It's no secret that Rapunzel is a fascinating fairytale. Whether you read the 'old fashioned' ones or know her through recent movie appearances, the plot and characters change slightly, but one thing remains the same - her long hair!My girls fell in love with the idea of Rapunzel from the start, and some time ago, when I saw a mousy coloured ball of wool in a discount-store's sale-bin I decided to buy a roll and turn it into a hair extension.
As I have to make two of everything in my house, I went for a short-cut version. You could easily improve upon it with the addition of a better (more subtle or more decorative) fixing system for attaching the hair extension to the child's hair.
Here's how to make your own play-time hair extension for kids:
- Buy an affordable ball of wool that matches your children's hair color (mine should have been a darker brown for sure.)
- Pull the wool out and measure it against your child so that it is long, but not too long, and then lie that length on the floor.
- Creating an oval shape, keep looping length on length upon the floor until you have about 10-12 loops onto top of each other in the shape of a big oval-loop.
- Cut the end of the wool off the ball.
- Place something round and heavy such as a small can, inside one end of the loop.
- Cut a short length of wool and with the big loop wrapped around the can, tie it off to make a small circle at one end.
- Remove the can.
- You can now cut through the other end of the big-loop so that you have about 20-24 strands of loose hair.
- Using the little loop, hang it over a door handle (or a lamp as I did), divide the hair into 3 sections and start braiding the hair into a plat.
- Use a normal hair elastic to fix the bottom of the plat closed.
- Take the hair extension off it's resting place and thread a head band through the little-loop or simply use the little-loop to hook over pony-tails.
The girls had a great game playing on the chairs and bunk beds, locking each other in castles, hanging their hair down to rescue teddy-bears, and generally playing in front of the mirror admiring their new 'glamorous' selves.
This easy costume accessory would be fine for any princess or mermaid party, and even a last minute Halloween costume if you made it in black and stuck it under a witches hat!
Have fun and let your long locks shine!
Linda.
