Just look at this beauty.

This is Nicole, my friend + asset for the blog (you can read more about her here)! She’s expecting her third baby in June, which will mean she’ll have a 3 year old, a 1 year old and then this little baby.
Girlfriend is going to be a little bit busy, but I have a strong feeling she’ll thrive.
Anyway, we were talking about hair + motherhood, and how the ponytail is just the easiest thing when you are playing with your kids. I’m the same way, I want my hair out of my face too!
But I wanted to give her another option of wearing her hair down without it being in her face. AND I wanted to share a few tips for braids in dark and straight hair.
The first step in braiding your hair is texture spray. Don’t you dare skip this. It will help so dramatically that you’ll wonder how you ever braided before it.
Start with small pieces, close to your part. If a video tutorial would be helpful for you, you can watch me create this same look here.

I always like to keep the braids a little bit off the face versus pulling them forward so they “live” right against your skin. I think it looks a little strange that way. So, continue braiding until you hit the temple area, then just finish the braid without adding more hair in.
Use a clip or clear elastic to hold the braid, and eyeball where you think you’ll be inserting the bobby pins. Once you figure that out, tease the hair in that section. This will help the bo...