The Lizard Wife
October 24th, 2020, 05:05 PM
So, I like the Disc bun (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=137377&page=5&p=3509639&viewfull=1#post3509639) because it's one my hair will actually consent to do, and for me it's sturdy and comfy. But I do it solely as a topknot (drastic undercut, tender scalp, etc), so it makes a sort of fan-shape that is probably trendy but not really for me, and also causes people to call me Pebbles from The Flintstones, especially when I use a large stick.
With a little more length I can also do the 3-strand disc bun (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/entry.php?b=125332), which is a little more work but it's also sturdy and comfy, and I feel it looks more elegant as a topknot as it has a more rounded, cinnabun-type shape. I also really like the two-sticks look since the sticks don't actually cross (which would pull hairs and give me tension headaches), and instead I get a lovely V shape.
In the 3-strand tutorial above, Arctic mentions a hypothetical 4-strand disc bun, but hadn't been able to get it to work yet. At the time I first read the tutorial I tried it out of curiosity, and didn't have any better luck (I'm pretty sure I tried putting the sticks parallel to avoid crossing them, which doesn't hold at all.) But in the meantime, has anyone figured out a good working 4-strand disc bun? I don't see it in the Hairstyle Thesaurus, but.
I think I've come up with two potential ways a 4-strand might work, so I wanted to share my methods and see if anyone else wanted to test it out, to see if it's actually viable or if it's just a fluke of my hair. I've been doing these with very dirty hair, so it's like using a lot of product to get a good hold. I might be getting false positive results here.
1st Method
- Gather hair into a ponytail at the height you want the bun to be. The directions for other disc buns say you can use a ponytail holder if you like; I never do. Because I am right-handed, I hold my ponytail in my left hand so I can wrap with my right.
- Divide the ponytail into 4 equal sections; you'll hold each section in one of the spaces between your fingers. So one section between thumb and pointer; pointer and middle; middle and ring; ring and pinky. Make sure the sections are properly separated by raking through them.
- On a 2-strand disc I always do the section on the right counter-clockwise, then the section on the left clockwise. I do the same idea with this bun, except that I have 2 right sections and 2 left sections. So: I take the outer right section, wrap it over my pinky going counter-clockwise to make a loop, and continue wrapping around the base of the ponytail, making sure to tuck the ends of the tail. The size your loop needs to be will depend on the size the base of your ponytail will be after you've wrapped all the sections around it--so for more length and thickness, you'll want to manually loosen the loop to make it bigger before you wrap. You may have to experiment to figure out how big your loops need to be. Also: one of the selling points of a disc bun is that you don't have to twist your hair, but I always twist at least the loop and a small part of the first wrap, and then usually don't bother to continue twisting down the rest of the section. I don't know if it makes a difference, but it makes me feel like my straight hair behaves better and the loops have better tension that way.
- Next I take the inner right section wrap it over my ring finger going counter-clockwise to make a loop, and continue wrapping around the base of the ponytail, making sure to tuck the ends of the tail. Then I take the outer left section, wrap it over my thumb clockwise to make a loop, continue wrapping, etc. Then finally the inner right section, wrapped over my pointer clockwise to make a loop.
- Now I use a pair of hair sticks, which will cross in an X shape. The first stick will go in through the ring finger loop, go under the wrapped base of the bun, and come straight out the other side to exit through the thumb loop. It's a little awkward trying to extricate your fingers, but I find for me it gets easier with practice and because I twist the hair that's making the loops. Depending on how you want your sticks arranged, you have a little wiggle room to rotate the bun slightly to make your sticks more of an x or a +, if that makes sense. The second stick will go in through the pinky loop, go under the wrapped base of the bun and cross under the other stick, and come straight out the other side to exit through the pointer loop. I didn't write down exactly what I did here, but if your second set of loops aren't already arranged so that the sticks will cross, you'll want to make sure you maneuver one to one side of the first stick and the other to the opposite side of the first stick, if that makes sense. One will need to be at the top and one at the bottom.
I found that this did seem to work, and crossing the sticks wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, but while the bun was very steady on the bottom stick, the bun would wobble on its axis if I touched the stick on top. Not enough to be an issue with a small bun, but it bothered me. This bun is taller than the 3-strand, but it's still more rounded than oblong like the regular disc is for me.
