By Isabelle McMinn, Second Year English

Whether you’re getting ready for date night, a girls hang out or simply want to look to look extra loved up for uni this Valentine’s, Isabelle McMinn shows us two simple yet striking hair styles to spread the love.

Ribbon Braids:

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Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

Do you have some left-over ribbon from your Christmas present wrapping? Try plaiting it into a braid to add a new streak of colour to your hair.

Any ribbon works, as long as it is about 5cm longer than your desired plait length and it is less than 1cm wide. This tutorial shows three thin pieces of tinsel string, but you can you use more, or less, pieces to show different amounts of colour; but bear in mind, the more pieces of ribbon/string, the more difficult it is to keep the plait looking neat!

This look takes between 10-15 minutes to complete depending on how confident you are plaiting hair.

Make sure your hair is parted the way you want, then place the ribbon diagonally. Have the person whose hair is being done place a finger on the ends of the ribbon which should be at the top of their forehead. Don’t worry about being able to see the ends of the ribbon, this can be fixed later.

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Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

Begin plaiting. A Dutch braid is better than a French braid as it shows the plait and ribbon more clearly. To do this, just move each outside segment of hair underneath and to the middle, instead of over the top – it is basically a reverse French plait.

Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

When you have done a couple of inches, you can let go of the the beginning ends of the ribbon. Then, gently pull each string one at a time through the plait until you can only just see the end.

Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

4.Continue the plait. This is the most difficult part as it is hard to keept the ribbon visable, so try to keep the string at the top of each segment of hair the entire time.

Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

5.Next, continue the plait without bringing in more hair. You can continue the dutch braid for all of the hair for a neater look. For a softer look, leave out the baby hairs and some hair above the ear to frame the face.

6.When you have finished the braid, tie it with a band. If you want more of the ribbon showing , then you can take a pair of tweazers and gently bring some of the ribbon to the front, but do this carefully as it is easy to pull out the ribbon too much and ruin the look.

7.Do the same on the other side of your parting, cut the excess ribbon and you’re done!

Heart braid

This cute hair style is much easier to do than it looks. It can be done on lots of different lengths and textures of hair. If you’re confident enough at small Dutch-braiding and can keep them neat enough to show the pattern, then it only takes 8-10 minutes.

Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

Choose where you want the heart and create a T-parting. Make sure that the bottom of the part is where you want the centre of the design to be.

Image: Isabelle McMinn / Epigram

Begin on one side of the parting and start plaiting with a very small amount of hair as close to the parting as you can.
Follow the curved heart shape as shown, turning a full 180 degrees. The turn is done by taking smaller amounts of hair from the inside curve than the outside. Still try to keep the plait flat onto the side of the head. If this fails, then you can take a hair pin and hide it within the plait so it is invisible, but still holding the design in place.
Continue Dutch-braiding until you are in line with where you began, then plait normally for a couple more inches and secure with a hair tie.
Once you have done the same on the other side of the T-parting, join the two ends with a small hair elastic and you are done! To add some extra detail, use a coloured band or some ribbon wrapped around the end.
There you have two cute and easy plait styles! If you were them out this Valentine’s, take a snap and send it into Epigram Style, we’d love to see the results – happy styling!

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