Hi babes. I was thinking the other day that it has been a while since I just wrote up a post spontaneously and shared it….I’ve been spending so much time focused on the details of production. I miss just sharing life as it happens. So I am going to make more of an effort to keep you in the personal loop as well as the hair loop of HTHG.

My daughters are Marley Mae Apple Ames, 7 years old, and Selah (Say-la) Sparrow Honey Wilder, 3. We named Marley Mae Apple because she was born when the southern Mayapples were in full bloom, and because her grandpa is an apple farmer. Selah was named after a girl I went to school with who was the daughter of ex-pat Isreali hippies and I loved her name. Sparrow because she was born a dark eyed little bird. Honey after her grandmother who affectionately went by Honey, and Wilder because her father, myself, and her sister all have different last names and it seemed only fair to give her a unique one of her very own. And Laura Ingalls Wilder is my idol, and a great universal namesake.

There you have it. I love to name things. It is one of my favorite past times. I was born Jane Eleanor Vander Stoep Hunt, but changed my name to Roxie at the age of 10 because it just felt right.

Marley just graduated from the 1st grade, which blows my mind wide open. She is a lean, lanky smarty-pants with insane ambition and drive, creativity and a braid for finite math.

She loves to party, is very kind and loving, and has a soft spot for all living non-human creatures. She is very much herself, and doesn’t seem to hear the beats of other peoples drums. I am very proud of her. For more on Mars and her hair, check out this post about her first DIY haircut. For more kid hairstyles, check out rag-curls, birthday braids, midnight braids, bug-catcher bun, and super cute kid bangs.

The night before her last day of school, Marley’s sister Selah decided to take the liberty of sneaking out of the bathtub and getting the Chlorophyll from the fridge (If you don’t know, Chlorophyll is plant blood and I add it to my water to oxygenate my blood.) The girls proceeded to wash their hair with it which resulted in dark green bath water and green-tinged hair. You can almost still see it in the photo above. They are wild little beasts a lot of the time.

The last day of 1st grade called for Daisy Braids, naturally. So I gave myself and Marley Dutch braids and decorated them with daisies. Selah got pigtails with daisies pinned in because her wild curls won’t sit still for braiding. More on Selah later, when she can sit still for 10 minutes at a time:)

Daisy Braids

The key to Daisy Braids is to pre-secure your daisies to pins so once your dutch braids are in, all you have to do is stick em in wherever you want ’em!

For these braids I used large daisies and clusters of small ones. I cut the stems off the large daisies and used hair pins to pin carefully through the base behind the flower. For the clusters, I left an inch of stem and used small bobby pins to pin them directly into the braid.

Here is an easy Dutch Braid tutorial for longer hair, and here is one for shorter hair. The technique used in this tutorial is best done on shorter to medium length hair.

I suggest having 2nd day hair or using a grippy braid spray to really get your braids to stick together, and bulk up when you pull them apart to rough em up:)

Daisy braids are the perfect Summer time mother-daughter hairstyle for weddings, solstice parties, music festivals, you name it. Hair fun for the family.

What are your daughters like? I would love to know.

I am my mothers daughter, more and more. My mother is a wonderfully kooky woman. Is yours? Being a mom is pretty rad and also a constant headache and heartache.

Love you guys, thanks for being here.

xo, HTHG