Elegant Half Updo – Loops & Twists

I got an e-mail a couple weeks back from one of my readers, requesting a style for her homecoming dance that is this next weekend. As I’ve stated before, it’s always tough trying to come up with a style that will be “the right fit” for the person requesting the style. I don’t know most people’s personalities and face shapes, etc. For this request all I know is that her hair was about shoulder length & not overly thick. So my hope with this style, is that regardless of length or thickness – pretty much anyone could do this. (Unless your hair is as short as mine, of course!)

Begin with sectioning out hair at the temples to make a “poof” in the front. Give it a bit of a twist.

Secure with a few bobby pins. You can push the “poof” forward as much as you want for height up front. Because I think the whole “poof bang” look is a bit mature for Goose I opted to only give her a little bump up front!

Next section off the hair from the ear forward. Do that to both sides. I clipped off the hair hanging down in back to keep it out of the way.

Part off a small section of hair on the left side, just in front of the ear. You’ll be making a vertical part for this section.

Comb it upwards and start twisting the hair, pulling it to the right side of the head (hopefully covering your bobby pins from your “poof bangs.” Secure it with a bobby pin on the right side of the bobby pins you are covering up. If you can’t get your bobby pins to stay — go HERE and watch the 2nd video in the post. That’s the method I use to keep bobby pins in.

Here’s a look from the right side of the head once you’ve secured that first twist with a bobby pin.

Repeat on the right side – parting off a section and twisting it over to the left side of the head & securing it with a bobby pin.

It should look something like this. You’ve basically made a bit of an X with the two twists.

On the left side, part out a “triangle” section of hair – sort of on an angle anyway.

Hopefully you can see the part a bit better in this picture. Comb the hair up and back and twist it. Bring it across your other twists to the right side of the head.

Once again, secure it over on the right side of the head with a bobby pin.

Repeat on the right side of the head – bringing the twist over to the left side of the head.

Secure the last twist with a bobby pin on the left side of the head. Again, you should have made a bit of an X with these two twists.

With the remaining hair that is hanging down by the ears, take the section on the right side & mist it with hairspray, combing it up and towards the back of the head.

Take a little clip & secure it to the middle of the back of the head for a moment.

Take the hair on the left side & smooth it up as well. Pull it towards the middle of the back of the head to join with the right side hair you clipped back there.

Secure the two strips of hair with a small rubber band. Technically you could be done at this step & add some curls. But I went a bit further.

Hopefully as you secured the twists on each side of the head, they all ended up in the same area. You should have a section of their “tails” hanging down on both sides underneath the hair you just pulled back.

Starting on the right side, take the tail from the right side twists & make a loop like this. I basically did it like my video HERE shows – except using a lot less hair. Secure it at the bottom with a bobby pin. I also ended out using a hair pin in the top of the loop to keep it from flopping forward too.

Make a middle loop using the “tail” from the hair you secured with the rubber band in the middle. Make a 3rd loop on the left with the “tails” from the twists that came over on the left side.

When you’re all done it’ll should something like this from the top front & top back. I did a lot of this dry, so sorry about some of the fly aways. I just didn’t want it to look totally “slicked” back!

Views from the sides:

To finish it off, I curled the ends of her hair under with my flat iron. Then I did a bunch of random ringlet curls with our small curling iron. Make sure you curls the tails of the loops when you make your random curls.

She got a ton of compliments on this when she wore it at church, so I’m sure it’d be a hit for any dance of formal even you have. I hate to admit it, but combining this hairstyle with the little high heels she was wearing, it made her look a bit too grown up for my liking! I sure wish I could bottle them up & keep them young & innocent for a lot longer! They grow up way too fast!