Curlformers are a hair curlers that work in a way that reminds me of slap bracelets.  They can be straightened out (though they don't stay straight on their own), and then roll back up into a twist.  They are a hollow mesh flattened tube.  The trick is to insert a long hook into the tube, push it all the way through the other end, hook a piece of hair, pull the hook so the hair goes inside, then release the end of the Curlformer so it wraps up. After the hair has set for a while, you simply pull the curler off the hair.

(These pictures are from an old post for an updo.)  The curls are soft and pretty.  I have tried putting them on dry hair, and even after sleeping the whole night, they do not hold very long.  It is best to use them in damp hair with some sort of product in it like mousse.  Even then the curls will not last as long as rag curls.  The best thing about Curlformers is that they are the fastest way to curl hair I know of (if you don't count the time you have to leave them in).  They are faster than rollers, rags, or curling irons, and of course it's better for your hair to choose a no heat option.

There are a few cons.  Sometimes they hurt a bit putting them in because the hair can get pulled too tight on the hook and with the rubber ends of the curlers.  Also, if you try to use too big of a section of hair, you can get the hair and hook stuck in the middle of the tube.  Curlformers are very expensive!  When I first heard of them, I was excited to try them out until I discovered how much they cost.  You can buy a whole kit for a somewhere around $60 or so, but I don't remember really how much.  I elected to get a refill pack and a hook to start of.  The refill pack has only 6 curlers.  I think it was about $13 or so...  I waited until I had a really good coupon, and I got them at half price.  Then several months later I bought another six with another good coupon.  I am gradually building up my supply.

Belle does not complain about them while she is sleeping when there are only a few, but I think she may have a hard time with a whole head full of them all night.  I can't sleep with anything in my hair, personally.

Feathers have been in style for at least a year now.  I've seen a lot of extension that are semi-permanent, where you have to use pliers to attach a metal ring to a piece of hair near the scalp.  Personally, I prefer to be able to take whatever is in my hair out every night.

Feather Fashion Clip Extensions sent us these (real) feathers to try out.  I like them because they have a tight grip that doesn't hurt, but are easy to put in and take out, and you can use them over and over.  The teeth open and close like a snap barrette, and there is a little rubber tubing one side to keep it from sliding.

This hairstyle is a simple french braid.  I braided back a bit, inserted the clip behind the braid, and then continued a bit further with the french braid.

For anyone that is crafty and creative, the little ring that holds the feathers on is malleable, so you could open the ring, remove the feathers, and hook on something of your own creation.  I would consider buying the feathers just because the clip is so neat.  

To get these feather clips, you can email abell@lifestyle-prod.com. You can see the other colors they have at their facebook page.  (They are $5 each with $2 shipping for up to 6 clips.)

I have read some comments on other hair blogs about "good" bobby pins and "bad" bobby pins, but there hasn't been much explanation about what makes them good or bad.  This is my attempt to answer the question, though it's just my opinion.  Here I have a picture of the different types of bobby pins I own.  I'll tell about them by number below.

1 is a pin from Sally Beauty supply.  It is a good, sturdy pin with thick metal.  It is strong and holds the hair pretty tightly.
2 is the mini bobby pin also from Sally Beauty.  Mini pins are useful for styles using smaller pieces of hair or for thinner hair where a longer normal size pin would show.
3 is a pin form Scunci.  The metal is a bit thinner than #1.  I would compare it to two types of aluminum foil used for cooking: regular and heavy duty.  One is not necessarily better than the other, but they are useful in different ways.  This pin works just fine for a lot of different styles.  I like the Scunci pins because they have tiny ridges on the inside that give them a little more friction to help them stay in place.  We bought the Scunci ones originally because there was a beautiful swirly pattern on the back of the pins when they were all stacked together on the cardboard.  Of course that doesn't help the function of the pin, be Belle and I liked it anyway.
4 is from Goody.  No offense meant to Goody, as I have lots of products from them that I love (some that have lasted since I was a little girl myself), but this is the pin I think others are considering the "bad" pin.  They are somewhat flimsy and can twist and bend out of shape more easily that the other brands I own.  I have to throw them out occasionally when they lose their shape.
3 and 4 both have a wider mouth that will allow more hair to go inside the pin when you just push them in.  For number 1, you need to open the pin with your fingers to get the hair to go in before you insert it.
5 is the mini bobby from Gimme Clips designed especially for their line of ribbons with a loop on the end.  The pin goes into the loop, and the ribbon is braided in with the hair.
6 is the mini bobby pin from Gimme Clips. It has a good bite and holds pretty well.  It has a slightly higher profile than the Sally Beauty pin, so it can hold a little more hair, but it may stick up higher in the style.  Like I said before about the foil, one is not necessarily better than the other, just a little different.
7 is a glittery bobby pin from Gimme Clips.  It is, of course, designed for show, not to be hidden like the rest, and
8 the mini version of the same.
9 is also from Gimme Clips.  The picture doesn't show it very well, but it is a shiny blue pin, a bit sparkly like nail polish.  They come in regular and mini.  I haven't owned these long enough to form a strong opinion about them, but they are pretty.
10 and 11 are both Gimme Clips.  I love the decorations on them.  I am sad that I lost one of the black flowers.  They were my favorite, but one of them slipped out and landed on the driveway, where I later found it flattened.  I had inserted it with the flower at the bottom to hold some flyaways down at the front of my head.  Perhaps it would have been better to put it in flower side up or insert it into a bun or cross it with another pin.  11 seems to have just a little tighter grip.
12 also from Gimme Clips, is flat and smooth.  It is a little heavy, too.  The decoration is very pretty, but I worry about it falling out if it is just used to hold back bangs or something.  It would be good for an accent to a style.
13 is from Lilla Rose.  This pin is really beautiful.  It is large and heavy, but this pin really chomps down on the hair with a strong grip.  I don't worry about its security.

