Bubble braids! Good thing we have you covered ’cause we have like aid videos but today we’re gonna do a compilation of three of my very favorites.
Let’s go check out some bubble braids.
The first bubble braid hairstyle I’m gonna show you guys is Camry’s prom hairstyle which we called the Boho Bubble Braid.
And this one’s really cute ’cause it just starts up here. I’m seeing tons of people wearing it right now. And it kinda just bubbles down and you still have your hair down underneath.
Let’s check it out. Camry loved this hairstyle on herself. And I loved it because I felt like the boho nature to the hair totally matched your personality, but also the dress.
So what I’ve done to start is I curled her hair. I’ve just used a curling wand and I’ve just added curls all the way through. You can see the curls.
Her hair is parted just down the middle which is where she wanted it for this particular style.
Now at the top I’m just gonna kind of take my fingers and sort of grab two little sections. And what you’re looking for is just little sections.
You don’t want too much hair. And I have to kinda look at it from the front too. And we’re gonna just make a little bubble right here using an elastic.
So my section is a couple inches long, sort of a rectangular shape on her head. And I’m gonna pull it back, but gently, ’cause we don’t want the curls to completely lose their shape when we put the elastic in.
Now I’m gonna tighten the elastic down then I’m gonna pull the front of her hair forward again like this. So I’m adding fullness and texture to the front. I have to kind of pop around to the front and look too.
That’s good, ’cause we don’t want it to look like all slicked back or it looks little girl-ish. We want it to look older and more mature. So we definitely want that shape and that height.
Now I’m just gonna kind of mimic that on the opposite side. So you can see I’m just sort of roughly doing it with my fingers.
Not really necessary to be an exact part line. Take it back. Secure it. Tighten the elastic down and then pull and fluff on the front.
And again, sometimes when you’re pulling and fluffing like this one went weird so I’m gonna redo this one. And that’s just the way it goes sometimes.
Okay. When you get ’em the way you like ’em, you kind of have ’em roughly put in place, now is the easy part. So you’re gonna take the ponytail. And you’re gonna back comb through it. And this is really rough.
You can see I’m just literally kind of making what looks like a mess but it’s gonna be fine. And then you take this and just finger comb.
We don’t want any little sharks. Just finger comb those pieces down. But what that did was create a bunch of texture in her hair. Go down a couple inches from the first elastic and secure it with a second elastic.
And then what you do is just pull. Now we’re creating just a bubble here, a like fluffy bubble shape in that elastic.
When you get that the way you like it, do the same thing all the way down. So just go down a little bit. Secure with another elastic.
And I used elastics that would match her hair. So that they would kind of hide. I think that this look is really cute because it can be dressed up to look formal or it can be dressed down to be just like really fun and soft. I totally think you could see people wearing this to Coachella. As well as somewhere like prom.
It’s definitely a fun hairstyle. And nice to be able to dress it up, or dress down.
Well it does have the curls in it so it might look a little dressier today. But I think you could even do it with like not as fancy a curl, and it would look totally fine, too. So you can add another one here.
I’m gonna opt to just stop after three little bubbles. And see. And we have this side complete. Now we’re just gonna repeat on the other side. And then we’ll come back to that one.
When you get to this point in the hair, I wanted the ponytails to sit kind of back, just against her head, I didn’t want ’em flopping forward. So I just took a bobby pin and secured them into place. And that just kind of helped hold them. Like this.
And then I took these cute little silver rings. You can buy ’em at any hair supply store. Typically you see ’em in like natural hair, like Paisley’s type hair that’s really cute and they’re on like their cornrows or that type of stuff.
But since I had some around the house, and we thought her hairstyle was so boho looking, popping these little things in worked, just turned out, I think it just gave it a little oomph to her hairstyle, added a little accessory to her prom dress. And her prom look.
So we just secured these over the tops of all of the elastics. And these little silver things are just super malleable. They’re really easy to just open up and then stick on the top. And you can see that just added a little more pop to her hair which made it fun.
Now I know everybody’s prom styles are different in high school for sure, so for Camry’s their dresses are typically long but they’re not always totally, completely formal. Which I kind of actually really love.
‘Cause then you can put like your own style on it. If it’s super formal, it’s kinda hard to like make it original, I feel like.
