Side styles?

[Ferngear]

There are so many lovely hair styles on this forum, and I'm still sort of new so I know I haven't seen half of 'em yet! The majority of them are from the back, though. With the hot weather where I live I keep my hair up most of the time. I used to clip my hair back on the sides just above and a little back from my ears with barrettes (large metal, because it was the only thing that would hold) when I was growing out my bangs several years ago. Since then I've continued using them when pulling back my hair as a way to stop the sides from being pulled tight, lifting them up off my ears while giving a slightly puffed outline. Basically, I have a very round/chubby face that does not lend itself well to straight-back hair, but needs a frame around the temples when it isn't down. The only thing I know to do is to twist the sides up and roll them and pin them with bobby pins to hold them in place, but I'm worried about that curling the lower edges around my ears and creating a sort of "hat head" look when it's down. If I pull it back but let it lay a little loose on my ears, it just looks droopy.

Does anyone have any suggestions/pictures for easy, every-day up-dos that don't require the sides being pulled straight back and isn't a crown braid? I don't want to go back to bangs or fringe, not after finally having broken away from it after 20+ years. I tried the Gibson Girl rolls and that was just a disaster... something classic Victorian would look good, I think, but I just don't know how to do it or what it might be called. I've spent most of my life with bangs, basic braid, or loose. I can do fancy braids (from working Renaissance Faires for 2 years), but I'm new to the bun thing (getting good at a twist bun, haven't tried a sock bun). I don't know what I'm doing.... I really don't....

Suggestions?

[inanna]

My go-tos to prevent my hair from looking scraped back are braids. You can either go with the full classic braid, bunning the two braids at the back of the head, or you can only braid part of the way and then finish off with the bun of your choice. Sometimes if I'm feeling particularly lazy, I only braid one side and convince myself it's an accent braid.

I also find that doing a French or a Dutch braid, loosening it a little and then bunning the braid can look a little softer around the edges without getting saggy over my ears.

If you find the idea of going full-on French and Dutch on the braiding a bit daunting, just sectioning off part of your hair in the front and doing a plain English braid would probably help with retaining a bit of volume. After you form your bun, just tug on the braid gently to loosen it.

[mamaherrera]

I need help on this too because I need my sides to frame and layer and hide "white hairs" With the braids, is it always a center part?

[Ferngear]

I'll try the, inanna, thanks!

I've never in my life parted down the middle, always slightly to one side if at all. I have an obvious widow's peak and it just looks odd forked in half. I don't usually have an obvious, or even a natural part when it's loose. I've got the "white hairs" at my temples, too, mamaherrera... I'm kind of hoping they'll fill in just there and make those bride of frankenstein streaks.

[inanna]

I rarely do a center part unless I'm going for a particularly milk-maidy kind of look. I much prefer a side part because I think it makes my face looked more balanced. Like I mentioned, sometimes I only do one braid and that's usually on the "larger" half. I even start the French and Dutch braids a bit off-center sometimes, to avoid excessive symmetry at all costs!

I've found that a side part works just fine even with the classic braid, one of the braids might turn out a little smaller but I've never found that to be much of a problem. You can try coiling them in different orders to see which one looks better, the smaller on the inside or the smaller on the outside. If I'm doing this for a fancier occasion and end up with something a bit wonky, I just camouflage the problem with a flowery hairclip or two, or possibly three if I'm desperate enough.

[mamaherrera]

do you use bobby pins to secure your buns, or what do you use?? I'm struggling with hair pins, I hate bobby pins, I'm thinking magic grip pins or spin pins if I can figure them out. Yeah getting more and more white hair at 34 is not fun, what's going on with me??? Thanks for the tips, so you braid both braids, going straight back, and you always do two braids, right? You said a classic braid, but two of them, right?

[inanna]

It's easier to bun if you sort of angle the braids towards the spot you want to make your bun. Like so, from the instructions I linked to earlier:


If the braids are a little wonky as mine tend to be from time to time, I see if I can fix it by making the bun a little higher or choosing to coil in a particular direction. And again, when in doubt, stick a flower in it.

I'm with you on the bobby pin hate, mamaherrera! I always take too little or too much hair and seem to pin the wrong stuff in the wrong place. I like to pin the braids with U-shaped pins because those you can sort of just stick in, they're less obvious and they hold just as well if you use enough of them. I find it helps if you start pinning as you coil, and I only use bobby pins for the most stubborn sticky-outy bits. If you're feeling particularly unsure about how to get the bun to stay together, you could always use a soft non-damaging hair tie to tie the two braids into a ponytail first, and then go from there.

