Get your hair off your neck for these hot summer months with a ballerina bun! I’m going to explain different ways to achieve a ballerina bun depending on whether you have a hair donut, a long sock, or just bobby pins. Depending on the technique, you will also need a hair tie or elastic, brush, a comb, hairspray, and scissors.
You start by brushing your hair into a ponytail and tying it with a hair tie or elastic depending on the density of your hair. If you have thick hair, a hair tie would work best. If you have fine hair, you can use either a hair tie or an elastic, whatever you prefer. I find that the ballerina bun works best with a high ponytail on the top of your head, but you could also do a low ponytail.
If you have a hair donut, pull your ponytail through the center of the donut and place it at the base of your ponytail. If you have long hair, a larger donut would work best; with shorter hair, a smaller donut is better. For thicker hair, spread your hair all around the donut and place a second hair tie or elastic over the donut. If you have finer hair, take sections of your hair, spray it with hairspray, and backcomb before placing your second hair tie over your hair and the donut. This will help to make your hair appear fuller and conceal the donut better. The mids and ends of your hair will be left out of the donut. You can either twist that around the donut, and bobby pin it to conceal the hair tie, or you can braid the mids and ends then wrap the braid around the donut to conceal your hair tie. Then use hairspray for any fly-aways and you’re done.
If you don’t have a hair donut, you can also use a long sock or tube sock. Try to find a sock that matches the color of your hair. Simply cut the toe part off of the sock and begin rolling the sock into a donut shape. The longer the sock, the larger the donut will be. Then take the same steps from the first technique, just use the sock as your donut.
If you don’t have a hair donut or a sock, pull your hair into a ponytail and spray sections of your hair with hairspray before backcombing small sections of hair. When backcombing, backcomb the bottom side of the strand so when you lay the hair down, the top of the strand will be easier to smooth. After you backcomb, take medium-sized sections of hair and bobby pin them in a donut shape. You will bobby pin the ends of your hair to the base of your head, close to your ponytail. After all of your hair is bobby-pinned in a donut shape, use your fingers to pull and stretch the sections you bobby-pinned so there are no gaps between sections. Then use your comb to lightly smooth the top of your bun and hairspray it in place.
You can pull out some face-framing pieces of hair for a messier look or hair spray everything nice and smooth for a sleek look. You can accessorize with a headband, flower, large bow, and anything else you desire.
