Grrrr....adorable Pony Buns Versus My Freak Hair

[JCFantasy23]

I was all excited tonight to try the pony bun on my hair, where the hair is wrapped in a bun and then pulled through as a pony tail. :cheese: It didn't take long to realize my hair is not long enough to do it that way, then I noticed it is recommended for waist long hair, which I don't have (sigh) Mine is mid-back right now.

I then tried the work around version of using the crown of your hair and then pulling the rest through as a pony tail, but it kept falling apart when I was trying to create it and ending up tangled and I just couldn't get the hang of it.

The reason I say my hair is a freak mess is because when I divide it like this it looks anemic. I just dont have much hair anymore compared to before. :( It's weird because it does not look like that when laying down and looks almost thick, although it's not, or like I have a lot of it, which I don't. I think it's because of the body my hair has when laying flat. If I put it into any kind of claw it looks full too.

But ponytails make my hair look thin and barely there :( I was thinking to try and curl the pony tail with normal tails to get it a mild illusion of more hair and fullness, but any tricks on making a pony bun using the crown of the hair? I just can't figure it out!

[JCFantasy23]

Oh, and found the link to the instructions I was following:

http://www.dressytresses.com/hair/gallery/instruct/hair-knot/

[Wavelength]

Actually, I couldn't do this style either until my hair was just above waist. Now my hair is tailbone length, so while I can do this style, my hair is heavier now and it tends to pull on my scalp unless I put the hairsticks in exactly the right place.

So I don't have any advice for you, unfortunately. But I feel your pain.

[kali_shey]

That's how a lot of my buns ended up looking like before I went back to using elastics (my hair would just ...unravel without a base. Too heavy) ..although obviously not as pretty as that.

I can't offer any helpful advice but I have a lot of problems figuring this stuff out, too, so don't feel too badly.

It probably just takes practice :)

Good luck!

[JCFantasy23]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I guess I'm just impatient and want pretty up-dos :)

[sneakybea]

I have waist length hair, and I have to say, when I wear my hair in a ponytail bun, I end up with a really short tail. That is just a length eating hairstyle, and to be honest, I don't know how I got it to look the way it does in my signature picture, except that I think I used a ponytail elastic first.
I am wondering if it is possible to do a ponytail sock bun? I've done a ponytail bun with a hairagami before (when my hair was shorter or my arms were longer) and you can do some of the same styles with the sock bun technique. But it might make what you refer to as the "anemic look" worse.
Good luck!

[Nat242]

My hair is brushing hip and I still can't do this style - well, I can, but it looks terrible.

ETA: This was my 2000th post! I talk a lot.

[plainjanegirl]

I wish someone would do a video of this style. I tried it the other day but not sure if I did it right. I had to use alot of pins to hold the bun part up and the pony was short and messy looking.

[Stevy]

I always end up with a short thin tail too. I generally end up braiding it and wrapping it round the original knot rather than letting it hang.

[Euphony]

My hair is to my tail bone when pulled straight with layers at the shortest is bsl and I can 'just now' do that style...but my tail is very short and quit thin since most of my hair won't go through the bun so it looks freakish. So don't feel bad at all, that's one of those styles that requires a lot of length.

[teela1978]

Instead of a half-up, twin buns might work better at your length if you really want pony buns.

[LadyEliza]

I'm 47, so I'm old and you have to listen to me... lol

yeah, right!

well, here is my advice anyway.

Find styles that look nice in your hair. Do THOSE ones. They will change as your hair grows and changes, so you will be able to add to your list, and sometimes you have to drop some off your list as your hair gets too long for it.

But if you do a style and your hair doesn't look good in that style, just tick it off as one of the ones not to do!!!

I remember this pony tail hair bun from many years ago on another list when it was put forward as a way for someone with very long hair (classic and beyond) to have short hair for a day without cutting it! The lady demonstrating it then had knee or below and ended up with waist length!!!

[JCFantasy23]

I'm 47, so I'm old and you have to listen to me... lol

yeah, right!

well, here is my advice anyway.

Find styles that look nice in your hair. Do THOSE ones. They will change as your hair grows and changes, so you will be able to add to your list, and sometimes you have to drop some off your list as your hair gets too long for it.

But if you do a style and your hair doesn't look good in that style, just tick it off as one of the ones not to do!!!

I remember this pony tail hair bun from many years ago on another list when it was put forward as a way for someone with very long hair (classic and beyond) to have short hair for a day without cutting it! The lady demonstrating it then had knee or below and ended up with waist length!!!


Thanks, that's good advice. It's easy to get frustrated but I suppose I need to focus on what you said. Now to find those hairstyles :) I have been wearing my hair forever up in a banana clip by just twisting it and letting some of the hair stick up in the back, looks adorable. Bad thing is now it keeps falling out no matter what. I don't think my hair has lengthened by when I asked my boyfriend, he says it has, so perhaps it is getting too long for this style and now I need to find another casual one I like. :poot:

[missmanytoes]

I did this style when I was (much) younger then forgot about it due to a hair shortage. Back in the day I know my hair did not reach waist because I hit that last year and for me it marked the longest my hair has ever been. IIRC when my hair was shorter I'd do this style while my hair was wet (holds better than dry hair) and I'd use a ponytail holder to make a high pony but not twist the hair as I was knotting it...and the knot had to be tight! Since this was in the years before I found hair sticks, I'd just depend on that high, wet pony to hold (and probably a good size dollop of mousse - I remember distinctly being proud of not using any pins) and who knows why, but it did hold! Of course, I probably can't duplicate that feat 15 years later unless I use sticks ;)

[eadwine]

I can do this but it gives me a baby ponytail :lol:

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1259/ponystubga3.th.jpg (http://img509.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ponystubga3.jpg)


Edit: mind this was done over six months ago, so my hair wasn't BSL yet.

