How to Put Your Hair into a Messy Bun

There are some hair styles that can be worn anywhere from a pool party to a high school prom. Obviously this includes the basic “leave it all down” look, but there’s another almost as equally simple hair do that will serve as stylish for basically any event that you wish. This hair style is commonly called “the messy bun” and is basically just a purposely loosely arranged bun of hair on the back of your head. Although entirely simple to do, there are a few techniques that can make this classic hair style even easier to work your hair into, and with a little bit of practice you can be sporting this style on any day-whether dressy or not.

1) Gather up all of your hair into a pony tail high up on the back of your head, but leave a little bit of your hair down around the front of your face if this hair is shorter than the rest of your locks. This can be done whether or not you have your hair cut into “true bangs,” as long as the front of your hair a at least somewhat shorter than the back of your hair. When pulling back your hair try not to smooth all of it down on your head with a comb. The messy bun can look “messy” all around and still look like it was designed that way. Save yourself some time in the morning and simply pull up all of your hair, even intentionally relaxing some portions of it to give your look some diversity. For a more stylish look, consider pulling up your hair slightly to the side of your head instead of straight onto the back of your head; this, again, will make your messy bun look more interesting.

2) Scrunch up your hair into a “bun-like” mass on the top of your head. Don’t twirl it like you would for a classic bun; instead use both hands to amass all of your locks off of your neck and onto the top of your head. This will feel sloppy, but that’s how it is supposed to look. Using one hand to hold your hair up there, use the other hand to grab a second pony tail holder and use it to secure the mass of hair on top of your head in the basic form of the messy bun.

3) Most likely, your hair won’t look exactly how you want it to at this point. To fix that, grab a few small clips or bobby pins and loop and arrange different parts of your hair to look the way that you want. Use a second mirror so that you can see the back of your head to check on the finished product. This is the step where you sort of “fabricate” the messy look; you are arranging your hair systematically to appear like you just tossed it up there, but you actually are doing a little more work on it than that. Don’t pin all of the “fly-aways” up, however, as this will defeat the purpose of the “messy” look.

4) Now deal with the little bit of hair that you left down in the front of your head during step one. Use a flat iron to straighten this hair and pull most of it across your forehead {from a side part} and pin it into place. This will look more classic than a center part would and the side look again adds an interesting element to your hair style.

I have found that this hair style works well with both clean and greasier hair, as long as the hair is at least shoulder length. It is also a great hair style for both wet and dry hair, and it works especially well for anyone with thick or coarse hair.