I feel so cool when I go out with one-stick bun updo

[Flor]

I'm yet to see ONE person in real life with a bun that's not held with a lot of pins or elastics. I've only recently started wearing my hair in protective buns, but I'm really digging that it's such a unique thing where I live. It's probably really silly and I don't have that much of an impressive size bun yet, but it really makes me feel OOAK, in a way ;)

[Theobroma]

I know what you mean, Flor! There's something about being able to put one's hair up securely with just a single stick that feels hugely empowering. :D

[YamaMaya]

It is a nice feeling :D, though I'm a bit disappointed as no one has yet said to me "just how in the world do you DO that?" :lol:

[~honeyflower~]

Welp, you impressed me. I can't do that!

[Aingeal]

Yes! I've had the same feeling. My students ask me, miss! How do you do that? Hehehe

[embee]

Yes! And I've never seen another one either.

I've been asked to demonstrate, and it was totally beyond them. :D

[TiaKitty]

I know what you mean! I live in an area with a lot of short-ish long hairs (like they're long, but not LONG), and those girls are still flat ironing and using sock bun forms and stuff.

And then there is another group here, Pentecostals, who are well known for their very beautiful and elaborate updos. I was at a craft fair recently, buying lemonade from a family of Pentecostal women, and one had a HUGE messy bun. She was taller than me and I was looking up at her bun from underneath in the back. Seriously, I counted 20+ pins holding it. It was so confusing. She had obviously pinned down each lock of hair separately. I couldn't see a bun form under there, and I doubt there was one, because her Mom an another lady were there, and they all had long hair and are known for not cutting. And the pins were strange looking from what I could see. Very wide and very thick. Not like an Amish pin, at all. I really wanted to ask her about it, but they were so incredibly busy every time I saw them... Her bun, though, was incredibly lovely from my vantage point. Not like anything I've seen, it looked like some kind of volcano of 3a curls that had been secured to her head with industrial staples...

I so badly wanted to show her how to use a hairstick. I had mine up with a single quattro stick, and it felt good to know I wasn't doing massive damage with tens of pins holding it up.

[SleepyTangles]

Two days ago i had my hair in a single hairstick bun, too; I was attending class and the people behind me were talking about something: while I was re-doing it, their voice suddenly vanished and when I checked I heard one of them saying "Can you please repeat what you were saying? I was too busy looking at...", losing the words and mimicking the way in which I secured the bun with the stick ;).

It made me feel a tad ridicolous, but also powerful!

[SerinaDaith]

I am finding that the longer my hair gets the less I need to do to keep it up. Somehow that seems backwards but I do not often see girls either in my son's school or mine who even wear their hair up. I get the occasional gosh I wish I knew how to french braid or wouldn't it be cool to put your hair up like that comments but I just direct people to you tube with the name of the style or what have you. It's how I learned, sometimes reversing and pausing and cursing multiple times. Now I can do loads with my hair and can't even fathom not keeping it up all the time since I have so many cool go too styles from our fellow hair gurus. I like feeling like a secret "long" hair. Not that my hair is long by this sites standards but in the really real world it's getting to be respectable.

[TearsInRain]

When my hair was waist length I would use hair sticks like all the time and I was so happy when I was able to use one hair stick to hold it up. I got some comments on my hair being long when I had it down, but hardly anyone commented on my hair sticks. I was known around where I worked as the one who was always doing weird things to her hair though lol. I had it orange, green, pink, blonde. I even wore cybergoth yarn falls to work before ha.

[Kaelee]

I love one stick updos! Totally empowering to be able to put your hair up with a pen or pencil if you need to, too. Whoops, I have my hair down and I unexpectedly have to run machines today? Hey boss, can I have that pencil? ;)

ETA: I rarely see hair sticks in real life and when I do, they're almost always just stuck in for decoration in some way and not actually holding the hair.

[lunalocks]

I was asked recently to demonstrate some buns using my 6 inch fork. She was impressed.

