White (with red).  It's also pretty as an everyday style, and you can use almost any width of ribbon.  Shoot, it's even a cute style without the ribbon in it!  You'll see what I mean...

Begin with a part down the center of your model's head.  From there, do a part from ear to ear, over the top of the head.  Part that off into four sections and tie them off with an elastic each.  The ear-to-ear part below is crooked on the right; I fixed it before I went on, but didn't take a pic of it fixed...

Then do a pull-through with each of the four sections: 

Next, part out a little square behind each of the current four squares, and tie them off, including the hair from the square in front of each: 

Finally, do a pull-through on those last sections (all four): 

You've now created a path for your ribbon.  It's a cute style on its own, though, and you could stop here if you wanted!  But if you'd like to add ribbon, "thread" a ribbon through your Topsy Tail, and go underneath each tied-down pony of hair, as shown below: 

Finish with the two ends of ribbon on top of the head (or off to the side, if you'd prefer a side bow), and tie a bow: 

Ta da! 

Have a great hair day! 

Spunky Ribbon Headband (Ribbon PT Style #5)

Welcome to the fifth (and final) ribbon pull-through post!  I love the cute look this style has... This is a short-hair version of a style I used to do on Little Miss' long hair way back when.  *Sniff!*  I first got the idea from a post by Princess Hairstyles, although now that I look back at that post, I am realizing that the technique I use has evolved to be more different from the post than I remembered!  The short-hair version is a little spunkier and takes into account the fact that short hair won't reach as far as long hair  :)  ...

Make a part from ear to ear, over the top of the head.  Clip the back hair out of the way as necessary.  From the hair in front of the part, part out a square on one side just above her ear.  Secure it with an elastic and do a ribbon pull-through, using about a 2-foot-long 1/4" satin ribbon (or whatever you'd rather): 

Wrap the ribbon around the piece of hair after the pull-through to make an "X."  Part out the next square and combine the ribbon-wrapped piece of hair with it in an elastic. 

Wrap & tie the ribbon around the elastic, and do another ribbon pull-through.  This makes 2 sections.  I did this for 3 sections on the first side, and 2 sections on the other side.  With the hair leftover in between the two halves of the headband, I tied everything all together with an elastic and tied a bow around the elastic with the ribbon.  Make sense?  So 6 equal sections in the headband altogether, but the palm tree was off-center, being in one of the two squares on the very top of her head.  (The other square of the top two was included in that side's part of the headband.)  I hope that makes sense; I didn't get great pics for this part! 

And the finished product...

As I mentioned above, I used to do this style on Little Miss' long hair... The main difference is that instead of pulling the sections up when you pull them through, you pull them down.  Each half is still done by itself, and then the two ends are tied together with a little elastic at the back of her head, underneath her hair.  On top, I closed the gap between the two halves with a wider ribbon of the same color or a similar color.  The longer version gives much more of a headband look... When we went to Disneyland, Little Miss dressed up as Snow White, and this was the Snow White hair I did for her.  It was very cute!  She got lots of compliments from the princesses.  :)  

Thanks for reading! 

Ribbon Braids Over the Top (Ribbon PT Style #4)

Ribbon braids and ribbon pull-throughs working together... This is a fun style, and you can change the ribbon colors as you want to match an outfit or celebrate a holiday. 

To begin, part out 6 sections on top of her head, with 3 smaller and 3 bigger, as in the picture below.  Tie off the smaller 3 with elastics, and the bigger 3 with hair bands that you'll remove (and likely with only one hand, so make them easy to take out!).  Do comb/smooth out the larger sections now, though, since it'll be hard to do later: 

 Here's a close-up of the smaller three: 

Do a ribbon pull-through with each smaller section, pulling the hair & ribbons up through the section, towards the other side of her head.  It should look like this now: 

Now do a ribbon braid with each section, using the hair as one strand and each of the two ribbon halves as the other two strands.  Remove the temporary hair band from the larger section and secure the ribbon braid to that section with an elastic.  Wrap the ends of the ribbon to hide the elastic and tie a bow.  Trim the ends of the ribbons to be even-ish with her hair.  You can then leave as is or do another pull-through with that bottom elastic in each section. 

Here it is without the last sections being pulled-through (she's squinting in the sunlight, below).  I lost my pic of the style with those sections pulled through, but it's cute that way, too!  You get the idea...

2 Pull-Backs with Ribbon Wraps (Ribbon PT Style #3)

This one is very similar to the first ribbon pull-through post, except that the ribbon pull-through gets split between two pull-backs instead of one.  Part the hair as shown below, tying each section off with an elastic:

Do a ribbon pull-through with the front section.  (In the picture below, it looks like I did this off-center, but I think her head was just tilted to the side.  The pull-through was more or less in the center!)  Then divide the hair from the pull-through in half.  Wrap one piece of ribbon around one half, as shown below. 