For the single French/Dutch braid coiled up into a bun I use spin pins, which are amazing. They're not that hard to figure out, I promise! Just think of it as putting a screw into your bun, twist twist twist and that's it. I find that doing an X with two spin pins, followed by an arbitrarily placed third spin pin guarantees that my hair will stay in place. I spent a week hiking with my hair up in a bunned Dutch braid, that's how reliable a hairdo it is.

If I'm just doing an accent braid instead of braiding all of my hair, I don't actually secure the braid at all. I just include it in with the rest of my hair, do a lazy wrap or nautilus or cinnabun and secure with whatever is handiest.

[mamaherrera]

Inanna, you're great with details, thanks. Just a couple questions, if you do a single french braid, and want it higher up on the head, do you just stop higher up and start your english braid???
Also, with the spin pins, I hear ya as I've heard other using them. I bought them once and threw them away as they were only pulling my hair out. But I want to try again. Do you put it between the bun and scalp hair or do you start it right down into just the bun (Hope that makes sense)? I want a hairdo that stays in place so that sounds like a good deal, , like an X, huh? One started on top and one started on the bottom?? sorry I ask lots of questions, I'm a slow learner. Because obviously those spin pins can't crash together or they won't do their job, right? and like I said before, those stupid hair pins,I'm not having luck with the "weave them in" part, do you just stick in fold down and stick down or do you do the "weave" thing?
I also like the rope braid, it looks beautiful but I can never ever get it to stay, it just unropes itself!

[inanna]

Glad my rambling seem useful! I have to warn you though, my hair is fine and slippery so I have to pin the everliving crap out of it to keep it put, so my methods might be a little excessive for curlier and coarser hair.

If you want the French braid to "be done" higher up, just add larger sections and sort of angle the sections you're adding upwards, trying to make the braid as short on your head as you can. It's a little hard to explain, but once you try it on yourself I hope it'll make more sense.

As for the spin pins, I kind of do a little of both. I try to have at least one of them screwed in so that it grabs both the bun and the scalp hair, or in the case of a braided French/Dutch, gets a firm grip on the part of the braid that's still flat against my head. The other one I can just screw mostly in the bun itself, and the third one goes in depending on how secure the bun feels after a little bounce and shake test. Usually I screw that one in from the top, grabbing some scalp hair with it, to make sure the bun stays close to my head and there's no pulling.

I do actually cross the spin pins exactly like an X, one from top right angled down to bottom left and one from top left angled down to bottom right. Sometimes they do clash in the middle while I'm screwing one in, but I find that unscrewing it a bit and trying to point it in a slightly different direction (closer to or further away from my scalp) usually does the trick, and I'm able to screw the pin in all the way. I do recommend you try them again, if only for all the "I think I have a screw loose" -jokes you'll get out of them!

I find that U-pins work pretty well even if you just stick them straight in, but I try to weave some to make sure that my bun is safely secured not only to itself but to the scalp hair as well. Especially on the outermost coil of the bun I find it gives a neater look if you insert the pin through the braid with the tines facing outward, then turn it and tuck it in under the bun.

Two rope braids down the sides and then coiled in to a bun are another great way to create a bit more oomph along the sides, and it's not the end of the world if your braids loosen up a bit in the process. I personally find doing a rope braid a lot easier than trying to just wrap the hair into a roll.

[torrilin]

I'd start with LaDollyVita and TorrinPaige's youtube channels. Torrin is a member here and a lot of folks find her tutorials *very* helpful for the basics. Probably the most useful Torrin vid for you to start with is the lace braid headband. It's a great introduction to a super useful style of braid. Lace braids are fantastic and much easier than braid books make out. And they're easy to add in to other styles as an accent. The other vid you must check out is LaDollyVita's Little Black Dress updo, because it's all about interest for the front and sides, and she breaks it down in a very easy to understand way that seems to work out well for almost all hair types, whether very fine or very thick, straight or curly, conventional long or LHC long. The really important bit is it's a sectioned style. Instead of bunning her hair in one big lump, she breaks it into smaller sections. It looks very cute, and it's the key to making the style work on such a variety of hair types. Sectioning your hair is a great trick, and you can apply it to all sorts of buns. (they both have tons of other great tutorials, just I think these two really stand out as being good for absolutely everyone)

Now the neat thing is you can combine the two. Lace braid one side of your head, or both. And you can still wind up with a look that's recognizably based on the little black dress one.

Some other tutorials to check out are maiden braids, Casey's romantic braided updo, heidi braids and this rope braid tutorial. They all give you more ways to add interest to the front or to use sections to get your hair to freaking stay up even if it's super thick.