[plainjanegirl]

I can do this but it gives me a baby ponytail :lol:

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/1259/ponystubga3.th.jpg (http://img509.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ponystubga3.jpg)



yours still looks better than mine.

[LaurelSpring]

This suggestion may not work for this style. I havent tried it, but I have pretty fine past BSL hair and I have started adding in some fake hair to my pony and now I am able to pull off some styles that I couldnt do before. It really beefs up my circumference and gives me alot of grab. So for now sometimes I am faking it until I make it.

[AmyJorgensen]

The pony bun was my first style, actually. I had to use 2 hairsticks woven in an x in the bun to secure it. Now I prefer to do an infinity bun and just not tuck or pin up the excess...so I have about a 4 or 5 inch pony tail sticking out below and between the two loops of the infinity bun....I think it is much cuter.

[Red Rapunzel]

[quote=JCFantasy23;489910]I was all excited tonight to try the pony bun on my hair, where the hair is wrapped in a bun and then pulled through as a pony tail. I just dont have much hair anymore compared to before. Ponytails make my hair look thin and barely there. JC Fantasy, I empathize completely with your frustration about your thin ponytails and have to say, the thinning only gets worse with age!! My hair has thinned down to about one-fifth of what I used to have in my teens!! You might consider having your thyroid hormone checked because being hypothyroid can also lead to thinning of hair (I know from experience!) I had great frustration when trying to follow Torrinpaige's instructions about making a braided sock bun. The sock bun looked great, but the braids ended up so thin in the middle and toward the ends, that when I wrapped them around the bun you could only see a noticeable braid on one side!! It is frustrating not to have the end-results that Torrinpaige has even though I follow her directions fully. For instance, when I made her updo using the Linzer clips, it definitely didn't have that wonderfully full look that hers had. Looked anemic. Well, we people with thinner hair just have to deal with what we have and make the most of it. I am considering simply buying a braid in my hair color to wrap around my wonderful sock bun. Would that be so wrong?? I think we should use anything we need to use to get the look we want. For instance, you could just buy a full ponytail in your hair color to get the look you want. Probably no one would even know that you had done so because you say that your hair looks thick when down so they would just assume it was all your hair. The other thing we thinner-hair people have to do is realize what works best for our hair quantity. You know what makes your hair look best - You already said that wearing it down makes it look thick (lucky you!) - so wear it down a lot!! You say it looks thick in a claw too - so wear claws whenever you wear your hair up. In other words, maximize what you have by wearing the styles that you know make it look thicker. For the other styles, just use bought hair to fill them out. One day, I clipped on my partial wig (I call it my wig-hat) which only has about a 4" in diameter cap and only supplements with a small to moderate amount of just below shoulder-length hair in my hair color. Then I tried doing some of Torrinpaige's updos. This time, my finished buns etc. looked a lot more like hers - just by adding a little extra hair to mine with the "wig-hat" I came closer to getting the look I wanted. I'm not advocating using supplemental hair most of the time, just using it for those times when you can't get the look you want with the amount of hair you have in certain updos, ponytails etc. I got so many admiring looks when I used my wig-hat for my updos!! It was refreshing!! I also use the wig-hat when my hair is just too frizzy or too wavy (so I won't have to iron it). It provides a smooth, shiny fuller look for the top hairs and then my natural length can still be seen in the updo. And it feels like "I'm not wearing nuttin". I hope these suggestions help you make the most of your hair thickness! Red Rapunzel

[Sissy]

I love the look of the ponytail bun and now I want to try it! I like the looks of the half-up one. I think it will be OK looking even if you do just have a small amount of hair sticking out. It's still cute I think!

[Nevermore]

I can just barely do this style now and my hair is just above hip/32.5 inches. My advice is that you get a topsy tail or another tool (possibly even one of those jelly bracelets) to help you pull the tail through. I can make a paint diagram for you if this doesn't make sense.

[akka naeda]

I remember this pony tail hair bun from many years ago on another list when it was put forward as a way for someone with very long hair (classic and beyond) to have short hair for a day without cutting it! The lady demonstrating it then had knee or below and ended up with waist length!!!

That's what happens to my hair when I wear it in a similar way, I twist the hair round my wrist and then pull the tail through rather than using an elastic. It shortens from knee to waist and it really exaggerates the "thin" ends. They're ii thickness, but compared with my nape thickness (iii) they look like rat-tails.

[JamieLeigh]

I've actually been doing these since my hair was above waist length...maybe it has something to do with thickness? I've never had any trouble with it! :confused: Of course now it makes my ponytail look waist-length. I don't use anything to hold it up, it just sort of stays. Of course, when I braid the tail and wrap it back around, like I posted in the forum a couple of weeks ago, I had to use 4 regular bobby pins to keep the braid still.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=2327&pictureid=32697