I have never seen sticks or hair forks around here, in the wild. I like that I am different. I've started teaching hair care to my niece (she has billowy waves to curls and she was straightening! it! No longer.) And have given her hair forks. She's the only one on her U of TX campus wearing one.

[Night_Kitten]

I've only seen an updo held by stick once in the "real world" (aside from on myself that is ;) ) which is a shame really... Whenever I see buns "in the wild" they are usually messy ones held by some scrunchie or hair tie looking quite miserable...

Whenever I see hairsticks on TV, the bun / updo is held by myriads of pins, and then the stick is inserted as decoration only... Unless it's a Japanese or Chinese movie - those have some AWESOME hair do's sometimes :D

[chen bao jun]

There's a thread over in the polls section (I think) called something like, hair toys in the wild or something like that...
It's about how little one sees hair sticks or forks out in real life, which is true.
I was in choir this morning and came in late so I was sitting in the back. Mostly all the women in the choir had long hair (not by LHC standards but most were at least brastrap, including some of the middle aged women like me). Their hair was put up--but I had the only hairstick there. It was interesting to see the different things people had done. Some had just made a knot in the hair itself to hold it up. there were a lot of those 'buns' made by putting on an elastic and partly putting the hair through. There were several bobby pin held buns.
I did feel happy to have in a hairstick, and it did make me feel special and empowered, I don't know why. Like I was in a secret society or something.

[chen bao jun]

I have got so good at hairsticks and hairtoys recently!
It's rather thrilling.
My hair made it another inch or so, it's now in the middle of my brastrap, not just touching the top. though you still can't tell by seeing it, because it I'm a curly, this makes putting it up much easier. I can now do several different types of buns AND I can use hairtoys I have had for years but have never been able to use before. When I was living in Taiwan, 30 years ago, I bought some silver hairpins that are very pretty and they never never worked. At first, I thought this was because I have such a different hairtype than Chinese women ever do. But recently I realized that a) my hair was never long enough to use them before and b) I was using them as decorations when they were meant to actually hold the hair up. Last week I succeeded in making both work! I won't be wearing one that much because it is over 100 years old and though it doesn't feel fragile, I'm sure it is. I am loving the other one. It is sterling silver and angel skin coral and I had had it in the jewelry box for years, thinking I'd turn it into a brooch or something because it's beautiful--the coral is carved like roses. But now it holds my bun up great all by itself!
Talk about feeling empowered...

[embee]

I sure wish you'd post a picture of the angelskin coral and silver stick, I'd love to see that. :)

The only thing I have languishing in my jewelry box totally unused is an antique ivory cigarette holder - made when cigs were not cylindrical but oval in cross section. If I could figure out how to use it as a hairtoy I would, but it is blunt on both ends.

[Ambystoma]

I feel cool being able to get it all up so quickly and easily too, I love the nautilus bun since it looks like you've spent a while crafting an elaborate style in the morning (nope!). My favourite part though is taking it out and seeing people gape at a pile of hair falling down, then at the tiny stick in my hand, then back at my hair :laugh: it makes me feel like something out of a shampoo commercial.

[Tini'sNewHair]

I would LOVE to be able to it your way. Do you have any good helpful video links i could go to so i can learn to do it the same? Thanks.

[Flor]

I would LOVE to be able to it your way. Do you have any good helpful video links i could go to so i can learn to do it the same? Thanks.

You can try a number of buns! Just search youtube for videos :) My favorite at the moment is disk bun, it's most sturdy on my length. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y5sSEBy7HQ

But you can also try lazy wrap and nautilus. They all work great with one stick! As while practicing, you can just use a pencil.

[kouran]

Well, since we both live in the 'stormy coast of northern Portugal' we may see each other some day, who knows? :p

[Flor]

Well, since we both live in the 'stormy coast of northern Portugal' we may see each other some day, who knows? :p

Oh wow! You'd be the first girl with thigh length hair I ever came across here :)

[kouran]

In the 90s several of my school friends had thigh length hair, one of them had super thick red hair, I am yet too see someone with thicker hair than hers! I even remember a neighbour with light blonde knee+ length hair....but now this has become much rare around here.
Hihi, most people here don't notice I have hair that long, really :).