Keep wrapping, then combine that hair with one pull-back, ribbon and all, in another elastic on top of the first.  Do the same for the other side.  Trim the ribbon ends so they are short enough not to poke out of the pull-backs, but long enough such that you're sure they won't slip out of the elastics.  I probably left about 1/4 to 1/2 an inch on each.  You want them to be hidden.  Now take new ribbons, and attach one to each pull-back, just like you would for a ribbon pull-through (only don't pull them through!).  

 Wrap around the elastics and tie bows.  You're all set! 

Have a great day! 

Crown of Streamers (Ribbon PT Style #2)

I LOVE the way this style turned out!  The pictures don't do it justice... we went for a walk, and the breeze picked up strands of Little Miss' hair, together with the ribbons, and blew them around, and then they landed neatly back where they had been found.  A beautiful style with just enough fun added to get a four-year-old's buy-in.  I think this style would be perfect for a birthday party or for a school spirit day, just changing the colors as needed.

I recommend choosing and cutting your ribbon before you begin this style.  I did 7 sections; you can do more or less as you want.  Keep in mind that if you're alternating colors and you want the two on either side of her face to match, you should use an odd number of sections.  Cut one piece of ribbon for each section, each a couple of inches longer than twice the length of her hair.  Again, I had 7 sections, so 7 pieces of ribbon; 3 were gold, 4 were light pink. 

Start with damp hair, and do a large circle part on top of her head.  (It took me a few times to get this right; I'm not used to circles!)  I banded this off so you could see it better:

Then part out the first section, as shown below.  Think of the circle as a pizza, and each section as a slice.  Bind up the rest of the hair from the circle again until you part off the next section.  Just a reminder... when doing ribbon pull-throughs, tie the elastic a little further from the scalp than you would for a regular pull-through...

Wrap and tie the ribbon, as described in THIS POST, making sure that the knot is on the underside.  Do a pull-through, making sure to include the two ribbon ends as you go through.  It should look like this now: 

Continue parting out sections, going around the head, until you end up back at the front, where you started.  Wrap ribbon and do a ribbon pull-through for each little pony, alternating colors if you wish.  Just a tip... to get the knot on the underside and tie it tightly, I actually clipped the pony out of the way after I wrapped it.  Like so (this is after clipping, and BEFORE tying):

Now go around the head and trim the ends of all of the ribbons so they hang about even with the hair.  If your daughter has layered hair, like Little Miss, I think it looks best to trim them to be even with the top layer of hair.  And here's the finished product...

Have a great day!

The Ribbon Wrap (Ribbon Pull-Through Style #1)

Lately, I've been loving pull-throughs more and more.  They lie flat, they angle the hair in the direction you want it to go, they're easy, and they've got a little more style to them than a simple step pony.  And they look good on the youngest of little ones, tweens, teens, and adult women!  And almost any length of hair!  All right, enough of my love affair with pull-throughs.  :)  That being said, I wanted to find a way to securely attach ribbon to a pull-through... So I did!  I'm sure many people have done this before and have used variations of it; I was just happy that this works, and looks cute, so I wanted to share it.  I basically used the same method that I discussed in Three Little Ribbon Braids, with a slight variation.  And to celebrate, I've created five posts that use the ribbon pull-through method that I discuss below, and I will be posting them for the next five posts (this one included).  I think they have all turned out beautifully, and I'm excited to share... It's hard not to love anything with ribbon! 

How to Do a Ribbon Pull-Through
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Be forewarned:  This is in excruciating detail, which you may not need!  If you already have a method that works for you, do it!  Feel free to skip to the style at the bottom.  But if you'd like specific instructions, read on...

You'll need:  a rat-tail comb or other parting device :) , a Topsy Tail, 1/4" satin ribbon, scissors to cut the ribbon, and a couple of little elastics.  

Start with slightly damp hair.  Part out the section you'll be pulling through and tie it off LOOSELY with an elastic.  This is the main difference with a ribbon pull-through.  Just leave a little more room between the elastic and the head than you would for a regular pull-through. 

Cut a piece of ribbon (for the style in this post, cut it to about 3-4 times the length of hair you will pull back to the palm tree).  Grab a piece of the elastic and thread the ribbon through it to the halfway point of the ribbon (below).  

Wrap the two ends of the ribbon around the elastic, to hide it, in opposite directions:  around the back, then around the front, and finally tying them together in back (the underside).  When you're finished, it should look like this:

A nice clean look.  :)  You could stop there, or... continue with the pull-through.  Do a regular old pull-through now; just negotiate carefully so as not to snag or pull your daughter's hair.  It's bigger with the ribbon on, so requires a bit more finesse. 

