One of our facebook fans requested a tutorial for Belle from Beauty and the Beast for a Halloween hairstyle.  This is her hairstyle in her everyday clothes, not the fancy yellow ball gown. This is what I came up with.

Begin with damp hair. You can add some styling product such as gel or mousse at this point.  Comb it all back straight.

Using a hairdryer, blow the bang area hair back while using a comb to train the hair to go where you want it.

Comb back, and then push the comb forward to form a bump.  Add some hairspray.  You can continue to blow it a bit, perhaps on low or with a diffuser if your hairdryer's high setting blows the hair all over the place and out of the comb.

Use a comb or brush to blow out the sides sections over the ears.  Use the same technique as you did with the top.

Part the hair in the middle.  If you do not have cut bangs, you could try to get a poof by adding a bobby pin in this place after lifting and pushing the hair forward.

You can use a round brush with your hairdryer to try and get some more volume out of the sides.

Take the side section and brush it toward your face about.  Hold it out and twist it loosely.

Pull it back against your head...

...and then push it upwards.  Add a bobby pin to hold it down.  This is down in a similar way to the Dorothy hairstyle.  (This is a nice finished style for a regular day.)

Repeat on the other side.  Brush down the hair at the back of the head so it is smooth.  Now roll up loosely the hair that is at the bottom side.

Repeat on the other side, then put them together.

The twist will be laying over some hair from the back of the head.  It may be necessary to add some of this hair into the twists, if you can manage it.  You may need to ask for someone's help to hold one of the twists for you while you work on the other.  Add an elastic around the whole thing.

To get some more poof, gently pull out some of the hair at the edges of the roll.

Add a bow.  You can tie a ribbon to make a bow or add a bow clip.  (Mine are Gimme Clips--these will be coming out to Associated Food Stores, but there isn't a blue one.)

For a more everyday look, after I took these photos, I undid the whole thing, brushed it through (especially to settle down my bangs), and twist the sides in one step instead of two, and without trying to get the extra volume.

Here is a style that I had put in my gallery when my blog was rather new, but never did the step by step directions until now.  It's in my banner, too.
Begin with a part at the back of the ears across the top of the head.  Put the back hair into a ponytail.

Part a strip from the top of the ears across the top, maybe an inch and a half thick or so.  Get the front hair out of the way with a clip.

Do a half dutch braid ending at the side of the head, meaning that you add in all the rest of the from above the ear  before you actually get down to the ear.  Then braid to the end.

Pull the braided tail over the top of the hairband.  Twist the bang section and draw it up over the ponytail, clipping it in place temporarily.  You may have to twist part of the hair and then add a little more to it while you keep twisting to get it to look right.

Twist the other side and bring it up over the pony.

Add another elastic over the whole thing.

You can leave it like this. I think it looks nice this way.  Or turn the back into a messy bun.  You can leave the braid in or take it out.

Here are some old pictures from when I did it a long time ago.  On the smaller side I did a regular braid instead of another twist.

Here is another variation with the same general instructions, you just do a hawser twist instead of the half dutch and simple twist.  This also just has a fancy hairband on a ponytail instead of a messy bun.

See the pictures in my post titled Barbie Gallery numbers 15 Fashion Fairytale, 17 Stacey, and 18 Merliah Summers in Barbie in a Mermaid Tale.  All of these Barbie pictures have incredibly thick ponytails. To get this fullness in a ponytail, I have a little trick: use a thread spool.

Begin gathering the hair into a ponytail.  For number 15, make it a very high ponytail at the top of the head.  Put an empty spool at the bottom of the ponytail and let the hair slide around it to conceal it.

Add a hairband around the ponytail.

I added a couple more hairbands of the same color now to make it look thicker.  You can add a scrunchy or ribbon if you want.  To continue with the Stacey curl, I used a curling iron to curl the tail.  I curled all the same sections in the same direction like so:

...and then brushed them together to form one big spiral.  A wider barreled curling iron would make a wider curl more like the picture of Stacey, if you have one.  This style ought to be sprayed with hairspray to keep it curled up together, and also to help prevent the hair from getting tired and falling to the side of the spool.  Using a no-slip hairband could also help with that. If you want the extra step, you could paint the spool to match the hair to help camouflage it better if it starts to show through during the day.

