It was a glorious summer for the Laufenbergs and we ended it with a trip to Christmas Mountain for the weekend. We had one girls night with friends and one night as a family in a two-bedroom cottage. Rounding out our summer bucket list, we went horseback riding, swam and out to dinner for a Wisconsin Friday night fish fry. Now that the sunshine is dissipating the girls are headed back to school and that means new protective styles and braiding tutorials.

Hair Inspiration: Protective Styles from Pinterest

Kid’s want a say in their lives. This is a tough thing for a controlling type-A neurotic mom. I am learning to let them have a voice in their day to day experience. Last week, we talked about their back to school styles and how we created a visionary board for back to school shopping. I had the final say in what we bought but they each got a couple of items off their wish list. By having them cut and paste pictures they put a bit more thought into what they wanted and I had a reference for my online shopping but avoided the in-store whining and begging.

This week they went on our Laufty Life Pinterest and picked hairstyles for us to create for the first day of school. I recorded the process of recreating these styles. I also wanted to give step by step directions of what we did.

Giana’s Choice: Cornrows feeding into Braids

Seeing my oldest girl come into her own is bittersweet but Giana is definitely finding her style. She chose three cornrows on both sides of her head feeding into two big braids. Since we had just come from our midwest vacation, her hair was cleaned after swimming and dried. We worked with her stretched and dried curls to create this style.

How to create a cornrow protective style for mixed girls hair:

• We dry detangled her hair using coconut oil
• Divide the hair into two even sections, right and left clip away one side
• On the half of the head, you choose to work on, further divide the hair at the ear and clip away the back section.
• Layer on some moisture LOC: this time we used
  • Jamaican Black Castor Oil Leave-in Conditioner
  • Keracare Twist and Define Cream
  • More coconut oil
• Create three cornrows in the front section, braiding all the way to the end. Secure tips of cornrows with a rubber band.
• Feed the cornrows and back section of hair into a ponytail.
• Braid the cornrow tips and loose hair into a braid.
• Do I have to tell you to sleep pretty to preserve the style over 3-5 days?

Note we love our Swurly hairbands for loose and big braid styles. For intricate styles like these, we prefer the tighter goodie ouchless bands, however, we buy them cheap with the intention of cutting them out with a seam cutter.

Misha’s style: Topknot bun with a banded ponytail

I have a real hard time with milestones and sending my baby to Kindergarten was not easy. Misha was more ready then Giana and she didn’t even allow me to follow the bus and meet her at the school. Man, they grow up so fast. Misha is a bit of a rock star so I wasn’t surprised by the look she pinned.

How to create the top knot bun with banded ponytail look:

• We usually start with wet hair but we had washed her hair after swimming.
• So this time we dry detangled her hair using coconut oil
• Divide the hair into two even sections, top and bottom clip away the back
• Layer on some moisture LOC: this time we used
  • Jamaican Black Castor Oil Leave-in Conditioner
  • Keracare Twist and Define Cream
  • More coconut oil
• Secure the top half into a ponytail
• Split the hair in the ponytail in two and twist the hair from root to tip.
• Take the two twist and twist them around each other to create a bun.
• Secure with another hair tie.
• Take the back section of hair and brush into a ponytail.
• Smooth out the hair in the back ponytail, use smaller hair ties to band the ponytail every couple inches. This will create a bubble braid look.
• Do I have to tell you to sleep pretty to preserve the style over 3-5 days?

For more style inspiration read on.