Easy, beautiful holiday hair: The twist

You know what no one told me when I had girls? With all their warnings and knowing looks and opinions on whether girls or boys were harder to raise…no one warned me about doing their hair.
I should have known this anyway. After all, I am a girl. But although I can knit really well and sew a tiny bit and I’ve made LEGO minifig and Minecraft Halloween costumes out of nothing but a box…I can’t do hair. Not mine, not anyone else’s. I make a mean ponytail and that’s about it.
So I’ll be sharing a few simple holiday hairstyles over the next week or so. Little girl hairdos so easy, even I can do them.
This twist doesn’t take long at all, but it looks really good when you’re finished. Good enough that I demanded a do-over of my brother’s wedding, so I could redo the flower girls’ hair. I thought I was being totally reasonable.

When you do this style, don’t skip the curling at the end. Curling little girls’ hair is that one extra step that just makes it look finished and special and festive.
Step 1: Starting with well-brushed hair that’s free of tangles (I know…that might be the most challenging part!), part in the middle. Beginning at one side, near the temple, start to twist hair toward the back of the head, adding in more hair as you go.

Step 2: When you reach the back of the head, where the part is, secure that half of the hair with bobby pins, and repeat the process on the other side.

Step 3: Hold both sides in place with bobby pins. Hairspray to hold, and add more hairspray to the ends of hair before curling.
Step 4: Curl. To make ringlets, hold the curling iron straight up and down and curl sideways. When hair is curled, slide the curling iron straight down and out the bottom, leaving ringlets. You can leave the ringlets untouched, or fluff with your fingers to loosen a little. Add more hairspray to hold.

Step 5: When the hair is arranged the way you like it, add a festive holiday hair clip (these are great because they also hide bobby pins, or small mistakes you may have made) and you’re done!

A few tips on working with squirmy little girls:
-get all your supplies together ahead of time. Make sure the curling iron is already heated. You don’t want to stop halfway through, order her not to move, and go hunting for bobby pins or a hairbrush.
-have something for your daughter to do while you’re doing her hair (that’s my girl, playing “Sorry!” above with Grandma). If she’s distracted, she’s less likely to move around, and less likely to notice if you accidentally tug her hair when you’re brushing it. Let her play games on your phone for a few minutes, or read, or draw.
-practice beforehand. If you have an event where you know you want to try a new hairstyle, don’t wait until 20 minutes before you leave to try it for the first time. Do a run-through the day before. Besides, I’m pretty sure kids sense when we’re racing to leave on-time — mine always know exactly when to throw a fit and refuse to put on their shoes and the last thing I want is to do their hair then, too.