My sister and I were going to an art gallery opening and wanted to dress as Fire and Ice. We each made a fascinator to dress up our hair; hers looked like leaping flames and mine looked like melting ice and crystals. We started with red and blue LED light-up bracelets that an awesome friend sent us, tied fabric and tulle strips to the bracelets, decorated them, and then attached the bracelets to our hair using a pick.

You can also use combs or clips as the base for a fascinator; you probably have something on hand that will work just fine. And since we didn’t glue or permanently attach anything to the bracelets, we can still wear them later for a game of Midnight Frisbee.

The pick can be a pencil or other smooth, pointy stick of some kind. I cut a knitting needle in half and glued a repurposed crystal over the cut end. My sister took some netting (I think it came from an onion bag, lol) and sparkly red faux floral elements, made a little bouquet, and used the fabric-wrapped stems of the bouquet as her pick.

Twist your hair into an updo if you like, and lay the decorated bracelet on your hair. Thread the pointy end of the pick down into the bracelet, then along your scalp, and back up over the opposite edge of the bracelet to hold it in place.

It was kind of hard to explain how to attach the fascinator to your hair using words and pictures, so I made a quick video where I demonstrate with a plain bracelet and a pen.

My sister’s pick was fairly thick, so she had to pull up a loop of hair first, before she threaded the bouquet stems through the bracelet. She also added an extra scrap of red fabric to cover the hair that shows through the middle of the fascinator.

My friend sent a glowing green bracelet too, and I’m already dreaming up a Forest Fairy fascinator. Clearly I am addicted.