Glowing Rapunzel Hair Tutorial

Glowing Rapunzel Hair

Just like in Tangled!

"I have magic hair that glows when I sing!"

Rapunzel is one of our favorite movies...that's right "our"...I can't help but sit and watch it with my 4 year old!  Up until about a week ago, she planned on being snow white for Halloween, which I thought was great because she was snow white last year so we already had the costume.  Well, when she decided to be Rapunzel, I got kind of excited.  At first I wanted to get the Rapunzel costume and wig from Costume Express when I won their giveaway recently but they had already sold out for the season.  I found this rapunzel braid on Amazon Here for about $30

And then saw this awesome glowing Rapunzel hair party decoration on Etsy Here

And then knew exactly what to do for J's Rapunzel costume.  Make a glowing long Rapunzel braid that glows.  This was rather quick and easy to make and cost less then $5!

What you need

Battery powered short strand of mini lights

(found at hobby lobby for $1.99)

Purple ribbon

yellow yarn 

(more of a buttercream yellow and the thing of yarn is 355 yards, buy 2 packs if this is for a teenager or adult)

3 ponytail elastics

scissors

 Measuring

 Take the end of the yarn and measure around your child's head creating a crown and then let the yarn hang down to the floor, notice where the yarn touches the floor then add a bit more length for good luck, and snip.  This is your guide piece for measuring out all the strands of hair.   (or however long you want it)

 Making Sections of Hair

Lay the guide strand out across the floor nice and strait.  Then, hold then end of the yarn and just unroll it till it gets to the other end, then hold it down on the opposite end and loop it back the other way, working your way back and forth, until you get a nice thick row of hair.  I made each section of hair about the thickness of a quarter when you grab it.  So Once you get a row of thick hair, repeat that process 2 more times till you have 3 rows of thick long yarn (hair).  Remember you are just rolling the yarn back and forth, not cutting out individual strands

 Braiding it

Carefully bring all 3 sections side-by side.  Come down about 3 inches from the top and secure with a hair elastic or rubber band. Slip your purple ribbon in there with the elastic next to one of the sections of hair.  Start braiding the hair all the way down, Incorporating the ribbon as you go.  When you get a couple inches from the bottom, secure with another hair elastic or rubber band. 

OPTIONAL: If you want the lights to be in the hair permanently, then see the step below for where to put the battery pack, and then incorporate the strand of lights into the braid as you do the ribbon, being sure to keep the wires and lightbulbs from showing as best you can.  If you want to be able to take the lights off, continue below, leaving the lights for last.

 Model and Fit

Get your child and wrap the braid around their head like a crown and then secure in place with an elastic, making sure to tuck the loopy ends under the braided part so you don't see it.  Tie a piece of ribbon around the elastics at the top and bottom to hide them and make it pretty :)  I left the end of the braid as is, but you can trim the ends if you like.

 see the loopy ends on the underside of the braid where you connected it with elastic?

Make it GLOW

Lay your Rapunzel braid on the ground upside-down so the you are looking at the loopy ends that are hiding under the braid...Put 3 fingers through the loops and try to line up the loops of frabric as much as you can...mine weren't all perfectly even so I didn't get all of them, but enough to hold the battery pack.  Tuck the battery pack inside those loops.  Now, turn the switch to one and start spacing out your lights and tucking them into the braid to light it up.  Once you have all the lights placed in the corrects areas, you can either use strands of yarn to tie the lights in place which can be snipped for easy removal later or use some small hair claws/clips to secure the lights and wires in place.  

The reason you may want to make the lights removable and not incorporated into the braid is it is a little heavier with the battery pack and your little one may not always want to have that in there when playing, but for halloween and other special dress-up events, the lights just take this long Repunzel hair accessory to the next level of coolness while also making your kid more safe and visible on Halloween night!

This Repunzle braid is super fun without the lights too!

You can add fake flowers to the braid to make it more like the movie, I plan on doing that I just haven't picked up any yet.  I did have one that I stuck at the top of the braid as you can see... 

Let's see the battery lights were $1.99 and the yarn was $3.99 but I had a 40% off coupon so this fun repunzel braid cost less than $5 to make!

I picked up some fabric and plan to make an actual repunzel dress using the cinderella dress tutorial from make it and love it.  But if I don't end up having time at least she'll have this purple dress or maybe borrow a repunzel dress from a friend and make the handmade one for Christmas....HOPEFULLY I can get it done for Halloween though!

UPDATE!

While linking this up to parties I found this awesome RAPUNZLE DRESS TUTORIAL by Me Sew Crazy!  Can't wait to try it!

(and apparently there are already lots of braided yarn tutorials out there, I didn't realize!  Well, hopefully I inspired some new ideas by adding the battery powered lights :P)

I also saw this cute flynn ryder costume by crazy town welcomes you...I was thinking maybe my 18 mo little guy could be either Flynn Ryder or Pascal...