Hair Wraps: An Easy, Fun, Summer Craft for Tween Girls

If you have a tween daughter, you know that hair wraps are, like, sooo popular right now! Girls love to sport these multicolor, fun hair accessories. They can be as creative and unique as the girl wearing them. Many people pay as much as $20 per wrap for a "professional" wrap. I'll show you that they are really easy to make, and don't require a lot of cash! Once you learn these techniques, you can do hair wraps any time, and girls love to wrap each other's hair.

Here are the basic supplies you will need to start:

Embroidery floss in various colors- I usually use two colors per wrap. I buy mine at Walmart for about .25 per skein. You can also use thin glitter hemp or another thin string, but I think embroidery floss works best.

Small rubber elastics-you know those little ones that are about the size of the tip of your pinky finger. You can use regular, or the non-damaging type. These cost about .50 per pack at a drugstore or department store in the hair care section.

Charms- These are optional, but my daughter loves to add them, and they add an extra sparkle. I get mine at Wal-mart in the jewelry craft section, for about $2.00 for a pack of 5 charms.

Here's how to do it:

1. Start by choosing a piece of hair to work with. I usually choose an area in the front of the head, in the top layer of hair, about the width of a small paper clip. You can make your wrap smaller or larger if you want, it is totally up to you. Keep in mind that a larger piece of hair may require extra time and floss to wrap.

2. Separate the section of hair you have chosen into 3 sections, and braid the entire length of the strand in a tight braid. This part is important, as if you don't braid it first, the hair wrap will slip of much easier.

3. Use one of the small rubber elastics to secure the braid at the bottom. You can also pull the rest of the hair back in a pony tail to get it out of your way. This is especially important for girls with really thick hair.

4. Choose the colors of embroidery floss that you would like to use. I usually use two colors. You can use three or more, but it will make the wrap a little thicker.

5. Separate out the embroidery floss so that you have one strand of each color, and cut so that the strands are a little more than twice as long as the braid that your are about to wrap.

6. You should now have 2 strands, two of each color (three strands if you chose 3 colors). They should be twice the length of the hair to be wrapped.

7. Lay both strands out together.

8. Grab the strands at the middle point, and tie all four strands around the base of the braid that you made. *If you want a charm at the top of your wrap, you can add it now, by threading one of the strands through the charm and tying securely with a small knot.

9. Once you have tied them securely at the base, check your strands. You should now have 4 strands hanging from the braid at the same length (six if you chose 3 colors).

10. Now it's time to start wrapping. Gather two strands of one color, and hold them down securely with the braid in one hand. With the other hand, gather the strands of the other color and start wrapping them around the braid and the other strands. (If you used 3 colors, you would hold down 4 strands and wrap with the other two). As you wrap, be sure you are only wrapping the braid, and move any stray strands out of the way as you go.

11. Wrap tightly in a clockwise motion around the wrap. When you have wrapped several times with one color, you can switch to the other color. Simply hold down the strands of the color you were using, and begin wrapping with the other color. This is where you can get creative. You can switch colors frequently, making small bands of each color, or you can make the bands of color larger, or use varying patterns. It's all up to you.

12. When you reach the end of the wrap, add any charms by threading a strand of floss through the loop of the charm. Tie securely with a double knot, and cut any excess thread. **Important! Make sure that you are cutting thread only, not hair!

13. Now your wrap is complete! If you made a nice, tight wrap, it may stay in for several days.