A Twist with a Spray of Curls
Styling Technique for this Simple Up-Style
A simple up-style that can be achieved in under half an hour, and that is great for those of you out there with thick hair. You know what we mean. You rarely wear your hair up because your hair is so coarse and thick that even when you use a whole package of hairpins, your hairstyle is falling down halfway through the evening.
This style works with heavy hair because it uses structural reinforcement in the form of a ponytail hidden within the style. This provides extra stability and a sturdy base upon which to build a simple style.
• Large bobby pins
• Snag-safe elastic band for a ponytail
Creating the Style:
As always with updos, we begin with unwashed hair that has been brushed until it is smooth and tangle-free. Remember that freshly washed and conditioned hair is typically too smooth and silky to hold properly in an up-style, so if the hair you are styling is too clean, you may need to "dirty it up". This can be done by misting the hair with water until damp, applying styling gel to the hair, and blow-drying it.
Then, part the hair into thin sections and spray them lightly with hairspray. Allow the spray to dry and brush the hair until smooth and untangled. This should leave the hair sufficiently "dirty" for almost any up-style.
Once the hair is ready for styling, separate out a large circle at the crown area of the head and make sure to leave at least two to three inches between the hairline and the perimeter of the circle. Collect the hair within the circle into a ponytail and bind it with the snag-safe elastic band. Be sure to re-brush the loose hair to make sure it stays smooth.
To create the twist, pull the elastic band out from the head until there is about 5-6 inches between the band and the scalp, and the ponytail hangs loosely. Then, holding the ponytail taut - straight out from the head - gather the remaining hair up around the ponytail. Use your brush to keep the hair smooth as you collect it from around the hairline. Be sure to gather up all the hair except for two thin tendrils in front of the ears.
Once the ponytail has been concealed within the remaining hair and the whole is smoothed into a single handful of hair, twist the hair inward as though you were forming a French twist hairstyle with the ends of the ponytail and surrounding hair emerging from the top of the cone-shaped twist.
Secure this twist with large bobby pins (for our demonstration we only needed four pins in the entire style) being sure to form an "X" with the first two pins directly behind the twist. The inner ponytail of the style and its elastic band are held to add stability to the twist and will allow the hair to be more easily held by fewer pins.
At this point, lightly mist the twisted hair with hairspray and smooth it using your styling brush, or fine-toothed comb. Also, carefully comb or brush the hair sticking up from the twist to make sure it is still tangle-free.
This is the main part of the style. All that's left is to add finishing touches. For this you can opt to tuck the ends of the hair back into the cone of the twist for a tidy finish, or perhaps add some extra spray (maybe one with glitter or bold colors) and a flat iron to make bold spikes fanning out around the twist. For our demonstration, however, we've chosen to use our curling iron to create a spray of curls.
We create the spray of curls by taking small slices of the emerging hair and wrapping them around the curling iron's barrel. Depending on the width of the slice, we alternated between barrel curls and spiral curls. After allowing the curls to cool, we used a small amount of styling pomade and our fingers to separate the curls into smaller ringlets and smooth them out. The tendrils of hair we left in front of the ears were curled into long spirals, which were sprayed with hairspray and allowed to cool before being smoothed with the fingers to give a softer appearance.
The finished style is fancy, and suitable for most evening functions as is. If you prefer, or if the occasion calls for something a little glitzier, you can add your favorite accessories - jeweled pins and barrettes, or gilded combs. The variety of options for styling and dressing the look make it incredibly versatile. However, the most important aspects of this up-do are that it is a very quick style and is strong enough to last all night.
©Hairfinder.com
See also:
The twisted knot
Comfortable updo
Braided up-style