So I came up with an alternative experiment that I thought might be better.
(My post was too long because I'm too wordy when I explain! 2nd Method will be in the comments, along with some pictures for comparison.)
With a little more length I can also do the 3-strand disc bun (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/entry.php?b=125332), which is a little more work but it's also sturdy and comfy, and I feel it looks more elegant as a topknot as it has a more rounded, cinnabun-type shape. I also really like the two-sticks look since the sticks don't actually cross (which would pull hairs and give me tension headaches), and instead I get a lovely V shape.
In the 3-strand tutorial above, Arctic mentions a hypothetical 4-strand disc bun, but hadn't been able to get it to work yet. At the time I first read the tutorial I tried it out of curiosity, and didn't have any better luck (I'm pretty sure I tried putting the sticks parallel to avoid crossing them, which doesn't hold at all.) But in the meantime, has anyone figured out a good working 4-strand disc bun? I don't see it in the Hairstyle Thesaurus, but.
I think I've come up with two potential ways a 4-strand might work, so I wanted to share my methods and see if anyone else wanted to test it out, to see if it's actually viable or if it's just a fluke of my hair. I've been doing these with very dirty hair, so it's like using a lot of product to get a good hold. I might be getting false positive results here.
1st Method
- Gather hair into a ponytail at the height you want the bun to be. The directions for other disc buns say you can use a ponytail holder if you like; I never do. Because I am right-handed, I hold my ponytail in my left hand so I can wrap with my right.
- Divide the ponytail into 4 equal sections; you'll hold each section in one of the spaces between your fingers. So one section between thumb and pointer; pointer and middle; middle and ring; ring and pinky. Make sure the sections are properly separated by raking through them.
- On a 2-strand disc I always do the section on the right counter-clockwise, then the section on the left clockwise. I do the same idea with this bun, except that I have 2 right sections and 2 left sections. So: I take the outer right section, wrap it over my pinky going counter-clockwise to make a loop, and continue wrapping around the base of the ponytail, making sure to tuck the ends of the tail. The size your loop needs to be will depend on the size the base of your ponytail will be after you've wrapped all the sections around it--so for more length and thickness, you'll want to manually loosen the loop to make it bigger before you wrap. You may have to experiment to figure out how big your loops need to be. Also: one of the selling points of a disc bun is that you don't have to twist your hair, but I always twist at least the loop and a small part of the first wrap, and then usually don't bother to continue twisting down the rest of the section. I don't know if it makes a difference, but it makes me feel like my straight hair behaves better and the loops have better tension that way.
- Next I take the inner right section wrap it over my ring finger going counter-clockwise to make a loop, and continue wrapping around the base of the ponytail, making sure to tuck the ends of the tail. Then I take the outer left section, wrap it over my thumb clockwise to make a loop, continue wrapping, etc. Then finally the inner right section, wrapped over my pointer clockwise to make a loop.
- Now I use a pair of hair sticks, which will cross in an X shape. The first stick will go in through the ring finger loop, go under the wrapped base of the bun, and come straight out the other side to exit through the thumb loop. It's a little awkward trying to extricate your fingers, but I find for me it gets easier with practice and because I twist the hair that's making the loops. Depending on how you want your sticks arranged, you have a little wiggle room to rotate the bun slightly to make your sticks more of an x or a +, if that makes sense. The second stick will go in through the pinky loop, go under the wrapped base of the bun and cross under the other stick, and come straight out the other side to exit through the pointer loop. I didn't write down exactly what I did here, but if your second set of loops aren't already arranged so that the sticks will cross, you'll want to make sure you maneuver one to one side of the first stick and the other to the opposite side of the first stick, if that makes sense. One will need to be at the top and one at the bottom.
I found that this did seem to work, and crossing the sticks wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, but while the bun was very steady on the bottom stick, the bun would wobble on its axis if I touched the stick on top. Not enough to be an issue with a small bun, but it bothered me. This bun is taller than the 3-strand, but it's still more rounded than oblong like the regular disc is for me.
So I came up with an alternative experiment that I thought might be better.
(My post was too long because I'm too wordy when I explain! 2nd Method will be in the comments, along with some pictures for comparison.)