THE UNDONE BUN

Photos/Post: Kristin Ess

We love a sleek, tight bun around here but sometimes you want to ease up and go a more relaxed route, ya know? Problem is, a lot of people try to create an undone look and the hair kinda just comes undone. But I got you, my boos. There’s a secret little trick I’ve been using for the last 20 years and it has always helped me get that perfectly imperfect look with little to no effort. Every time I put one of these undone hairstyles on my IG page I get lots of “But how???” comments. Well, let me show you the easiest trick in the book…

HAIR PREP: Start by giving the hair a little hold and texture. The more texture and support the better when it comes to undone looks. We prepped Emily’s hair with THIS MOUSSE ($$) from root to middle and then THIS SEA SALT SPRAY ($$$) on wet ends. (PS: I also love THIS ONE ($) as more affordable alternative.) Rough dry the hair with no brush, just your fingers. I always use THIS BLOW DRYER which does most of the work for you.

THE TRICK: Tie a SMALL CLEAR ELASTIC ($) toward the ends of your hair and use it as your anchor. Leave out whatever amount you want to appear to have fallen out. In other words, if you want just a little bit of fall out (like this bun below), put the elastic more toward the ends of your hair. If you want it to look more like the ponytail (pictured at the bottom of this page), you’d put the elastic up a little higher, leaving out more hair. Once the elastic is in place, twist your bun and pin it in place but let the tail part drop out. Spray with a MEDIUM HOLD HAIRSPRAY ($$) for extra support!

THE POINT: You’ll use the small clear elastic as your anchor to keep the whole thing from falling apart. You still pin around the bun as you normally would but this allows you to have those pieces drop down and not have your entire bun unravel.

Here’s a look a little further back.

And here’s a photo of it when you put the elastic up higher and do the same thing.

Ugh. We need a video for this, don’t we? I think we do.

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