Rope Ponies

This is one of my favorites! It works in all kinds of hair. My daughter has relatively short hair and it is quite thin, but this style keeps her hair away from her face. She has even slept on this hairstyle and it looked great when she woke up in the morning so I didn't feel pressured to get her hair done right away!

Part the hair down the middle starting at the forehead and going all the way to the nape of the neck. Clip one side out of the way. With the other side, beginning at the forehead, pull back the front section of hair and secure with an elastic. Pull that ponytail into the next section of hair and secure with a 2nd ponytail. Continue this until you have used all the hair on that side. Yours may take more or less elastics than mine did. Thicker hair should be done in thinner sections. Repeat this procedure for the other half of the hair. This is a fun style to add pins, clips, or ribbons to if you like.

Cross-Up

Square off a large section of hair on top of the head. Separate into 4 square sections and secure each with an elastic. Pull all 4 ponytails into the middle and secure with a 5th elastic.

Braided Pony

This one is simple, but elegant. Create 3 small braids at the front of the hair by squaring off 3 small sections. Braid each section and secure with an elastic about an inch from the end. Pull them forward and out of the way. Comb the hair back into a ponytail (you choose how much hair to pull in, I did about half of her hair). Pull the 3 braids back and lay them on top of the ponytail, then secure the ponytail and braids with one elastic. You can leave it like that, or to create a more finished look if the braids are longer than the ponytail, remove the braid elastics and undo the braid up to the ponytail.

a Curly-Y

Pull 2 sections of hair at the front of the head into ponytails. Add both of those ponytails and more hair (or all the rest of the hair depending on what look you want) to a 3rd elastic. You can either pull it all the way through like a regular ponytail, as in the 2nd photo, or you can make it into a curly-q as in the 1st photo.

the Crown

To create this, I used 8 tiny elastics. Starting in the middle, at the forehead, I pulled back tiny sections of hair (about 1" square). I started in the middle to make sure they were centered, then did one on each side until I had all 8 elastics in. You can leave the hair like that, or you can pull the rest of the hair into one ponytail for a nice effect.

Triple Flip-Unders

This is a much cuter hairstyle than it looks from these photos. It was a wiggly day! Square off a section of hair on top of the head. Separate into 3 thin strips (the thinner, the better...I should have gone thinner here). Secure each strip on the same side of the head with 3 elastics. Look back at my flip-under instructions to complete each of the 3 ponytails.

Braid-Ups

To create this look, pull as much hair as you want into a ponytail (I used a squared off section at the top of her head) and secure with an elastic. Separate the ponytail into 3 sections. Braid each section and secure with an elastic about 1-1.5" from the end. Fold braids so that the 3 end elastics meet with the first elastic you put in the hair. Use another elastic to secure the folded braids to the ponytail. Fan out the loose ends.

the Ladder

Tiny elastics are so great for doing fun hairstyles. If you don't have any, you might consider stocking up on them. They are inexpensive and disposable. If I can't get them out of my girls' hair, I just cut them out instead to save time and effort.

Today I wanted to use several elastics without doing the same old thing, so I went for a ladder effect. Just square off a section of hair first. Then separate it into thins strips starting at the forehead. Comb the hair to one side and secure with an elastic. Comb the second strip to the opposite side and secure with an elastic. Comb a 3rd strip to the same side as the first one, add the first ponytail, and secure with elastic. Comb the 4th (last) strip to the same side as the 2nd one, add the 2nd ponytail, and secure with an elastic. You could do more depending on what you like.

Curly Q's

These little curly q's can be done several different ways...and you can use as many as you want for one hairstyle. This particular day I chose to put 3 in my younger daughter's hair and 2 in the older one's hair. I put just one in sometimes as well. There are a couple of ways to do these. You can put the hair in a ponytail using an elastic...you choose the size and number of ponytails. Then use a second elastic and pull the ponytail halfway through, tighten, and fan out the loose ends. Or if you want to use just one elastic, I wait until the last loop to pull the ponytail halfway through, tighten, then fan out the loose ends. The nice thing is, you can't go wrong with this...the loose ends can go up, down or sideways, and it still looks adorable!