[Mustang Suzy]

The only thing I have languishing in my jewelry box totally unused is an antique ivory cigarette holder - made when cigs were not cylindrical but oval in cross section. If I could figure out how to use it as a hairtoy I would, but it is blunt on both ends.

Is it possible to use the cigarette holder as a topper for a hair stick? I'm thinking take a stick; shape/sand the upper end so it will fit in the cigarette holder; paint the stick the desired color and finally glue the cigarette holder to the top. It would be similar to an eraser at the top of a wooden pencil but much longer I'm sure. The ivory would be beautiful in any hair color!

[Tini'sNewHair]

You can try a number of buns! Just search youtube for videos :) My favorite at the moment is disk bun, it's most sturdy on my length. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y5sSEBy7HQ

But you can also try lazy wrap and nautilus. They all work great with one stick! As while practicing, you can just use a pencil.

Thank you :) I was just looking at the pencil once and it seems pretty easy so thats going to be my practice for tomorrow :) I will watch this video as well so thanks. Cheers.

[embee]

Is it possible to use the cigarette holder as a topper for a hair stick? I'm thinking take a stick; shape/sand the upper end so it will fit in the cigarette holder; paint the stick the desired color and finally glue the cigarette holder to the top. It would be similar to an eraser at the top of a wooden pencil but much longer I'm sure. The ivory would be beautiful in any hair color!

No, the holder is a long one, about 6 inches. It is carved with a pretty flower, but that's in the middle, which would be inside any bun. Darn it. ;(

[Mustang Suzy]

Embee ~ I just noticed you are a shapenote singer! That is wonderful! I remember as a child the song books with shapenotes - glad to hear it is still around!

[young&reckless]

I call it being a hair ninja!

[embee]

Embee ~ I just noticed you are a shapenote singer! That is wonderful! I remember as a child the song books with shapenotes - glad to hear it is still around!

There is shapenote singing in Kentucky. At Benton they sing once a year from "The Southern Harmony" and may have some monthly singings as well, but I don't know.

For Sacred Harp singings look at
http://fasola.org

It is so much *fun*! :)

[trolleypup]

I feel cool being able to get it all up so quickly and easily too, I love the nautilus bun since it looks like you've spent a while crafting an elaborate style in the morning (nope!). My favourite part though is taking it out and seeing people gape at a pile of hair falling down, then at the tiny stick in my hand, then back at my hair :laugh: it makes me feel like something out of a shampoo commercial.
The lazy bun I do isn't all that much to look at, but by damn I can put it up in 10 seconds, and since there is no twisting, pulling the stick drops it into decent bun waves. Fixing it when it gets loose is superquick...and even though hairsticks aren't so rare in the wild here, it does gather attention. Best is getting to the end of the workday or activity that requires it being up, pulling the stick and with a little headtoss being Not At Work! Ahhh!

[Kaelee]

The lazy bun I do isn't all that much to look at, but by damn I can put it up in 10 seconds, and since there is no twisting, pulling the stick drops it into decent bun waves. Fixing it when it gets loose is superquick...and even though hairsticks aren't so rare in the wild here, it does gather attention. Best is getting to the end of the workday or activity that requires it being up, pulling the stick and with a little headtoss being Not At Work! Ahhh!

Hey Trolleypup, what kind of bun do you do? Not that I could likely manage it at my length (your hair is amazing!) We loved the Sushi by the way. :)

[ladyfey]

one stick doesn't do it for me, but I do use hairsticks pretty much exclusively to keep my hair up :)

[velorutionista]

I love wearing a bun with just one stick, but I tend to use my small knitting needles instead of a proper hair stick! I do have a couple proper hair sticks, and they're beautiful, but they're 6" long and quite thick, so my APL+ bun looks like a tiny bump on a log when I wear them! Someday I'll graduate from knitting needles, though!!

