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Spinder
December 9th, 2015, 05:21 AM
I've tried and tried and for the life of me I cannot figure out how to actually insert hair sticks so that they actually stay IN my hair. I've tried every angle and position and they don't hold at all and pretty much just fall right out.

I've been told to "thread it up and down slightly like a sewing needle", but when I try that I end up just painfully pulling at strands. And it's still too loose and falls out. :(

Do you need to use other bits and bobs besides just the stick? I really dislike having to use a dozen different clips and pins and whatnot, so I was hoping I'd be able to use a stick and nothing else.

bunneh.
December 9th, 2015, 05:29 AM
https://youtu.be/ZHQwLBvwoZE?t=3m8s

I tried this with a pencil and it worked. If it pulls on your hair too much, your bun might be too tight, try making it looser. I did a loose bun and sticked a pencil in and it was very comfortable, not tight at all and it didn't pull on my hair.

Wosie
December 9th, 2015, 05:40 AM
The first thought which popped into my head was "how long is your hair?"... Because the length of your hair really determines how easy it'll be to use hair sticks without them pulling really hard at your scalp (or them falling out). When my hair was around APL it was really tough to use hair sticks, and they often fell out in the middle of walking somewhere (due to the bobbing motion of one's head when walking). ´xP

neko_kawaii
December 9th, 2015, 05:42 AM
It really depends on the construction of the bun. Easy ones to start with are center held such as the Nautilus. It took me a few months of practice before I could hold a cinnabun with a stick using the in-out technique.

neko_kawaii
December 9th, 2015, 05:43 AM
The first thought which popped into my head was "how long is your hair?"... Because the length of your hair really determines how easy it'll be to use hair sticks without them pulling really hard at your scalp (or them falling out). When my hair was around APL it was really tough to use hair sticks, and they often fell out in the middle of walking somewhere (due to the bobbing motion of one's head when walking). ´xP

This too. If your hair is shorter, try the Disc Bun.

Nique1202
December 9th, 2015, 05:52 AM
It depends on the type of bun you're trying to do.

For a basic cinnabun (twist the hair up on itself until it coils up into a bun shape on your head) as long as your ends are tucked underneath, the video bunneh. linked to above is basically it. You grab bun on the first insertion, grab scalp hair, and weave between bun and scalp all the way back through. If this doesn't hold, your hair may not be long enough to do these buns. Don't get discouraged. Give it six months and try again.

For center-held buns (disc, lazy wrap, nautilus, etc) you just go in one "hole" where your fingers are, under the middle lump (this is where you get the scalp hair), and back out the other side where your fingers are. If you're having trouble with cinnabuns, try the disc bun (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iViNkltTb9Y). This is the first bun I was able to do reliably.

lapushka
December 9th, 2015, 06:59 AM
First of all, how long is your hair and do your buns stay put well? Can you manage a bun? Only then can you blame inserting the stick wrong.

Knifegill
December 9th, 2015, 07:02 AM
I couldn't do it at first, took about two weeks to get it to stay! Watch like 30 tutorials! I liked the twist and poke under type when my hair was too short, but now that I'm longer than shoulder, I can twist into a real bun and do the stick up through and then over and down, I have to redo it sometimes because it's easy to overtighten.

But don't believe any lies about your hair being too slippery or smooth, it's all technique.

Anje
December 9th, 2015, 07:11 AM
It really depends on the construction of the bun. Easy ones to start with are center held such as the Nautilus. It took me a few months of practice before I could hold a cinnabun with a stick using the in-out technique.

This. Some buns hold much more readily with sticks than others. Look for some videos for the Lazy Wrap Bun and Disc Bun on YouTube and try those. This one is exactly how I do mine; the twisting helps it hold better for my slippery hair. https://youtu.be/b3LWSGiDBbk

The "sewing" thing doesn't really work for me either. It's just uncomfortable.

meteor
December 9th, 2015, 08:35 AM
A lot depends on the length, thickness, texture, type of ends (layers or FTE or blunt), how slippery the hair is and the structure of the bun... So it's hard to tell what's going wrong without knowing more about your hair and without knowing specifically which bun you are trying to do.

The basic pinning motion with hairstick is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWf4ElyLAAE but if the hair is too short or too long for this, you might have better luck with claw-clips (more teeth for more grip) or forks (the more prongs the better it will hold on shorter hair) or Ficcares/Fakkares and other clips with clasping action...

Twisting hair and especially braiding it before bunning really, really helps, as it creates more textured grip for the stick to hold onto. Accent braids or braiding at the scalp area helps for the same reason. Check out the simplified Ellingwoman Braided Bun, it's almost self-holding.

spidermom
December 9th, 2015, 09:25 AM
I know how that is. It took months for me to achieve a stick-held bun that stayed. Keep watching tutorials and trying. Eventually it will "click".

Arete
December 9th, 2015, 11:01 AM
It took me awhile to get them to work too, even with sufficient length hair. Just like other things, it's a skill. I do them the same way the video bunneh posted does.

Ephemia
December 9th, 2015, 11:51 AM
I second what Spidermom said, it's very much trial and error. I've been trying for weeks to figure out how to make comfortable buns which stay comfortable and survive my journey to college, and I'm having to figure it out independently for each bun. I don't know how long your hair is, but I can give you some tips that have worked for me.

