Candy Canes and Poor Mom Bows

Today we're demonstrating a couple ways to make candy canes in hair. The first way is just one big candy cane across the whole head. For those of you who know what you're doing, this is basically just one long puffy braid twisted in the shape of a candy cane. You can do it with a french braid or a french corkscrew or even by twisting the hair. I just added a different accessory to it and voila.

First, take the front right small section of hair and make a small pony like in the picture below. Probably the most important part of this "do" is to start in a place where you have enough room to finish the top curvy part of the candy cane.

Then I just used a strip of fabric about 8" X 1" to tie a decorative knot around the elastic (you'll cut this after you're done with the do so that it'll be a lot shorter). The rattier the fabric the better, in my opinion. We're going for a crafty, country Christmas feeling here.

Then grab another section of hair, closer to the front of the head (making sure that you're working on your candy cane form) and do the same thing--elastic it (along with the hair from pony #1) and tie a knot around it. You can use trash ties or any type of fabric for this. I just picked up some cheapo 5-cents-per-yard fabric and used that for this do (hence the "poor mom bows" reference).


Keep curving around, parting off sections of hair and being sure to use all of the top hair before getting to the back of the head. Don't worry about how long your fabric is. Once you're done knotting, we'll go back and cut the fabric ends off a bit.

The end of the candy cane will slant across the back of the head and end more to the right of center. This will help draw attention to the form on top of the head.

Okay, now...go back and carefully cut little edges of the ribbon off, like so. I left a bit of fabric still hanging, but you might want to cut off more.

To emphasize the shape of the candy cane I went back in with off-white ribbon and sewed loops around the puffy braid. I use a yarn needle, by the way, just to make sure there are no pokes.



Okay, for these candy canes, it's also very simple.

Remember the upside down braiding from our previous dos? That's all you're doing for the beginning of the braid on each side of the head. After parting the hair down the middle, you part off the front section of each side and begin french braiding upwards basically from the cheek toward the middle of the head. Then bend the braid around once you get near the part and start heading back down the back of the head like an every day french braid. Then just sew in your ribbon.


DON'T FORGET the current giveaways going on:

First, Busy Butler's Boutique is having a giveaway that ends tonight.

Second, Babes in Hairland is having continual giveaways this week.

Third, Bows by Christine is having a giveaway this week, too!

Let me know if I've missed any. And have a fun weekend, y'all!