I welcome your comments.  What are your opinions about the bobby pins that you use?

Gimme Clips makes some awesome headbands with loops on them that you can clip a flower into, so you can mix and match their clips with the headbands.  I came up with this idea for when I want to use some flowers that don't match the colors of the headbands I have.  Just put a couple elastics around an ordinary headband like this:

Then you can clip your hair clips into the elastics.  Belle got some of these headbands for her birthday.  Sorry I don't know the brand or where you can get them.  They are quite flexible until you sit on them, as Belle has discovered by experience.  Anyway, the giant Gerbera daisy is also from Gimme Clips.  (I love the polka dots!)

I am excited to share my new favorite hairstyle to do on myself.  It is elegant enough for a special occasion, yet fast enough for an every day do.  After a little bit of practice, it is really quick to put up.  I am using You-Pins from Lilla Rose.  They are beautiful pins with two prongs about the length of my finger.  They are malleable enough to bend somewhat to shape for a comfortable fit, but quite sturdy, and they hold a surprising amount of hair in place.  Belle and I chose the sparkly stars as our favorite, and this will be a fine hairstyle for the Fourth of July.  (This post is going to have a lot of labels!)

Begin as you would for a low ponytail.  I started here at the corner of my head to keep the roll at the center of the head.

Grab the hair from underneath, and begin to twist it.

Pull the tail upwards and continue to twist.

Twist upwards, tightening the inside of the twist by pulling the inside hair with the other hand.

Pull the ends of the tail over to one side, away from the crevice. Insert a You-Pin at the edge at the top of the roll.  The curve of the pin should be opposite of the curve of your head at this point.

Roll the pin over to the side and push it in against the scalp.

Insert another You-Pin the same way a little bit lower.  With practice, these two pins are enough to keep the whole thing in place.  If you have trouble keeping it all together, you can add a bobby pin or two down through the top, or a spin pin.  Also, if your roll angles to the side like in the above photo (which, by the way, was taken by five year old Sweetheart, and I couldn't see what I was doing without my mirrors), try starting the ponytail on the opposite bottom corner and rolling up as if to the opposite temple rather than straight up.

Adding a bright ribbon makes an ordinary french braid look unique.  This special ribbon is from Gimme Clips from their "Gimme Braids" collection.  It has a loop sewn at the top and comes with a mini bobby pin to attach the end.
To begin, lift a section of hair at the front of the head.  Insert the bobby pin into the loop, and then into the hair at the part line.

Divide the top hair into three sections and begin braiding to cover the bobby pin.

Bring the ribbon out of hiding as you add it to one of the strands while you french braid.  Be careful to adjust the ribbon to lay on top so it will be visible each time you make a new plait.  When you run out of hair, continue braiding to the end.  Add an elastic around the hair and ribbon.

On the Gimme Clips website, they suggest cutting the ribbon the length of the hair.  I just can't do that since the ribbon won't grow the hair, and I don't want to be limited to this single style with the ribbon.  Instead, I tie it in a bow.  Wrap the ribbon around the tail and tuck it into itself.  Pull taut.

Loop the end to the side, pinching with your fingers, and bring the end around to the other side.

Continue tying a bow as you would shoelaces.  There will only be one end hanging rather than two.

 This is my sweet little Belle about two years ago.  This headband is a stretchy fabric loop.  To get it in, you have to pull the whole thing over the head around the neck like a necklace, pull the hair out and over the band at the back, and then scoot it back over the forehead.  For a hard headband, put the ends over the ears as if you were putting on glasses, and then push it back over the forehead.

