Updos for fine, layered hair?

[PaddedPushUpBra]

I'm really bad at styling my own hair. In fact, anything that requires my hands to make something nice usually turns to disaster. Can you help recommend some easy styles for me? I have very fine hair, with choppy layers that begin around my ears. My hair has just reached bsl, and my goal is for the elbows.

Thanks so much!

[Melisande]

French twist, Gibson tuck, French braid - these were the styles I could wear when I had relatively short and layered hair. My hair is rather fine and is medium thick.

Mini-claws can help you to catch stray hairs, and I found that hair scroos keep fragile updos firmly in place. I don't like bobby pins so I always managed without them. Messy updos of all sorts may look good, too.

You may wish to invest in a good hairtoy of medium size, Flexi 8 and Ficcare are no hype but really superior in holding updos and making them look "finished".

[kwaniesiam]

Peacock twist! It's a messy, less formal looking style. My favorite hair toy for the job is a flexi8, but there are others out there that work.

[Katze]

I'm really bad at styling my own hair. In fact, anything that requires my hands to make something nice usually turns to disaster. Can you help recommend some easy styles for me? I have very fine hair, with choppy layers that begin around my ears. My hair has just reached bsl, and my goal is for the elbows.

Thanks so much!

hi, I have similar hair and updos are the hardest thing for me. Look at my profile pics for my terrible, messy updos.

Braiding the sides on brushed, sleeker (in my case "dirtier") hair helps contain the wispies and layers a bit and adds a nice retro, ethnic look that suits me, anyway.

Braiding then braiding the braids together and clipping them up works well, but might need practice.

Headbands can be used to hide layers, and barettes, bobby pins, mini claw clips to keep them in place.

Twist-and-clip is simple and you can do a lot of variations of it - brush hair smooth (since you didn't post a hairtype, I am assuming your hair is messy and frizzy like mine) and tuck ends in for a French twist. Leave them out (this doesn't work for me, as my ends are damaged and look bad) for a Peacock twist.

Or you can simply twist your hair up any which way, clip with with a claw, big barette, Ficcare, or lots of mini claw clips, then put on a headband to hold layers in front in place.

Many of the updos here don't work on my hair because of the state of my ends, and because of my terrible "scalp cleavage" - it is hard to get my hair to lay on my head in a tidy way. The above-mentioned 'dos are about all I can manage until my hair at least thickens and lengthens a bit more.

hth!

[logica_divina]

My hair's nowhere near to being fine, in fact, it's very thick. However, I do have layers that don't allow me to make a decent updo except cinnabun or french twist, so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as well.

[Katze]

My hair's nowhere near to being fine, in fact, it's very thick. However, I do have layers that don't allow me to make a decent updo except cinnabun or french twist, so I'll be keeping an eye on this thread as well.

Your hair can be fine as well as thick. There is a difference between thin hair and fine hair, which is why we have the hairtyping categories.

Fine hair with layers has its own challenges, IMO, because fine hair hangs differently from M or C hair, and layers on long fine hair can lead to see-through, thin looking ends.

There are some excellent threads on updos with layers, but I am not very good at searching...see if you can find them. Lots of people have this problem!

[logica_divina]

My bad. I somehow regarded fine and thin hair as identical. I'm pretty familiar with the hairtyping categories though. I guess I could blame only three hours of sleep I had last night hehe..
Anyway, I was actually refering to my "problem" which is layers of very thick and coarse individual strands constantly poking through and making any updo a "casual, messy one" :)
Again, sorry about the missunderstanding.
Love.
logica_divina

[Kirin]

You might want to invest in a topsy tail. It can help create some pretty intricate looking hairstyle updo's with relative ease. My favorite is to do a half amount of hair high pony in the back with it, (which contains shorter layers) then braid the remainder of hair, and turn it up, clipping above the topsy tail base on the high part of my head with a pretty clip.

Not sure if I am explaining it right, but it looks great and also looks complicated.

[Fantak]

I love braids, it'll keep your hair safe and the layers that escape the braid(s) look cute because they frame your face.

I tend towards a more messy look. What I usually do is hold my hair with my thumb and forefinger in a pony tail then twist it a few times just above the fingers holding the pony tail with my other hand like I was making a loose bun. I then hold the bun up with a claw clip across the top. It's very loose which means I usually have to grab and twist again after a few hours, but it's so easy to do it doesn't bother me I don't even need a mirror :)