Bandana-to-Headband: a semi-tutorial

Thank you for all of the positive comments on my new hairstyle.  You guys encourage me so much!  Here's the Big Bad Hair Story: So.  I was getting tired of the black hair.  I wanted a change.  I wanted to be white blond again.  So I bleached my hair.  Twice, with 30 vol. developer.  Then I dyed my hair with blond dye...once again using 30 vol. developer.  My roots turned white (yay!), but then there was the dark, bright orange demarkation, and it just looked horrible.  On top of the terrible color, my hair also felt like mush.

I put a deep conditioning mask on it and hoped for the best, but when I attempted to style it, the ends just started breaking off in my hands.  When I say "ends", I should probably clarify: a full 4 inches of my hair was completely destroyed, leaving only about 1 inch of healthy (and white) hair.

I scheduled an emergency haircut with my hair-stylist for the next morning, and brought this photo of Emma Watson.  As soon as I got home, I dyed over the orange/white with dark ash blond, and it turned this final shade of pleasant dark-strawberry blond.

This is not the first emergency haircut I've gotten -- I have destroyed my hair before, and I've had a pixie haircut several times in the past, but this is certainly the shortest, and it was not at all planned.  I cried the first night; I love the drama of having hair around my face, and I was completely emotionally unprepared for how bare and boyish I'd feel with such a short cut.  Now that I've had this style for nearly a week, I've adjusted, and I'm feeling a little more myself.  I do plan to grow it back out though.  Not sure what style exactly, but I look forward to having just a little more length again.  At the moment though, I'm enjoying the shorted prep time when I get ready for my day!


Alright, enough about my hair!  On to the "tutorial".  I'm not sure if I should actually be calling this a tutorial, because this is such a simple, obvious little 5 minute project, but yet here I am telling you all about it anyway.

When I want to wear a bandana as a headband, I often find that the multiple layers of folding feel and look bulky on my head.  I've been meaning to make this project for quite a while, so on Monday, about 10 minutes before we walked out the door, I quickly ran into my studio and whipped up this cute little accessory.

First, measure across the diagonal of the square bandana, 4 inches from the corner on each side of the point.  Using a rotary cutter and a large clear quilter's ruler, cut out the center strip as marked.  (Or just use scissors.  Whichever.)



Set aside the side triangles for some other use.

Fold the triangle lengthwise, right sides together, and sew along the long edge.  Turn right side out.  Iron flat with the seam in the center of the underside.




I think it would be kind of fun to wear this as a tie also, although it might be a little short...




Now put on your new accessory and strut your stuff like a rockstar.