I posted something similar to this on Instagram weeks ago and had quite a few people asking me how we did it. There’s nothing overly complex about it — but it’s how you do it that will determine the appearance. That may seem like an obvious statement, but I’ll explain and show you at the end of the post! Obviously the thickness and length of hair you are working with will also play a part, but this can work for shorter and thinner hair too. So first my tutorial, and then I’ll share my “trick” with you.
Step 1 – Part the hair from ear to ear & make an off-center ponytail
Step 2 – With the remaining hair make a 2nd ponytail under the first one
Step 3 – Loosely braid each of the ponytails & pancake them
Be sure to braid them loosely (I’ll show why later!) If the hair you are working with is thinner, pancake them a lot to get them as wide as desired. Secure the braids with elastics at the end. The pic below doesn’t show the pancaked look – only loosely plaited braids.
Step 4 – Flip the top braid out of the way & wrap the bottom braid up into a flat loose bun
Secure it as needed with bobby pins. Be sure you aren’t winding it tightly — you want to avoid “knobby-ness” 😉
Step 5 – Begin to wrap the top braid & make sure it is pancaked and flat
Secure with bobby pins as you go, but you will be “laying” it more than you are wrapping/winding it into a bun.
Step 6 – As you are positioning the braid, be sure it comes down and half way covers the bun from step 4
Step 7 – Tuck the ends under to hide them & secure with bobby pins
Step 8 – Optional – Add a pretty accessory
These cute flowers are from Gimme Clips.
So back to the beginning of my post where I mentioned showing you my trick. If you’re thinking — this is just basically 2 braided buns. You’re right! But check out my side by side comparison:
The trick is how you braid. If you braid tightly, you’ll get “knobby buns.” (the left column above) And by now you probably know how I feel about those! 🙂 If you braid loosely and pancake the braid (the right column above), you get a pretty updo that lays nicer and looks much prettier – don’t you think?
Even if you are working with thinner and shorter hair – the same trick can work. The looser the braid is, the easier it is to manipulate the hair around and position it where you want. If it’s a tight braid it makes it really hard to “lay” the braid and you end out winding the braids into knobs and then you can’t overlap them to make it look like one section of braids. Maybe you like that, but for an updo, I certainly don’t!
Here’s a few more shots of the pretty updo. I hope the side-by-side comparison above helps you and will change how you braid when creating updos and pretty styles!
Thank You! You put a lot of work into this post, and it’s very helpful. I love this do and the clip sets the style. Great job.
Thank you. Thanks for noticing! I’m amazed sometimes at what should be a simple or fast post often times taking me the longest! Thanks for commenting & glad you like it! 🙂
Love this! And, seriously, you need to disclose the brand of shampoo and conditioner you are using! That hair is magazine worthy!!!
You always make my day with your sweet comments Wendy! The brand we use is nothing fancy-pants — just Tre Semme. Love how it works in their hair! 🙂 ox
So pretty. I’ve started mixing a braid with a rope twist when I do an updo on my daughter. This is the perfect tutorial to add that trick to. Thanks!
You do amazing hair! I love to do these things to my daughters hair! But I can only do a select few because my daughters hair is very thin and at about her shoulders maybe a little longer! Doesn’t grow well , we try to let it get long it just don’t!(mine don’t either lol)How can I do some of these with medium length,thin hair? Any suggestions?
Beautiful! I love tight, smooth braids/hairstyles-they look so much cleaner-maybe it’s the cheerleader in me, but this bun makes so much more sense! Going to try it tomorrow!
That is a beautiful bun!! I can’t wait to try it on my girls hair. They have long hair but it’s very fine and thin. (Like my own hair) I’m always in awe with how thick your kiddos hair is!! Do you use any special products in their hair to aide in the thickness or is it just genes like me and my girls? Thank you for always sharing these amazing tutorials! I always love sharing your website with my friends and we always get complimented when we do a new style I’ve learned from you!!
I LOVE this! It looks amazing. Great job. Just wishing I had a daughter with long enough hair to do this.
My 9 year old daughter will love this! Her hair is very thick and hip length. We have a fancy wedding to attend this Saturday. She will look so elegant and polished…Thanks!!!
I’m so glad you found this one and hopefully you were able to use it! If her hair is so long I’m sure it turned out gorgeous. I’d love to see pictures if you took any!
Can you please make a video for me to watch so maybe I can do it on my little cousin?
This tutorial is pretty easy to follow with the step-by-step pictures. Right now I don’t have it slated to create a video for this one since it’s pretty straight forward in the pic-toral. I’ll let you know if that changes! Thanks for commenting.
Do you think this can be modified to sit up on the crown of the head? I have to do my granddaughter’s hair and encircle it with a wreath of flowers (she’s the flower girl in her uncle’s wedding). I love the look, but don’t want her hair to be that low on her head.
Your site is phenomenal, by the way! Thanks so much for all the work you’ve put into it!
I was wondering: Do you think this can be modified to sit up on the crown of the head? I have to do my granddaughter’s hair and encircle it with a wreath of flowers (she’s the flower girl in her uncle’s wedding). I love the look, but don’t want her hair to be that low on her head.
Your site is phenomenal, by the way! Thanks so much for all the work you’ve put into it!
Yes I would think you could position the ponytails and buns wherever you want on the head. My only thought would be to try keep it as flat and spread out on the top of her head as possible so it doesn’t appear “knobby” sticking off the top of her head like a big bump! (By this post you should know now that I don’t like knobby buns! 😉 ) But if that doesn’t bother you, then more power to ya! 🙂 I would give the style a run through before the wedding to make sure it’ll look like you want for the big day. I’m sure it’ll look beautiful – especially with a cute wreath of flowers. So glad you like our site, so thank you! 🙂 Good luck & feel free to share pictures if you get any!