Big Crazy hair Tutorial: Nature Mama version

Alright, when a friend invites me to an impromptu-all-craziness-welcomed-yay-gays-function I feel the need to tart it up a bit. So many folks asked me how I did this look that I decided to do a tutorial.

!!Please take note!! the following photos are a little wonky because:

1. Most of these pictures were taken after nearly 4 hours of dancing.

2. They were all taken with a video camera because I dropped my real camera :(

3. The after pictures were also taken without my contacts in so I couldn't see the display very well to double check the images. (hence the hairpin stuck in my bra strap that I didn't notice until all the photos were taken)

Here is the finished look:

Excited yet? Good.

Thinking you'll never be able to have fantastikal big hair like this yourself? Think again! It is dead easy folks.

I worked with what I had on hand because I wanted a totally free costume- but you could come by all these parts for not too much, especially if you're willing to wait and hunt around a bit.

Said parts consisted of:

1. Quite a few artificial flowers and leaves leftover from another big hair endeavor.

2. a few yards of some interesting tasseled trim

3. brown nylon cord/rope

4. a vast supply of false eyelashes

5. various makeup supplies in mostly green tones

I knew I wanted big hair, and I knew I wanted to include my flowers for a Nature/Planty look.

In addition to all the flora I wanted to stick into my hair I also wanted to make some falls for volume. These may not even technically be able to be termed falls, because they are so low-key, but that's what I'm going with. All I did was cut lengths of the brown cord (about 8 inches or so) and then tie a bunch of various lengths of the trim and the cord to those pieces. The trim is fat enough that you just tie it roughly in the middle (different lengths are better) once and it will stay. You want to tie your knots basically in the middle of each piece so you don't end up with weird sprongy bits that are too short- make that trim work for you twice! The cord I felt needed two knots, but that's it folks, no glue, no sewing, nada, easy as pie. Actually, much, much easier than pie. Get creative- you can make falls out of so many things- yarn, ribbons, tulle, tubular crin, leather, felt, foam, paper, lace, scarves, the possibilities are nearly endless. I think it's nearly always good to include at least two different textures/colors in your falls for more visual interest, so think about fun combos! Bonus!: with my method you don't necessarily have to destroy whatever it is, so you may be able to still re-purpose your supplies. I like to keep my falls-but you do what you like.

As you can see from the photos (hopefully) instead of taking the ends of the 8" length and tying them around my ponytails, I decided to tie them together making a loop at the end of the fall for fastening into my hair.

I made two of these roughly identical to each other- you can tie them around ponytails, but they slip around a lot and it can be difficult, I'm liking my new method better.

I have no natural texture to my hair- it is straight as can be and although it is reasonably thick, is pretty fine and blousy. So I used hot rollers and hair spray and a bit of teasing to get texture into it to make it easier to work with. It was all curly and fun when I put this look together, this is what it looked like once I'd taken it all down, but you get the idea.

Also I have three pairs of eyelashes on- some sort of spidery ones on the bottom, then some with long black feathers at the corner on the top, with another longer pair of spidery ones over that. I was very happy with the effect and will definitely be repeating this combo.

Next I made a twist of the front part of my hair (which has long layers) and poofed it into a pretty front and clipped it in place:

Then I made two ponytails behind that clip and two more as close as I could. You can do this with fewer ponytails, but more adds stability and may help keep your scalp from getting quite so sore. My ponytails are a bit sad here after all they've been through, you want yours as close to the top of your head as you can get them. Also, if you don't want any of your natural hair blending in with the falls like I did you could make little buns on top instead of ponytails.

Then I took bobby pins, two big ones for each fall, and pinned the loops that I tied close to the ponytails, you should try to get your bobby pins into the ponytails as sturdily as you can. There's one:

There's two:

I didn't want a ponytail aesthetic so I started to experiment and ended up taking wads from each fall, (including my real hair peeking through) tying them together loosely on top of my head and sticking more bobby pins in for stability. I did about two knots I think, I wanted hangey downs. I also ended up making a wad and just tying a string of leather around it because I needed bigness where I had none. You could also use a ponytail holder if you end up doing this, again, bobby pins are your friend.

After I got it shaped into my desired silhouette I started to cram flowers and leaves in. I also tied a few knots in my longer bits of trim to make them look more like moss. Now most of my flowers happen to be outfitted with hairpins, (which isn't hard to do) but you could make do without that if you just have more bobby pins. Just stick the flower in firmly and then find the stem with your fingers and secure a bobby pin around it. This will work well with most artificial flowers. Arrange your accessories to your liking and then you're done! I had my dear husband hold a mirror up for me so that I could get the back of my head arranged as well.

I also "made" my shoes which I was pretty excited about. I ripped the uppers off some old Franken-goth boots from Hot Topic that never fit right so I could have the giant foam soles and then I discovered that my simple black Croc sandals fit perfectly atop them.

(Heating and A/C technician Husband arrives home....

Excited Me: "Hey, do you have any industrial strength glue in your truck that will work with rubbery surfaces and dry really fast?"

Him: "Yeah, is permanent okay?"

IS IT?!?!? :D

Color me delighted! They worked really well for an impromptu shoe- I danced and bounced and shimmied and did little quicksteps and they held together. I was very impressed.

So, I guess that's it, please, please, please ask questions if I haven't been clear about something- I'm more than delighted to answer them.