And I think it just lets you guys have a little more personality in your dresses. Okay. And when you have those all secure, then you’re ready to go. And then it’s just a process of smoothing out the curls a little bit, separating ’em, adding your finishing hairspray, and that type of thing to just finalize and set the hairstyle. And you’re ready to go.
Okay you guys, let’s do the final spin. You can see the lovely boho bubbles as we turn her around. I think it’s so cute.
The next bubble braid is the Bubble Hawk. This is one of my personal favorites. You guys know you’ve seen me wear this before. You can do the bubbles all the way down the middle of your head like a mohawk.
Or you can do two sections and do two of them, down each side.
So for this hairstyle you can see that I’ve started with a pompadour in the front or a little pouf, that I’ve just bobby-pinned into place.
Now I’m going to take from about eyebrow to eyebrow, like the tips of your eyebrows, up. I’m gonna just scoop up some hair and scoop it back. And it’s almost gonna sit right on top of those bobby pins.
You can see I’m just using my fingers to kind of finger comb so that I make sure there’s no crazy bumps. But I don’t want it too tight against my head, ’cause I want it to look a little softer. I’m using an elastic then to secure that ponytail. Like this.
Then I’m gonna go down about an inch and scoop up another section of hair. And comb it with my fingers. You can see it if I turn. Make sure again that there’s no crazy bumps. And then secure with an elastic. And we’re going to repeat that process all the way down to the nape of our neck.
Now when I get to this point, what I like to do is go back and you find that first little section in between the two elastics. And you’re just gonna tug that kinda pancake style. You’re just gonna kinda pull and tug and it’s just gonna puff your hair. Until you like it. Go to the next section, and repeat.
Now, at this point, because it’s a little trickier to keep doing this behind your head, I kind of flip my hair to the side like this. Grab my next elastic. Go down a couple inches and secure it. And continue to repeat this process down the ponytail.
Now before I add one more here, I’m gonna go up and just puff these so I make sure I still have enough hair. So you can see I have enough space for one more.
And you can see, I have layers in my hair, so naturally, some of my hair’s gonna pop out. And that’s okay, ’cause it kinda goes with the look of this hairstyle. Which is just sort of messy and kind of fun. And then I just flip it back around, kinda give it a tug to the other direction so it lays straight, and you’re good to go.
Okay guys, here’s the final spin for the Bubble Hawk. It looks good! So the last bubble braid I’m gonna show you guys is called the Stacked Bubble Braid. That’s because it has a braid that goes over the top of each bubble. It’s not as hard as it looks, so don’t be discouraged. But it is a fun one to try.
So to begin this hairstyle, I’ve just put an accent braid in the front of Camry’s hair. This is just gonna make it look a little more grown up and is totally optional. We’ve swooped all of her hair up into a really high ponytail. And she has pretty thick and long hair, so just to secure it and to make sure that the ponytail goes really up and has lift, I’m gonna add a second elastic on top of that first one. That’s a little ponytail trick.
For those of you that have long, thick hair, too. Now you can see this is just remnants of that braid I put in her hair. But I’m gonna go ahead and finish off this braid since it’s kind of the perfect thickness for where I’m heading.
Now we have everything ready to do our bubble ponytail and the accent braid. So we’re going to brush out her hair, just make sure it’s pretty smooth and sleek. If you have curly hair, you can straighten it. That’s what Cam has done.
Then I’m gonna lay the braid right down the middle. And I’m gonna go up to the top and go down a couple inches and then put an elastic around it. And we want that accent braid to be running right down the middle.
Now I’m gonna go and just pull the sides of her hair, just like you were pulling a bubble ponytail, like that. Here you have an option. You can take a piece of hair and wrap around your elastics like this. And then, you know, bobby pin ’em, if you want to.
Or you can just leave the elastics in there. Whatever your preference is. I don’t personally love the bobby pins ’cause I think they kind of fall out throughout the day. So I’m probably just gonna use matching elastics and let it go.
And just right here I’m just making sure that the braid is staying on the top part of the hair. I don’t want the hair falling in front of the braid.
And right here at the end, I’m gonna remove the elastic I had in the original braid. And I’m just going to put a double elastic in the bottom, just for added security. All right, let’s do the final spin. So pretty. Guaranteed to get comments on that one.
Side swept bangs for short hair
Samantha is a hairstylist with over 12 years of color and stylist experience. She enjoys using her knowledge to create what her clients really want when they sit down in her chair. Her passion is creating unique looks that her clients feel great in.