The Perfect Ballet Bun

1. Use damp or dirty hair for best results. (Very wet hair is hard to pull back into a smooth pony tail, but fresh clean dry hair is hard to wrap to make a bun.)

2. Brush, Comb and smooth out hair. This is important! Don't skip this step!

3. Make a pony tail at the crown of your head, take your pointer fingers to the top of your ears, and drag them back and up until they meet in the middle- that's the spot. Make the pony tail tight and hair as tight to your head as you can.

4. Twist or braid the pony tail. (I find that if you have really thick hair or a lot of hair, making three braids works well.)

5. Wrap the twisted or braided pony tail around the base of the pony tail, like a snail or sea shell pattern.

6. Tuck the end of the tail under the bun.

7a. For Performances: Take a hair net (one that the color is the closest match to your hair color) and place it over your free hand while the other hand holds the bun in place. Grab the bun with your hair netted hand and pull the extra netting away fromt he bun. Twist the net once and put it over the bun again. Tuck the tail end of the net under the bun.

7b. If using a yarn bun cover: Hold the bun with one hand. With the other hand, flip the bun cover inside out, and put your hand on the inside so that you can grab the top of the bun cover with your hand. Take the cover with your hand and grab the bun through the cover. Let go of the bun with the original hand and flip the ends of the cover over the bun.

8. Secure the bun with HAIR PINS not bobby pins. Hair pins are the open ones. You need to catch the base of the bun to the head with at least 8 pins going around the base of the bun. I find it works best to put one at the top, bottom, right and left of the bun, and then in between all of those you can put as many as you need.

9. You can use clips and bobby pins to pin back bangs and whispies.

10. Spray the bun and the whispies (usually the back of the neck and by the ears are the tricky parts).

Voila you have a perfect ballet bun! 

Remember it takes practice the more you do it, the faster it becomes second nature.

Extra Credit: grab the finished bun with your hand and try to move it around and or shake your head like a wild woman! If the bun moves... redo it, it will most likely fall out during turns and jumps in ballet class.