Schoolmistresses no longer have the monopoly on this sexy style.
Putting your hair in a bun is easy -- once you know how to do it. Take about half an hour to experiment with these looks to determine which bun you like the best.
The bun is a classic and time tested hairstyle. While the bun used to be indicative of a stern, female figure who did not have the time or inclination for frills or other frivolity, it is now a unique and fun way to keep your hair out of your face while giving your look a sense of flair and innovation. Whether you need a tightly wrapped, heavily pinned bun to keep hair firmly in place and out of the way, or whether you prefer to let your bun be a little looser and romantic in style, wearing a bun is the ideal way to practically keep your hair out of your eyes and off your neck while still keeping a little bit of style in your look. Whether you have bobbed hair, shoulder length hair or long hair that extends to your waist or farther, you can enjoy wearing a variety of buns to achieve a wide array of looks.
Before you start styling, you will need to have several things close at hand. You will need a wall mounted mirror and a hand mirror. This will let you look at the back of your head to see whether you like the look of your bun once you are done. Also, make sure that you have plenty of bobby pins, the long, straight pins that you may use to pin hair back out of your eyes. You will also need several ponytail rubber bands. These bands should be thick enough to hold all of your hair – or as much as you want to put in the bun – firmly in place. Generally these will be thick, brightly colored bands that are covered with cloth and have a metal clasp holding them in a loop. The thin, flimsy “ouchless” hair elastics will probably not be hardy enough for this, so make sure you have some real elastic hair bands rather than just small rubber bands. If you want, you can add some additional flair to your look by using the small rubber bands to dress up the hair in your bun before you put it there, but we will address styling your bun later. For now, we will stick to the basics of bun-building. You will also need hairspray and a good, strong hairbrush. Pick on that combs your hair the most smoothly and with the least amount of resistance. Many people find that buns are easier to style when their hair is damp. If you have trouble keeping your dry hair smooth, then consider keeping a spray bottle nearby as well to make your hair a little easier to deal with. Once you have all of your equipment, face the wall mounted mirror and get started.
If you have long hair, it will be relatively easy to form it into a bun. First, pull all of your hair back into a ponytail. The ponytail will end up being the center of the bun, so a high ponytail will result in a high bun and a low ponytail will result in a low bun. Make sure that your ponytail is located where you want your bun to be. Also, make sure that the rest of your hair is relatively smooth, and that you have pulled out any pieces of hair that you would like to remain outside of the bun. These might be bangs or side pieces that you will curl or style later into tendrils to frame your face. If these loose pieces make it hard for you to see to style, clip them out of the way with a bobby pin for the time being. Grasp the end of your ponytail and begin to twist it. The tighter you twist, the tighter your bun will be. As you twist the hair, it will begin to curl around itself, forming the shape of your bun. Once you have twisted all of your hair so that it is firmly coiled, tuck the end of the hair underneath the entire coil and use several bobby pins to hold it in place. You may also place bobby pins around the edge of your bun to hold it to your head. The open ends of the pins should point inward toward the center of the bun, and they should be sticking through hair in your bun and the pulled-up hair on your head. Once your bun is secure, you can spray it with hairspray to flatten down small pieces of hair that are sticking up and to hold it in place. If you do not like using bobby pins, you may decide to stick a pair of hair sticks through the bun to hold it in place. The hair sticks should be more or less perpendicular to each other. Poke one end through one side of the bun, then thread it through so that it is also sticking through the hair beneath the bun. Then, angle it back upward so that it sticks out of the other side of the bun. Do this with both sticks starting on opposite sides of the bun.
If you have shorter hair, you may decide to just put the front part of your hair in a bun. To do this, you will need to pull as much hair as possible into a ponytail. The ponytail needs to be long and thin enough to twist, so do not make a ponytail that is so short that it just sticks out from your head. Once you have the ponytail secured, twist it in the same way that was described above. You will form a small bun on the back of your head. You can secure it with bobby pins or by putting another elastic band around it to hold it in place. If you have short hair, you will definitely need some hairspray unless you want your bun to look spiky because of all the hair sticking out on the sides.
You can do several things to “dress up” your bun. You might put several small braids into your ponytail before you start twisting it into a bun. This will add some texture to the bun. You can also put beads in your ponytail or just brightly colored elastics to add some sparkle and color. If you have extremely long hair, then you might decide to braid your entire ponytail before you twist it into a bun. This makes your bun look almost like a braided crown and can be a very elegant look as well as making your hair far easier to manage while you are styling it.
