Duchess of Cambridge "elaborate updo" - I've seen more impressive on LHC

**see_turtle** · May 13th, 2012, 05:00 PM

I love it! And the dress is too die for! And maybe it's my lousy eyes but I don't see pins....and who cares if pins show a little we all know they are there. Kate is always so beautiful.

**Arya** · May 13th, 2012, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by torrilin

A lot of hairstylists find straight hair very slippery to work with, and they don't actually know how to put it up without "texturizing" it. That's hairstylist-speak for curling iron and hair spray.

On some kinds of straight hair, this does actually improve their odds, which is why they keep doing it.

On fine hair like mine, it really doesn't do much for the tendency to spit pins. So if I have a hair stylist do anything "fancy" on me it's a plain French braid, because I know from experience that they don't have to do anything with heat to make it stay. I can take care of turning it into a "real" updo after.

That's why I'm not criticizing the Duchess's hairstylist for having pins show. If you use poor technique for a given hair type, pretty much anyone's hair will spit hair toys. No matter how good a job you thought you did, poor technique shows. And since she basically never chooses to wear her hair up... the poor stylist never gets any practice to develop good technique.

I'm really hoping she liked this updo and will repeat it fairly often for evening or hatted events... that way the practice effect can kick in, and when we finally get to see it under a tiara, it'll be amazing

.

Hm.. that explains a lot of things. I've got 1b/c fine hair, and lots of it. My hair spits pins like no one's business, and even spraying and curling doesn't help. The only hairstyle that doesn't undo itself during the day is done on very damp hair. Updos have always been beyond me.

**torrilin** · May 13th, 2012, 07:19 PM

Originally Posted by Arya

Hm.. that explains a lot of things. I've got 1b/c fine hair, and lots of it. My hair spits pins like no one's business, and even spraying and curling doesn't help. The only hairstyle that doesn't undo itself during the day is done on very damp hair. Updos have always been beyond me.

Nah, they're not beyond you. Really! Just you happen to have a hair type where the common styling advice is about as wrong as it's possible to get.

As a ii/iii, your hair is pretty thick. It's harder to do updos on thick hair since it takes more length to do any given style than someone who is a ii or a i would need. In some cases, we're talking like half a meter more than a i would need. To dodge this, a lot of ii/iii's and iii's section their hair to make buns. Either several small ones arranged decoratively, or one large one where the hair is wrapped around itself. Most rose bun or vortex bun tutorials show that second method.

Most styling advice I've seen for fine hair says you should use small bobby pins. I actually use the huge 3" long roller pins if I'm using something like a bobby pin, or the regular size Goody spin pins (buy 3 packs... while you can probably get away with 2 to anchor a bun with practice, it never hurts to have spares), or U pins that are 3-3.5" long. They don't actually mean small at all... you want smaller toys for THIN hair, not fine hair. If you want to make claw clips work, try ones that are about 1" long, and use something like 3-5 around the edges of a bun to anchor it. There's nothing wrong with using more hair toys if you need to too.

Then, straight hair is slippery. When you start out trying to put it up, if the person says the style will hold with 1 hair stick, use 3-4 pins instead. Most of the buns that work with a short length (like the pencil/nautilus/lazy wrap bun family) can be held with either pins or sticks. Just use more pins. The motion to anchor things is the same - angle through the bun and away from your head to catch bun hair, then flip the toy so it's pointing straight at the bun and has caught some scalp hair, then insert the rest of the way. You can do this maneuver with spin pins too. Screw down into the bun, then flip and screw in the rest of the way along the scalp.

The one time you *should* use bobby pins is for pin curls. They're not an art I've mastered, but they can work really well for us straight haired types to fake more conventional looking hairdresser style updos.

**<3OnHerSleeve** · May 13th, 2012, 07:21 PM

I love the dress! I like the hair too but it definitely is not the most 'elaborate' thing I've ever seen.

**lw8666** · May 13th, 2012, 07:55 PM

Wow, she is stunning. The hair looks good to me and the dress is amazing.

**Teazel** · May 13th, 2012, 09:34 PM

She's very beautiful, and that gown is stunning. I also like her shoes and jewellery!

My opinion on the hair: it looks okay (not great) from the front and back (apart from visible pins), but from the side doesn't please me at all. I hope her hairstyling "team" (LOL, wish I had one of those) do better in future.

**BrightEyes** · May 13th, 2012, 09:45 PM

I think she looks beautiful, her hair and dress. Coming from someone who has yet not been able to wear anything more elaborate than a french twist, I think her updo is very elegant and beautiful. I would love to be able to do it someday.

**AlannaMaria** · May 13th, 2012, 11:13 PM

Ametureish? I think it's gorgeous. No, not quite as impressive as some on LHC, but I think it's beautiful.

**ravenreed** · May 13th, 2012, 11:43 PM

I really like it from the front. I am meh about the back, but the side kind of bugs me. It looks lumpy and the proportions look odd to me. I can't explain it better than that. I would be impressed if someone managed that hairstyle for themselves, but for a professionally done hairstyle, I am not that blown away. However, I do like seeing an attempt at more elegant updo in the media.

And yes the dress outshines everything.

Originally Posted by Teazel

She's very beautiful, and that gown is stunning. I also like her shoes and jewellery!

My opinion on the hair: it looks okay (not great) from the front and back (apart from visible pins), but from the side doesn't please me at all. I hope her hairstyling "team" (LOL, wish I had one of those) do better in future.

**Shermie Girl** · May 13th, 2012, 11:43 PM

It is a pretty 'do. Elaborate? Eh... Depends on your point of view. It would be elaborate, to me, the Updo Challenged One but to someone who is used to doing beautiful, truly elaborate updos, probably not so much.

Looking carefully at it, it looks as if her hair was parted on the side and curled and sprayed to give it some oomph and grab. Her long, side swept fringe was separated, then two lace braids were done, one on each side, just above her ears, going back then the length was braided on down and fastened off. It looks as if her fringe was then pouffed a bit then swooped back and anchored at the back of her head. Then the bulk of her length was sectioned into multiple pieces, twisted and coiled onto the back of her head and pinned into place with the ends left out in curls. After that, the braids from each side were brought back, kind of "stacked" on top of the rest of the updo and anchored into place with more pins. Then the whole thing was sprayed to help keep it in place.

That's how it looks to me, anyway.

If I could figure out how to do lace braids, I'd give that 'do a try.