[itdontmatter48]

I have had to demonstrate it many times. I feel it looks more elegant the less that's used to hold it up.

[Agnes Hannah]

I wore my home made hairstick for the first time today, it stayed in all day. I took oldest DS to the doctors, and he said to me "Mum you've still got that stick in your hair, people will think we are poor! you need two" AAHH now that gives me an idea!. I did feel glamorous though, no one else had a hairstick, the only other person there with any length had hers in a bun held with a scrunchie

[Savvyhorsez]

That is neat that you feel that way! That's basically how I always wear my hair up, but I guess the impressiveness never quite was there for me, or anyone else I've been around, lol.

[trolleypup]

LHC meetup fail! Not only did we not talk about hair, we never even let it down for show!

http://www.trolleypup.info/lhc/lazy-chinese-bun.gif
To start: gather hair as for a ponytail, poke stick through hair between hand and scalp, first figure 8 is down to my right and under the stick, cross over the stick and under to my left, cross over the stick and repeat for the 2nd figure 8, then wrap under the figure 8s to use up the remaining length, ending with the very end tucked under the bottom of the bun. I'm up to the third under wrap now..gravity holds it secure.

[swearnsue]

I wore my hairstick out in public for the first time today. It's a simple wood one, painted ivory and green with two small round white bead danglies.

I don't think anyone noticed though. But the cashier and salesman where both men, so they wouldn't notice.

[Not Lynn Merely]

No, the holder is a long one, about 6 inches. It is carved with a pretty flower, but that's in the middle, which would be inside any bun. Darn it. ;(

Could you do a modified Chinese bun with the holder and a normal hairstick?

1) Make a ponytail with a hairtie, slip the regular hair stick in horizontally between your head and the hairtie, and split your hair in four pieces.
2) Place holder horizontally so that it and the stick sandwich the hairtie (nothing but your hand is supporting the holder right now).
3) Loop the two bottom pieces up over the holder, down behind the hairstick, then cross them under the hairtie. Loop the top pieces down over the holder, up behind the hairstick, then cross them over the hairtie.
4) Weave the pieces up and down and horizontally to use up your length. If it helps, paid up the pieces so that you are only dealing with two now. Only crossing in front of the holder when the pieces are going very vertically.

I think this will create a little place for the carved flower to show through, and it could end up being a fairly secure bun.

[gnome82]

I prefer wearing my one hair stick in a bun updo most days :D

[Applegirl84]

LHC meetup fail! Not only did we not talk about hair, we never even let it down for show!

http://www.trolleypup.info/lhc/lazy-chinese-bun.gif
To start: gather hair as for a ponytail, poke stick through hair between hand and scalp, first figure 8 is down to my right and under the stick, cross over the stick and under to my left, cross over the stick and repeat for the 2nd figure 8, then wrap under the figure 8s to use up the remaining length, ending with the very end tucked under the bottom of the bun. I'm up to the third under wrap now..gravity holds it secure.
Oooh thanks for instructions! I can't wait to try it (though at BSL I'm not sure how well it will work)

[Kaelee]

LHC meetup fail! Not only did we not talk about hair, we never even let it down for show!

http://www.trolleypup.info/lhc/lazy-chinese-bun.gif
To start: gather hair as for a ponytail, poke stick through hair between hand and scalp, first figure 8 is down to my right and under the stick, cross over the stick and under to my left, cross over the stick and repeat for the 2nd figure 8, then wrap under the figure 8s to use up the remaining length, ending with the very end tucked under the bottom of the bun. I'm up to the third under wrap now..gravity holds it secure.

I don't think I could manage that, but it might work with a half up!

