is there some magic length for all the cool buns?

[laurarvt]

I' m almost at waist, probably another 2 inches or so, and all I can really do is a cinnabun I feel like.....like my hair just isn't long enough. Did you just wake up one day and were able to do different buns well? Thank you!

[Kayla Nyx]

well, I always thought that would have to happen to me. I am at BSL, and I can do a baby cinnabun, I can do the chinese bun (not braided, to many layers x.x) and the pencil bun (which I really like) I haven't really tried anything else

[Anje]

Depends a lot on your thickness and how much your hair tapers. For me, I started to be able to make a bunch of cool buns (celtic knots, well-balanced infinities, and so on) when I was at about tailbone length; looking back, I could probably do most of them at about hip, but I didn't have them figured out at the time.

Your hair is thicker than mine, lauravt, if you're ii/iii. I've only got a 2.5" circumference, which is on the smaller side of ii. Depending on your taper, you'll probably need about tailbone to do what I could at hip.

[Madora]

Waist length made buns much easier. Also, how you section them tends to make them easier to accomplish.

[MissManda]

My updo repertoire increased a little once I got past waist length, but I was still limited to mostly non-twist styles and couldn't do any kind of knot with all of my hair.

[Lapin]

with shoulder-grazing, you can do... yeah. the most i can do is a simple twist bun, secured with a stick (and some pins. i have to cheat).

i am stocking up with combs and sticks and i am brushing up on my braiding skills. i will get through this no-mans land and enter the realm of pretty, pretty buns!

[thelittlestdoc]

I'm at BSL now and the fun buns I could do in high school when it was around waist are still pretty impossible. I also have a few more layers now than I did at waist, so I'm sure that has an effect.:cool:

[Emerald88]

I am a little past classic and if I were to cut back to waist length I would still be able to do all the styles I can do now. It takes a little practice if you are only used to doing a cinnamon bun. Youtube has great tutorials. Check out torrinpaige.

[darklyndsea]

You can probably learn how to do a lazy wrap bun at your length. My hair's thicker than yours, and I learned how to do one at halfway between BSL and waist. It's hard to find tutorials for it with thick hair, though!

I think the thing that's worst about having thick hair is how long it takes until you're able to do hairstyles. I'm nowhere close to being able to do any hairstyle that needs more than one bun coil, or any sort of knot bun. Meanwhile, people with thinner hair can probably make like 12 bun loops at waist length. :p

[eshta]

I'm just a little past waist and depending on what day after washing it is I can make (very tight) infinities/ figure 8, knot buns and orchid buns, but they do drop out quickly. They're not secure buns yet. I do have a lot of layers so that's maybe why I'm able to make them (and why they keep dropping out).
I was at waist length with no layers and an U shaped hemline about a year ago and couldn't make them.

Lazy wraps are my go to style, I could make them somewhere between APL and BSL. And braids are great to keep your hair contained and tangle free when buns are just not working.

[Masara]

As others have said, it's thickness (or lack of it) that probably has the most effect on which buns can be done when. I think I could do most buns by the time I got to tailbone. When I say "can" I mean I had long enough hair, not that I was actually capable. I've only just mastered a comfortable, firm Celtic knot recently.
One technique to be able to do more interesting buns at a shorter length is to split the hair into several sections; with thicker hair this allows each section to go further and with thinner hair it makes it look like you've got more. I was doing rose buns at APL/BSL by doing two rope braids instead of one and braided Chinese buns from twin French/Dutch braids...

[QueenOfTheSkye]

Not sure if this is the right place for it, but what buns can you do with pretty thin APL-ish hair?

[nobeltonya]

I use sticks for just about all of mine.. because I don't have any other nifty toys, and they just work: lazy wrap, cinnamon, figure-8 [still can't get infinity to stay right..], artemis, hypno-swirl, hypno-artemis, equilibrium, ... I can do most of hypnotica's buns at least moderately well [some don't turn out exactly right, but they still work :)]. I'd love a nice fork for some of them. *sighs*