I've seen a tool called a Perfect Pony from Conair that has a little plastic contraption to do the same job as this spool of thread.  Perhaps it does a better job of staying concealed, but I've never tried it.

We named this one after Belle's favorite flowers at her Oma's house.

Begin with a ponytail.  Pull up a small section of hair from the tail, and put an elastic a couple inches down.

Beneath the elastic, divide the hair into three pieces.  The center piece will stay hanging down, but the two side pieces will be brought up to the sides.  Squeeze them against the hair above the elastic, and then add another elastic a wee bit above the first.  This is a bit tricky to do without making a big puff of the hair above the elastic. Try pulling down gently on the nub of hair at the elastics to adjust it if you have to.

Smooth out the curves of hair on the sides, and bring them together with the center piece of hair, forming the heart shape. Twist them or dampen them with water if you need to to help get the right shape.  You could even braid them or do hawser twists to take it a step farther.  Add another elastic to keep it all in place.

I was inspired to do this style from a darling little girl (another Belle) at my church.  Hers was done on the side with an enormous sunflower.

Gather the hair into a ponytail (middle or side).  The higher on the head the ponytail is, the more difficult it will be to match the end lengths of the hair to braid.  Braid all the hair, one small section at a time, and put a small elastic at the bottom of each.  It may be helpful to do this on wet hair (use a spray bottle if necessary) to keep shorter lengths from poking out of the braids as much.  Fold the braids up and stick the ends into one of loops of the hairband.  Adding another hairband around the whole thing will help keep them from slipping.  I used a no-slip grip hairband.  Just be careful not to mess up the braids when you are wrapping the hairband.

At this point the little ends are sticking out like wild at the top of the ponytail.  Do whatever you can to tame them.  Spray them wet, roll, tuck, wrap, pin... whatever you can do to contain them to a small area.  Now cover up the mess with a bow or flower to hide it.  I used three small flowers because I don't have a big one. (Thanks again Gimme Clips!) A wide piece of ribbon would have done the trick nicely, too.

This is a super easy and fast style.  Just put the hair in a ponytail, split the tail in two, and then braid the two sections.  It is so simple, but adding two braids instead of the one you always see makes it unique.  For the bow on top, I had a piece of ribbon too short to wrap around the hairband (the only orange I had), so I just folded the ends over twice to form two loops and then slid a bobby pin over the center.  I tucked the bobby pin in behind the hairband, and it stayed in place there.

The half dutch braid is similar to the dutch braid, but you only add hair to one side.  This is one of my favorites to play with because the braid covers up the part.  Today I started by parting the hair from ear to ear and pulling the bottom half into a temporary hairband.

Start on one side by getting a small section of hair and dividing it into three pieces.  Begin like a regular upside down braid: one side under middle then other side under middle.  Begin with the side that is away from the part.

Now add hair to the next section ready to go under.  Gather the new hair all the way back to the part, then cross it all under the middle piece.

Bring the next piece under the middle without adding any hair to it.

Continue in this pattern--adding hair only on the side away from the part--until you run out of hair to add in.  Continue braiding, and add an elastic.

The beginning of the braid doesn't cover the part as well.  I am experimenting to find a solution to that, if there is one.  Please leave a comment if you have a trick.

You can leave it like this, or pull it back with all the rest of the hair into a ponytail.  I added a bow and this cute flower from Gimme Clips.

This is a simple technique that gives a complicated look.  Belle wanted an Easter egg, so I started with a zigzag sort of shape, though the finished style looks very little like an Easter egg.  To start, comb out a triangular section at the forehead and braid it out as far as you can.  Add a clear elastic.  Repeat with triangle sections at the side of the head.  Put everything into a ponytail.  Divide the tail into three sections, making sure there is a braid in each.  Braid the tail.  You will need to adjust the small braids with each turn to be sure they are visible.  Add a hairband at the end.  Remove the elastics if they are visible.