Soon after my move to Seattle, I was feeling poor (as in broke) and lonely for house plants and living decor in my house. We had decided to leave our house plants in our house in Arkansas for our renters to enjoy and spare ourselves and our leafy friends the extra hassle of shipping them. I was sad to leave them behind.

Without much money to spend at all, but with a burning will and desire to create living pieces of plant-y art I packed my 2 year old into her car seat and headed towards the Re-store. I can easily get inspired by surrounding myself with other peoples weird discarded junk.

I ended up getting several old light fixture covers. I specifically needed ones with a lip around the edge so that I could wrap wire around them and easily hang them up. I also got 18 gauge wire, and a couple 3 ft long scraps of chain. Then, I headed to the Indoor sun shop for some tillandsia plants.

Tillandsia, also called air plants, are very popular non-parasitic plants that grow without soil and require very little water. This makes them great for low impact house plant-ery and hobby terrarium designers. They look dainty and ornate and other-worldly yet they are very hearty and virtually impossible to kill.

Why am I telling you about air plants? Because they are so freakin cool and because you don’t have to put them in soil, you can do very non traditional things with them like pack a light fixture full of them and hang them from your ceiling and spray them with water now and then or you can glue them to burlap and make a gorgeous wedding crown with them that will live on past your 10th anniversary.

Or you can put them in your hair, which is what I was most excited about.

So, after making my air plant and succulent light fixture planter things, I made some air plant hair clips. I wear them frequently and feel just fantastic with a living and breathing plant on my head, adorning my hair and helping provide me with clean oxygen to breath.

Hair plants

For this project you will need some 18 gauge wire, a big bobby pin
and 3-5 small tillandsia like this small pack of air plants.

Here is how to make these beauties…

1. Start by cutting off a 9 inch piece of wire.

2. Loop one end of the wire around the butt of the bobby pin. Twist it together to secure it.

3. Now poke the wire through the base of one of your pants.

4. Gently wrap the wire once through the teeth of the bobby and around the wavy side of the pin.

5. Now poke the wire through the base of a second plant. Wrap the wire through the teeth and around again to secure the second plant.

6. Repeat with a third plant.

7. Now make sure your plants are situated so that they sit in a line on top of your bobby. Bend the wire and manipulate them gently until they lay just right. Wrap the end of the wire several times around the end of the pin to secure the plants, then snip off the end of the wire.

Now try any of HTHG’s DIY hairstyles and finish it off with your hair plants. May I suggest any of the Infinity hairstyles?

XOXO, HTHG