Honestly, I am not a big fan of headbands right now because they fall out so frequently, and also because the space above Belle's ears is already taken up by her glasses.  I was the headband queen when I was in grade school, and wore headbands all the time, but they are frustrating unless you can find one that really fits your head.  If they curve of the headband is different from your head, it can fall out or give you spot headaches.  I know they have been making new ones lately that are rubbery and stretchy so they should stay in place better and mold to the shape of your head better.  We haven't bought any of those.  Have you?  What's your opinion?

Lots of people are using the headbands like the white one in the middle of this picture on babies with ginormous flowers almost bigger than the baby's head.  (Belle wouldn't let me put anything on her head until she was almost two, though I never tried anything when she was a newborn.)  I used to tie the back side with a rubber band (fold it in half, then tie the ends around) to scrunch it up.  That way it didn't lift up the hair at the back of her neck to make an arch poking through the other hair that's laying over it.

There are several tricks you can do to keep headbands in involving braids, tiny pigtails and pull-throughs, etc. My favorite headband is the kind from Gimme Clips that has the loop on it so you can clip in a flower.  You can also use the loop to slide in a bobby pin to hold it down.

I'm excited to try out my new hairdo-dads from Lilla Rose.  They are flexible infinity sign shapes with a metal pin that goes through.  I've been testing them out on a few different styles lately.  If you head over to their website via the link above, they have some tutorials on some basic styles you can do with this.  Lilla Rose graciously sent us three sizes to try out so I could share my opinion with you.  We have an extra-small, small and medium.  The one in the picture here is an extra-small.  There are different things you can do with the different sizes, and the size you need will depend on the length and thickness of your hair, and also what you want to do with it.  I have been using this extra-small for a front-half pony in my own hair.  It is actually just a little bit too big for Belle's hair in a front half pony because it slips down a little (but doesn't slide down at all in mine).  I taught her how to split the tail in two and tug them away from each other to make it slide back up.

These hair clips remind me of my mother's old "stick barrette" that she used to wear a lot in the 80's.  It was an egg shape piece of thick leather with a hole punched in both ends for the wooden stick to go through.  She did the "tails up" style with it.

At last I have found a solution to the problem of heavy hair wrecking the cascading curls style.  Follow the directions for this post, but then add a flexi-clip above the pull-through for added stability.

I like these hair clips because they are useful for common every day hairstyles.  They are quick and easy and make a simple style look nice.

Here's a simple twist on the hair bow to make it more appropriate for Christmas: use gift bows!

I tried to stick a bobby pin through the staple, but that didn't work, so I put a clear elastic around some of the loopies of the bottom layer (mine had the rectangle sticky pad ripped off, but you could keep it on) and then wrapped the elastic over the piggies.  These are mini gift bows, but you could use a big one on a ponytail or braid.

I've been seeing this one everywhere lately.  You don't have to have super long hair, either.  Tie it off where ever your hair ends, or use an X shape with two bobby pins right by the scalp without leaving at tail braid.

Part out the section of the front you want to braid.  I used a bobby pin to hold the back hair out of the way while I braided.

This hairband from Gimme Clips is a flower stuck onto the band.  I like the decoration.  To add a hairband with a bauble on it, position the pretty in place first, then wrap the rest of the band around beneath, being careful not to catch flower petals or whatever in the loops.

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.

So I'll admit that this is nothing amazing, but it IS unique.  Simple, but also functional.  When Belle leaves her hair down or wears a ponytail and plays wild or goes out in the wind, all the hair whips around and gets tangled up.  Then it takes longer to brush, and she complains that it hurts.  I try to give her a hairdo that doesn't leave a lot of hair loose on windy days, especially.  This one will cut back on tangles.  I think it is self-explanatory, though I will give a tip for adding hairbands that have charms like these:  position the charm in the middle of the ponytail and wrap that section first.  Wrap the rest of the hairband either above or below the part with the charm.  That way you will be sure to get it placed just where you want it.

To begin a bun, brush all the hair and secure into a ponytail.  It doesn't matter what color of hairband you use since it will be all covered up, but if you are worried about it showing, use one that will camouflage with the hair.  Belle has very thick long hair, so I had to divide the hair into two sections.  One section may be enough for you.  Twist the section all the way to the end.

Wrap the twisted section around the hairband.  Try clockwise or counterclockwise to see which way might lay down better.

