Autumn Hair- The braided headband

Braids have been a big trend this year, with milkmaid and fishtail styles being at the forefront. I really did adore milkmaid braids but with no fringe and a larger forehead, I found them hard to pull off!

As Autumn is well and truly here, I thought I'd continue the braid trend into the winter months, so whilst playing around with my hair one morning, I came up with this! It's kind of similar to the crown braids but simpler and only spans half way round your head. It consists of a plait each side of your head, crossing over and being pinned on the other side. Easy Peasy!

I think it's a really pretty autumnal alternative to foral crowns and would look lovely with a wool hat propped above it. It's also a great style if you're like me and have hair ll one length to add a bit of interest to your hair.

What do you think to this style? Are you rocking anything different for AW14?

No Heat Festival Curls

Hello lovelies. Today I thought I'd try something a bit experimental with my hair and road test this Umberto Giannini Festival Hair Styling kit.

I've been wanting to try it for quite some time so thought cleverly decide it to try it out before heading off to a bbq... Brave or stupid? You decide! Anyway the kit contains:

-Comb

- Mirror (with a rather cute bird on)

-Ribbons

- Hair Accessory 

You may notice the hair accessory from a previous OOTD post (see here).

So to start with my hair was two days old as I thought it'd work better, being less slippery than freshly washed locks. I then wet it down under the shower head and combed through before sectioning my hair off and rolling into the ribbons.

I left my hair to dry for roughly five hours and then removed the ribbons. I then used the comb in the kit to gently brush out the curls slightly as they were rather ringlet-ey afterwards. Below is the finished result!

I'm actually really please at the way they came out and I must admit when I was tying the ribbons I genuinely thought that it wasn't going to work! The kit is easy to use and great for heat free curls with a natural looks to them. My only critique is it claims to be a festival styling kit but I can't imagine any girl having the time or patience at a festival to roll their hair up into ribbons!? Unless practice makes you super quick, I can't see anyone doing it as it's a faff in a tent but for a festival look I'd say it's pretty bang on for textured easy curls.

I also did a tutorial on my YouTube channel which will show you how I put the ribbons in, taking them out and styling of the curls at the end. What do you think to this kit? Have you tried any of the other Umberto Gianni hair styling kits?

My go to easy simple braids | Fishtail braid & Oversized side pancake braid

Hello lovely people!

Todays post is a hair related one for a change. Recently I've been getting bored of doing the same hairstyles- down and curly or up in a top knot. They really aren't doing it for me at present so I've ventured into braid territory...

The fishtail braid

I love this braid, it's so simple and easy to do yet looks really effective and I've been getting lots of compliments on it and questions on how to do it. To be honest it looks more complicated than it really is but once you know how it's really simple! I like taking random sized sections of hair to give it more of a messy look as I'm not one for uniform perfect hair!

The Oversized side plait

I don't know what else to call this really. All I know is it's different and a bit unusual to your average braid which is why I love it. It's perhaps not as wearable as the fishtail braid but it certainly makes a statement and to me it gives off a bohemian vibe. I wore this braid a lot whilst at Secret Garden Party over the summer and added hair rings into it and/or a floral crown (see blog post) which really set off the festival theme. Again this is a really simple braid to do but looks really effective and great for anyone who dares to pull it off!

So there we have it, my two current favourite braids to do. I hope you like them! If you decide to recreate them yourself, tweet me @laydeykatabella or leave a comment to your blog post below :-). Check out the Youtube video below to see how I did them:

Have a great weekend!

Kat

xxx