As promised, a tutorial on how to make rag ringlets. Thank you sooo much to my fellow LF momma who told me about this! The girls love it.
Start by washing and LIGHTLY conditioning the hair. I'm just going to assume you all do this on a regular basis and do not need step by step pictorial instructions on this part. I'm also going to go way out on a limb and assume that you will be able to cut strips of fabric (old bedsheets work great) about 2 inches wide and about twice as long as the hair you'll be working with (you can trim later). Cut about 15, you may or may not use them all.
After you towel dry the hair, work some mousse or styling gel through it. I prefer Redken (my one non-frugal indulgence) but whatever you have will work. This step is very important especially when working with fine children's hair, without it your curls won't stay very long.
Then you'll need to decide how big or small you want your ringlets. The less hair you wrap in each rag, the tighter and smaller the curl will be.... keep in mind that although teenie tight ringlets are adorable, the more you have to wrap the longer this is all going to take. If you are working on a child, bigger is better because I guarantee you they will start complaining after about 36 seconds of sitting.
You can section the hair off and clip it if it makes you feel better, but I never do. Just try to make sure your sections each contain roughly the same amount of hair so your ringlets are the same size.
Lay your rag over the child's head with the halfway point of the rag at the part of the section of hair closest to the scalp.
Then begin wrapping the hair around the rag, spiraling from top to bottom. You will have some rag left at the end. Try not to twist the hair.
Once the hair is all wrapped around the rag you will be wrapping the other half of the rag down the hair from root to tip, around the hair. Make sure you wrap this part tight so your rags don't fall out in the night.
When you get to the end, tie the 2 ends of the rag in a knot. You might end up tying the last bit of hair in the knot, that's ok. You can now snip off the ends of the rag if you wish.
Repeat around the head and viola! A raggamuffin.
Notice I kept her natural part for a more natural look in the morning
In the morning carefully untie and unwrap each curl being careful not to pull the rag out. Spritz on a tiny bit of hairspray for a finishing hold. Then you can either leave the ringlets like this, Nellie Olson style or gently separate them with your fingers for poofy curls. Never, ever, use a brush or comb to separate the curls or you'll end up with frizz like no other.
Enjoy! If you try this I'd love to see pics! Feel free to share this tutorial on your blogs, message boards by posting a link to this post.
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