When you reach the end, the end hairs underneath so you can't see them and secure them in place with bobby pins.  Open the pins so they will catch the hair and then push them in until you can't see the pin anymore.  Try to cross pins to make an X shape when you can, so one pin will hold another in place.  If you push a pin in and you see the end stick out at the other side, gently pull it back out and try again at a different angle.  You can buy bobby pins in different colors to match your hair.  If your daughter has very fine hair and shorter hair, a regular bobby pin might be too long.  I would suggest getting mini bobby pins that are shorter.

Repeat with the other section.  I twisted and wrapped the opposite direction, but you could go the same direction, too.  Use trial and error.

This is a special kind of pin that does a pretty good job of holding bun.  Goody calls theirs "Spin Pins," but this is a generic.  You just push it in and twist it until you can't push it anymore.  You can usually see the end a little, so get one that matches the hair color if you can.

It doesn't hurt to carry around a few extra bobby pins in your pocket in case the bun starts to fall out during the day.  If not, pull out a pin and stick it back into the trouble spot.

This is the simplest of hairstyles made extra cute by adding a big bow.  Before putting it in the hair, you have to prevent frays.  This is what ribbons look like at the end of the day when they haven't been prepared:

To fix it, fold the ribbon in half (not end to end but side to side).  With a sharp pair of scissors, cut off the end at an angle.

Careful not to burn yourself, of course, use a lighter to melt the ends.  Slowly bring the flame closer to the ends until you see it start to melt.  Don't touch the ribbon with the flame, just hold it about a half inch or so away.  Move the flame down the edge to melt the whole way across.  If you keep it there too long or bring it too close, you could burn it or make a bumpy edge.  Just trim it off and try again if you do.

Ribbons tend to slide out and get lost if they aren't secured in place.  Pull the ribbon through the hairband.

Wrap one end under the pony and tie like how you begin to tie your shoe.  One end will turn up, and one end will turn down.  Choose the end that turns up to make the first loop.  Notice that one side of the ribbon is shinier than the other.  Turn your loop so that the shiny side is out. (If you are using gross-grain ribbon--the rougher kind with ridges--it doesn't matter which side turns out.)

Wrap the other end around the first loop and pull the other loop through the hole.  Twist the ribbon around if you need to to make the shiny part stick out.

Pull the knot tight and make sure the loops and ends are even.  Puff out the loops by putting your fingers inside and pushing out the creases.

Belle got some bright new hairbands in her stocking for Christmas.  We tried them out and decided they have their use, but are not for every style.  They are really rubbery, so they do as they say and don't slip.  They can really hold a style all day.  They are good for ponytails and braids, but not for half-ponies and topsy tails.  Belle complains about hurting more with these than the other ones.  They grab every loose hair around and roll them up in the band, so half ponies can be troublesome.  I wouldn't even try using a topsy tailer with these.  Ouch.  The packaging says "gentle to the hair."  I'm not so sure about that, really, but they aren't as bad as an office rubber band would be.

The colors are bright and beautiful, and they have a unique gel kind of look to them.  (They are fun to play with, too.)  Overall I like them.  They seem like they'll last longer than the other kind that lose their stretch over time or come apart at the seam under the weave.  They have yet to be proven for long last, though.

When you get a collection of hairdo accessories, it can start to get pretty cluttered up in your bathroom.  You could just stuff everything in a drawer in your bathroom and pull it out as you need it, but here are a few tips to make things more organized.

Use little plastic boxes or zipper baggies to keep clips and pins organized.  (My boxes came from a dollar store.)  I have used an office desk drawer organizer to separate my accessories.  That worked fine until I started doing hair in another room.

Frequently Asked Question:  How do you get her to hold still while you do all that?

Answer: I do Belle's hair while she eats breakfast, watches TV, or does art projects at the table.  She usually will hold still for a pretty long time when she's doing these things.  Sometimes I have to remind her that it's hard to do her hair when she is looking around all over the room.

Since I am doing hair while she is busy doing other things, I have to make my hair accessories portable.  I put all the things I want to use in a basket and carry it to where she is.  You could use a plastic art caddy to store everything in and just take it with you where ever you go.

Hairbands tend to go all over the place unless you have an organizer.  If you buy a new set of hairbands, they are making these great little contraptions that keep them all together.  It's just a metal ring with two overlapping ends you can slide the bands on and off very easily.  I know Goody makes them but I can't say off the top of my head who else does.

To keep clips and bows organized, I use a long piece of gross-grain ribbon, turn the edge over the doorknob, and put all my clips on it.  A couple of clips will keep the overlapped end together so it doesn't fall off the doorknob.  I've seen these with the loop sown up over a shower curtain hook or something with a big silk flower attached sell for big bucks at boutique stores.  Cute, but not really necessary.

If you have any other tips of your own, please leave a comment and share with the rest of us!