The Twirly Bun

This bun has been my go-to hairstyle for the past couple of holidays. You know those times when you need your hair to look its best and it falls through? That doesn't happen with this bun.

This bun is for the curly who:

• wants an intricate-looking updo
• loves compliments on her hair
• woke up with hair that looks less than perfect
• has about five minutes to make herself look presentable
• has at least ten bobby pins lying around
• doesn't mind losing half of said bobby pins in her hair until the next co-wash time

Seriously, this is the easiest bun you will try. I did this in the car the other day without a mirror (not while driving - I carpool). You don't even have to have long hair to do it!

Pull your hair into a ponytail.

Grab a section of hair.

Twist it.

Pin it.

Repeat. I usually work from the outside in.

You end up with something like this:

Accessorize

Complete!

Curly Updo: The Fishtail Bun

I'm not someone who is accomplished when it comes to braids. I can do your normal three-strand. I know how to do a french braid, but my execution isn't exactly presentable. That's about it.

The fishtail was something that looked really hard when I stumbled upon it in December, but luckily it's somewhat easy to do. I say somewhat because it was a lot easier to do for Christmas when my hair was a lot longer with less layers! Now it's a little more challenging for me, but curls can really pull the messy look off, right?

I made this up as I went along, but here's a video that resembles what I did (though I used a lot more bobby pins!):

~ * ~

Start with an unintentionally messy fishtail braid.

Wrap into a bun and pin well!

Notes:

• I stole this flower from my sister - I know it doesn't match my dress but I still think it looks pretty.
  
  
• I kept some of the front pieces out of the braid and pinned them back after I had made the bun to give it more of a romantic look.
  
  
• I used what felt like a lot of bobby pins to pin the bun back. That might just be because my hair is thicky and heavy. I actually took the braid picture after the bun fell out the first time! Next time I'll probably try the trick she used in the video.
  
  

Love it? Hate it? Let me know! If you have any updo ideas, please post below. I love trying new looks and am still searching for the perfect one for my sister's graduation in June!

Curly Updo: The Flapper

This is a new feature: the curly updo! I've been wanting to do this for a while, and I've been searching the internets recently for updos since my sister's prom is coming up soon. I found this one today and decided to do it myself so she could see what it looks like in person. It really reminds me of a flapper from the 1920s, so that's what I'm calling it!

The great thing for us curlies is that it literally takes five minutes and maybe ten to fifteen bobby pins to complete this look. That's it. I don't have any bows or flowers for my hair, so I substituted a gift wrap bow.

Here's the how-to:

Here's how mine turned out:

Notes:

• It was really hard to not make it super-short. For some reason my hair really wanted to shrink when I condensed the curl and tried to pin it.
  
  
• This was done on second-day hair at the end of the day, so yeah, there's frizz. I was also in a hurry and didn't spend a lot of time perfecting the back. I'd definitely make it more presentable for an event. I do like the messy look though.
  
  
• [Adding to this a few days later...] I think this would work best on hair that still has styling products and some hold. I slept on a cotton pillowcase with my hair down and lost all the hold my hair had. It was a disaster when I tried to do this again.

What do you think? I think I'm going to re-do this to perfect the back.