I was totally amazed by your hair by the way. So long and no taper apparent at all until the last 6-8 inches! :thud:

[hairconvictions]

And then there is another group here, Pentecostals, who are well known for their very beautiful and elaborate updos. I was at a craft fair recently, buying lemonade from a family of Pentecostal women, and one had a HUGE messy bun. She was taller than me and I was looking up at her bun from underneath in the back. Seriously, I counted 20+ pins holding it. It was so confusing. She had obviously pinned down each lock of hair separately. I couldn't see a bun form under there, and I doubt there was one, because her Mom an another lady were there, and they all had long hair and are known for not cutting. And the pins were strange looking from what I could see. Very wide and very thick. Not like an Amish pin, at all. I really wanted to ask her about it, but they were so incredibly busy every time I saw them... Her bun, though, was incredibly lovely from my vantage point. Not like anything I've seen, it looked like some kind of volcano of 3a curls that had been secured to her head with industrial staples...

I so badly wanted to show her how to use a hairstick. I had mine up with a single quattro stick, and it felt good to know I wasn't doing massive damage with tens of pins holding it up.

TiaKitty I LOVE that you posted this lol. As a Pentecostal, it's so interesting to see how another long hair views our *I'm biased* AWESOME hair dos- so I'm glad you got a bit of appreciation from it at least :P Most Pentecostals, at least the ones that I know, do know how to do protective styles and choose those most days. For example, one of the standards for my particular church says that you shouldn't leave your hair down in public at all. It's not a modesty thing, it's just to keep our hair from looking straggly and giving Christians a bad name. However, that being said, a lot of Pentecostals do very elaborate hair-dos for certain events, like you were describing a craft fair. There are a lot of feelings behind why, but the main ones are
1) we are sick of being known as frumpy "bun" people
2) we like the challenge, since most people have never cut their hair and they've had lots of practice
3) it's kind of nice to be noticed/identified by your hair (hair is a huge sense of self in the Pentecost faith for many of the ladies).

Anyways, that's my two cents! Sorry for the ramble- I'm just so in love with our Pentecost faith and our love for hair (even if we occasionally kill some of it with excessive hair spray lol)

[which.chick]

I tried the Trolleypup (can we call it that?) and it's actually not moving, which is kind of neat. I found the diagram was plenty to go on. It's pretty secure on me (and my slippery, dead-straight fine hair), which I found surprising because the tension in this bunnish thing is lower than my more typical nautilus. (I'm at BCL, so my hair is nowhere near as long as Trolleypup.)

[embee]

Thank you, Not Lynn Merely, I'll give this a try some time. :)

[trolleypup]

Oooh thanks for instructions! I can't wait to try it (though at BSL I'm not sure how well it will work)
If I remember from previous experiments, the key is the length to thickness ratio, not the actual length. Also requires some amount of taper. I imagine, using a single pin to secure the final wrap would help stability.

I don't think I could manage that, but it might work with a half up!

I was totally amazed by your hair by the way. So long and no taper apparent at all until the last 6-8 inches! :thud:
Or perhaps a half and half, with two stacked buns.

I actually have a pretty even taper all the way down.

I tried the Trolleypup (can we call it that?) and it's actually not moving, which is kind of neat. I found the diagram was plenty to go on. It's pretty secure on me (and my slippery, dead-straight fine hair), which I found surprising because the tension in this bunnish thing is lower than my more typical nautilus. (I'm at BCL, so my hair is nowhere near as long as Trolleypup.)
You can call it whatever you want! ;) I think, somewhere in the archives? it is described and names as a Lazy 8 (= the infinity symbol) Bun for the pattern and that it doesn't require twisting or securement.

Yes, low tension...another reason I like it. It does loosen up with time and movement (and especially tilting your head back), but it is so easy to redo.

[magfish]

Managed to pull off my first hair stick bun the other day and wore it to a show- no one noticed (not even the boyfriend, who does tend to notice when I have weird things in my hair like socks) but I felt super fancy. Now I'm hoping I can do an ACTUAL hair stick bun and not just whatever I managed to pull off (that didn't even look good) because my hair is still pretty short at APL. But yep, feelin pretty awesome!