Cute protective Valentine's Day hairstyle for kids!

I've been meaning to post this for awhile, I know some of you have been looking for ideas for Valentine's Day hairstyles, so I wanted to share the style The Princess has been rocking this week. This is a protective hairstyle, so there are no beads, barrettes, etc; and all of the ends are protected. I did not take pictures as I went, so I will just try to explain this the best way I can:

I started with clean, well moisturized hair; I believe I used Shea Moisture's Curl and Style Milk as a leave in. This was actually an 'accidental' Valentines Day style, I started off trying to give her a unique protective style by creating the slanted cornrow style all the way down her head; then I got to the back and realized that I could easily make this look like a heart....I mentioned the idea to The Princess and she loved it, so I went for it. 

I created slanted parts, braiding each section all the way down. Then I braided the braids together along the sides of her head: 

There is definitely room for variation here; you can keep the ends free and and add beads, barrettes, snaps, or whatever pretties you like. :) We just trimmed The Princess's ends, and I wanted to protect them, so we kept this style protective.

When I got to the back of her head, I just parted the final two braids on more of a slant, to create the 'heart' look. Then  I created a little mini braided bun to hide those ends as well, securing the bun with an ouchless ponyholder. I imagine that this would look great with a bantu knot, or a pontytail and beads, if you wanted to use pretties to dress it up some. :)

The braids along side of her head were connected in the back, where i kindof twisted them up and hid the ends in the braids underneath, if that makes sense. Not really, right? Well here is another look at it, maybe you can sort of look and see what I am talking about:

And that's it! This style took us about 20 minutes, and it will last all week, I just refresh the bun in the back every other day.

Products used:

Shea Moisture's Curl and Style Milk as a leave in

Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie for hold

This is a hair carnival/blog hop! Some of my favorite hair bloggers and I have joined up to share our Valentine's Day styles with you. Click the links below to see some more awesome styles. :)