Voila!  A ribbon pull-through!  (The ends of the ribbon are still there, loose and free; apparently they were just hidden behind the hair in the last picture above!)  Use this pull-through alone or read on for way #1 to use it in a hairstyle...

The Ribbon Wrap
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Start with a large box part on top of her head.  Part out a small section on the diagonal, as used in the pictures above, and do a ribbon pull-through.  Gather the rest of the hair from the box part into an elastic at the back corner opposite the ribbon pull-through.  Take the two ends of ribbon and wrap them around the piece of hair in opposite directions, making sure that the X's land on the top of the piece of hair.

Finally, secure the piece of hair, together with the ribbon ends, to the pull-back you created with the rest of the hair.

Wrap the ribbon ends around the elastics to hide them, as you did earlier for the pull-through, and tie a pretty bow.  All done!  Simple & sweet. 

The hair underneath was poofing a little, so I ended up adding a bobby pin to make it lie a little flatter...

Have a great day!  And watch for ribbon pull-through style #2...

Ribbon Pony Holder Tutorial

I am in love with ribbon these days... Little Miss & I have been saving up posts to do a series of styles using a very simple ribbon-related technique that we've been doing lately.  It's gonna be good!  :)  But in the meantime, I thought I'd post this tutorial.  I went a little crazy at Hobby Lobby in their ribbon section last weekend, and thought I'd use my new ribbons to make a ponytail holder for Little Miss.  Little Miss' hair is not long enough for a full pony yet, so we use it as more of a pull-back holder.  :)  This pony holder is made up of three of Little Miss' favorite things:  princesses, cupcakes, and PINK!  It is the Little Miss pony holder. 

I have to say one more thing about ribbon...  I confess, I am a ribbon scavenger.  I wait, drooling, for bedecked gifts to be opened, then sneak the ribbon off to my ribbon drawer before it gets lost in the post-unwrapping chaos.  Also, shopping bag handles.  Several stores frequently found in malls use ribbons as the handles for their bags.  I just un-knot them, or cut off the ends if they're unusable.  Instant hair ribbons! 

The original instructions for this pony holder are from two videos on YouTube, and can be found here and here.  I've modified and combined them a little bit.  

You'll need:  

* a bunch of different ribbons, each about twice the length of your wearer's hair when in a ponytail (or any desired length!)

* scissors

* clear nail polish or a lighter

* low-temp glue gun

* damp sponge (for the glue gun)

* a plain hair band

1)  Prep the Ribbons:  Choose whatever ribbons you want... you can be crazy, and not try to match anything; do all solid colors; do a theme; or choose coordinating ribbons of the same general color.  I chose the last one.  I cut all of mine to about 13 inches.  I did a simple angled cut on most, with a "V" cut on a couple.  I then used a lighter on the ends to heat-seal them so they would not fray.  To do this, have the lighter lit, then very quickly run the edges of the ribbon over the flame.  If you've done it right, you may be able to feel a tiny bit of stiffness at the very ends, or nothing at all.  If you leave it on too long, the ribbon will shrivel up and have a burnt look and smell to it.  Just cut this part off and try again.  If you'd rather not use fire, use clear nail polish.  It works just as well, but it takes a while to dry completely and can leave a bit of a watermark, especially on satin ribbon.  Here are my ribbons, cut, sealed, and ready to go: 

 2)  Glue the Ribbons:  Place the widest ribbon like so on your work surface.  It will be your base. 

Using a low-temp hot glue gun, place a glob of hot glue in the middle.  Wipe the glue gun on a damp sponge immediately afterwards to prevent those awful flying glue strands of death. 

 Lay one ribbon across the main ribbon at an angle, pressing for the glue to adhere. 

Continue this for all ribbons, adding glue individually for each ribbon added.  Admittedly, I laid mine out (without glue) a couple of times first, to help me decide how I was going to lay the ribbons. 

When the glue is dry, this is what it will look like picked up: 

3)  Turn it into a Pony Holder:  Cut another piece of ribbon, just a little longer than the others (in the picture, mine is shorter than this), and heat-seal the ends.  Tie a single knot in the middle.  If it's not a reversible ribbon, make sure as you tie it to get the "right" side facing up the whole length of the ribbon. 

Hot-glue this ribbon across the others, with the knot in the middle, like this: 

Flip the whole thing over, and glue a hair band to the back.  Make sure you use this orientation, rather than gluing the hair band horizontally! 

 It should be free-standing, like this, when dry...

Now tie the ends of the horizontal ribbon inside the hair band, pulling the other ribbons as tight as they can comfortably go.  Add a little hot glue underneath where this knot will land before you pull it tight. 

The ends of the piece you just tied simply become part of the mass of ribbons hanging down.  It will look like this when finished... 

And the finished product...

Great job!  :)  Enjoy your weekend!