Hello everyone,

Well I am trying to be ambitious this year and make a few of our hair accesories/headpieces for this upcoming compeition season. I know this is a rather vague question, but does anyone have any advice before I begin? Things that work, things that don't?

Thanks in advance!

you can do amazing things with pipe cleaners, and they are easy to bobby pin! I'd steer clear of headbands for that exact reason, they are a pain to bobby pin and you can't trust they to stay on without it.

What kind of headpieces are you going to be making?

I actually prefer using typical plastic headbands as the base for most of my headpieces. If you're worried about them staying on, glue one of these types of combs — www.tannershaven.com . . . (The ones in this picture are fancy. I'm talking about the ones that are shaped like this, but they're plastic and come in packages of 2 or 3 for like $1.00) — to the inside front of the headband. So that when you go to put the headband on your head, you're sliding the comb into the top of your hair first. It makes the headband more secure. We've never had a headband fall off on stage.

Due to fast and frequent costume changes during our Nutcracker shows, I've always had a problem with dancers securing their headpieces: they don't bother putting it on, or it falls off while performing.

This year I bought giant flowers (some with stones) already on hair clips, and solved this problem. No hairpins needed, works with any hair style, cheap enough to buy extras, and plenty of colors to choose from. Found these, and lots of other ideas including feathers, on HaloHeaven.com

Thanks for all your input everyone!I am also thinking about making some bows to use for competitions as well. I am going to play around with things tomorrow and see what I can come up with!