Disc buns hold excellently when done well. When you make one you want to make sure you're wrapping your hair over the same place, so you're piling it up on top of itself and kind of creating a ring around the centre. You don't want to be making a spiral, the finished bun will look odd from the side and probably won't hold as well. It took me a while to work out why my buns were looking odd, and it turned out I wasn't wrapping properly.

Now, when I put a stick into a disc bun, I start by grabbing a little bit of hair from the centre, and then I slide the stick along my scalp. How much scalp hair I grab depends on how easily the stick's moving. If it's going quite easily then the bun's probably too loose and so I push the stick through the centre and out the other side. If it feels secure, I just go under the centre and out the other side. Sometimes I grab a little bit of hair from the centre as I'm collecting scalp hair.

For a nautilus, you want it to be fairly tight. My hair, being average thickness and calf length, needs a loop which I create with my whole hand and then push open so that it rests just in front of my knuckles. You'll have to experiment here. You should be able to find the edge of the outer loop and put the stick in there, and it needs to come out over the loop on the other side. Along the way, you'll want to grab a bit of scalp hair on either side of the centre as well as a bit of the centre itself, which should be easy to get the stick into. If it's not, you made the loop too small.

The LWB I haven't figured out just yet, but I've come to the conclusion that my loops are too big. I plan to try using a similar technique to my other two, but attempting to make my loops smaller (which I'm not really sure how to do as I only wrap around one finger and don't stretch my thumb as much as I used to).

I hope some of that helps! :flower:

embee
December 9th, 2015, 04:43 PM
As said before, it depends on how long your hair is and what type of bun you're trying to make.

When I started with a stick, I found it much better to make a ponytail, with an elastic. It gave the stick something to hold to. After a while I had figured it out and didn't need the elastic any longer.

My go-to bun used a single stick, nothing else. It holds all day.

ebaviisakas
December 9th, 2015, 05:08 PM
I had the same problem, my hair is really slippery so the sticks would just come out. Something that worked for me was braided buns, braid it before (either from ponytail or french braid) and then bun it. Lasts all day.

Entangled
December 9th, 2015, 05:20 PM
If your hair is shorter, there's a cheater version of Spidermom's bun that I found to be secure. Bunch your hair in a like making a ponytail, then wrap it all around one or two fingers. Wrap the majority of the hair around the base of the ponytail, tucking your ends in when finished. Then, feel the hair wrapped around your fingers. Split it in half (I use a stick) and push the stick down in the middle of the loop. Wiggle it through the center of the bun, then pull the other half of the hair in your fingers down and stick the stick up through that loop. It's like having a flexi-eight made of your own hair.

meteor
December 9th, 2015, 06:41 PM
I had the same problem, my hair is really slippery so the sticks would just come out. Something that worked for me was braided buns, braid it before (either from ponytail or french braid) and then bun it. Lasts all day.

^ I definitely agree. :agree: Anything braided holds much tighter.


If your hair is shorter, there's a cheater version of Spidermom's bun that I found to be secure. Bunch your hair in a like making a ponytail, then wrap it all around one or two fingers. Wrap the majority of the hair around the base of the ponytail, tucking your ends in when finished. Then, feel the hair wrapped around your fingers. Split it in half (I use a stick) and push the stick down in the middle of the loop. Wiggle it through the center of the bun, then pull the other half of te hair in your fingers down and stick te stick up through that loop. It's like having a flexi-eight made of your own hair.

^ Sounds really awesome! :thumbsup:
I wonder is there a video tutorial or a pictorial on this somewhere on the internet, for visual learners? :hmm:

Entangled
December 9th, 2015, 07:31 PM
^ Sounds really awesome! :thumbsup:
I wonder is there a video tutorial or a pictorial on this somewhere on the internet, for visual learners? :hmm:

I know there is somewhere...that's how I learned. I'll see what I can find. It was in a video that showed several variations of Spidermom's bun.

EdG
December 9th, 2015, 09:33 PM
It took me 1-2 months to learn how to make a bun that held reliably with sticks.

Success depends on one's hair type. Waist-length or longer hair is needed. Tapered ends help. The nautilus bun is the easiest to make hold. The cinnabun is harder because the sticks have to prevent rotation. I still can't make a lazy wrap bun, despite the name.

I too recommend the Youtube videos from several LHC'ers.
Ed

gthlvrmx
December 9th, 2015, 11:57 PM
If your hair is shorter, there's a cheater version of Spidermom's bun that I found to be secure. Bunch your hair in a like making a ponytail, then wrap it all around one or two fingers. Wrap the majority of the hair around the base of the ponytail, tucking your ends in when finished. Then, feel the hair wrapped around your fingers. Split it in half (I use a stick) and push the stick down in the middle of the loop. Wiggle it through the center of the bun, then pull the other half of te hair in your fingers down and stick te stick up through that loop. It's like having a flexi-eight made of your own hair.

I like this bun now! I tried it and it works! :) It's simple, thank you!

Entangled
December 10th, 2015, 07:37 AM
I like this bun now! I tried it and it works! :) It's simple, thank you!

You're welcome! It was the first bun I was able to do consistently.