Bow Dilemma
 

I love putting little hair bows/barrettes in my little girl's hair. She looks so adorable wearing them. However, I am constantly having to straighten and re-do them. How do you all keep these little things in your babies' hair? Also, if you use the band type, do you use some sort of tool to get the band twisted enough to stay in? So confused! If you can't tell Sophie is my first girl yorkie. Love her so much!!!:littleang

I've figured out that with the bow clips, using a band first helps keep it up and in. I'm pretty new to doing my babys hair so I'm interested what others have to say as well haha :p

I've always had good luck with using bows that have the alligator clips with gripzees attached. If you order your bows, you can request the alligator clips with gripzee. Betty Boop rubs her head on everything so it's hard for me to keep a bow in her hair. The alligator clips with gripzee has made all the difference in the world. I do use a band and then put the bow in her hair.

The Bow Biz website has some photos and a short video showing some good methods of placing dog bows.

How To Put In Dog Bows : Dog Bows, Quality Dog Bows - Yorkie, Maltese, Shih Tzu - by BowBiz

I like to use the little latex free bands to put the topknot in with. You just snip them out when you are ready to replace them. you can get 500 of them for about $6.00. The latex free do less damage to the hair.
Amazon.com: Latex Free Dog Grooming Bands by...
Once your band or bands are in place you can more easily place the bow. But if you are using a clip on always make sure you are always near by while your baby is wearing the bow. Your dog could still manage to get it out and the bow can be a choking hazard.

No matter what type of attachment you like on your bow, you should make the topknot with a band first. Some people can use the cheap bands from the $1 with no issue or breakage, and others can't. I actually buy the more expensive (still so cheap) latex bands for mine.

Depending on the size of your pup's head and how thick her hair is, you may need to start with lighter weight or smaller bows (single loop, 3/8" or 5/8") until her topknot can support the weight of a bigger or heavier bow. :)

For clips, you just clip the bow underneath/in front of the banded topknot, and it should have a hard time moving. If her topknot is thinner (one of my pup's hair has thinned out a lot while she was dealing with some health issues), I've found using an extra band on the topknot itself kind of makes it stronger/strudier and better able to support the bows.

For the banded bows, you again start with the topknot in a bow. It took me forever to figure out how to do this (I practiced on my finger - no really, I did!), but basically, put the bow on the way you want it face and sit, then simply twist the rubber band attached to the bow behind it once and loop it again once (maybe twice), so you are looking at 2 to 3 wraps total, again depending on how thick the topknot is.

There is another way to kind of lock the bows in place, but it requires a lot more effort, and I don't think I'm as good at it, because I often don't like how the bow kind of lays down on my girls' heads when I do it this way. You basically make a smaller topknot with the front section of the hair, then place the bow on that topknot, then you take the other half of the hair on the back of the head and join it to the front topknot that already has the bow and as you tighten the back topknot, the band should slide down and hide behind the bow. Whew! Let me see if I can find the tutorial from way back when for this one, because my explanation was horrible.

I've tried gripzees, and I'm personally not a fan, but I know several people like them. :)

Thanks ladies. I'm going to the little dog boutique down the street tomorrow to get some bands and of course some new bows too. :)

Here are some links of various methods to check out:

This is the last method I was describing, though not the tutorial I remember: Top Knot Guide

Topknots shared by Linda Grimm and Maria Lelinho starring Rocky! Many Thanks!

You can also try searching for "topknot tutorial" on YT itself.

Top Dogs? :D

Yes, Top Dogs. How did you know that? Have you been in my area before? I love their store!

I like the top knot guide. The pictures helped a lot! I love the little Pebbles Flintstone look with the little wispy pigtail sticking up.

We live in Atlanta, but we have been to both of their stores for different events. One of the members of our meetup group is the guy who plays Santa and the Easter Bunny when they host pictures at the store. :)

I would pull up more hair than they did on that stuffed animal, but same idea! When it's really thin, I think it will be harder for the bows to support it.

Ok, I was kind of like, wow she lives in Philadelphia and knows of dog boutiques in Atlanta. She really is a dog lover. LOL

Haha! It's possible I'm that insane when it comes to dog boutiques anyways, but we moved back to Atlanta last year. I should update my location I suppose!

My sweet Crimson has more like a twig then a topknot. I use the rubberbands for human teeth and bows from Claires. I have a few tiny ones a friend made that I attach another band onto the twig and just wrap it around.