The Ultimate Mission Trip Style Guide: Hunger Games Hair

The Ultimate Mission Trip Style Guide is a blog series with tips and tricks from Praying Pelican Missions lady missionaries on how to look good, feel good and take the pressure off of packing your suitcase for a new culture, climate and lifestyle. Our heart is to remove the anxiety and focus from timeless questions like: "What do I wear?" and give you a few tips that we've learned throughout the years. Ultimately, we pray that these posts would be a resource for you as you prepare for your trip. We want to provide you with a few tools that can help you remain focused on what God is teaching you and doing around you during your time abroad, instead of the length of your shorts, the style of your still-wet hair, or how much make-up is appropriate. But of course, throughout it all, we must have fun in the process!


Two words can be used to best describe my hair while on a mission trip: hot mess. If you're anything like me, when I look around I feel like all the other girls look glamorous while I'm walking around with my hair in a pony tail. What's their secret? I have no idea! :)

I have never lost so much hair in my life like I did while serving in Jamaica. All the little girls wanted to platt (braid) my "tall" hair. How could I say no to their cute faces? And so I let them pull and tug and fight over my hair. After my first full week of this I was thoroughly looking forward to recreation day when no one would want to braid my hair, but I was wrong. Every vendor wanted me to pay them to put my hair in platts. Finally, after several weeks of this I gave in to one of the vendors and paid her to put my hair in braids... And it was awesome! And the best part was that the little girls could still play in my hair, I just didn't have to worry about unknotting it afterwards. It was a win-win solution. Plus, I could keep the braids in for weeks without having to do anything to them- it was a dream come true.

The girls love playing in your hair!

But it can be so painful!

I loved not having to do anything to my hair.

Everyone knows that going on a mission trip means early mornings and late nights, and you may not have access to someone who can platt your hair for you before you leave for your next mission trip, so what do you do? You need some simple styles that are easy to manage and don't require blow drying or straightening your hair. Plus, in some remote locations washing your hair may be a luxury if there is a limited water supply. Before this summer I would have had no advice for you, but I had some trendy ladies on trips with me this summer who had some great ways to wear their hair and not look like a ragamuffin like me. One style I learned from the ladies this summer I have named "The Catniss Braid" because it's how Catniss wears her hair in the movie The Hunger Games. This braid is similar to French braiding, but you braid the hair from one ear, down around the hair line at your neck, over towards your other ear, and then down in front of your shoulder in a hanging braid. This style is great because it stays all day without being too tight or heavy. Plus, it's easy to do and keeps your hair off of your neck, which helps keep you cooler.

Start your braid from one ear and wrap around the hairline to the other ear.

Thanks Savanah for letting me use you as a doll!

If you think you are too tomboy to pull this off, know that if I can figure it out, anyone can do it. Happy braiding and may the odds be ever in your favor. :)