How to do a ballet bun revisted

For new visitors, here is a revisit of how to do a ballet bun.

I am often asked how to do a ballet bun. So that is what we are going to do today! This is us getting ready for ballet this morning. The twists are totally optional - I just like them and thought I'd throw them in there as they are cool just to wear with a pony too.So you start with the T- part, down the centre and across the head. Then you take the back bit of the hair and put it in a nice tight pony. Then take one of the front parts brush it back nice and smooth and then start twisting in towards the centre of the head - once you get to the pony you secure it in with a second elastic.
You repeat with the other side so that by the end you have a pony with three elastics. This is a great do just on its own.

Then we start with the bun. if you are a little light on in the hair department, it is a good idea to tease the hair a bit to give you some more volume. Start by twisting the hair around loosely - how tight your twist is will depend on how much hair you have and your personal preference. I just do a very light twist to keep everything in place. Wind the pony around the elastic, keeping it nice and loose for as many times as you need to and when you get to the end, pin the bun in place with a hair pin.

Now you will need a hair net - bun nets work best as opposed to full hair nets when you are starting out. Place the bun net over the hair and then start pinning.

These open hair pins as opposed to bobby pins are the only pin worth using in a bun. These above are the kind of hair pins you need but they they are a bit squished together, you can see the one in my hand below it is much wider apart. I'll try and take a better picture. The trick is to lean the pin in towards the bun, so that you sort of have it making a V-shape with the head. The bottom of the V would be where the two prongs of the pin sit at the edge of the bun. Stick it in and then pull it so that it is back parallel to the head and push it into the bun. This is how you really get security for your bun. Use as many pins as you feel you need to make it secure.And then look at that, you are all finished!.

Add some bows, flowers or if you never know whento stop like me..both! and your ballerina is all ready!

Miss Suzanne's pin curl bun and birthdays.

Pin curls, the essence of 1940's glamour and not suprisingly given the era, a popular choice for Tap dancing hairstyles - bet you can't guess where we've been the past few weeks - dancing comps. I've always admired the pin curl bun when little swarovski laden girls pass by me in the dancing world, and though I have always theoretically understood how it works, it wasn't until I observed Miss Suzanne (who really is much more of a hair guru than I) whipping up a little pin curl bun that I finally plucked up the courage to try it out. And guess what it really is quite easy, just like everyone always told me - now I feel a bit of a pin curl whiz, I might branch out into some more advanced pin curling techniques. The pin curl bun is just the cutest little updo, pop a hairnet over it and you've got a fab dancing style or a marvelous flower girl hairstyle and just a touch of fancy for the everyday. You start with a high pony - this particlar pony could have been even a tad higher - I always struggle to get curly tops' hair up when its been flying free.


Anyway once you've got your pony, take a small section of hair - you can experiment with how much you use depending on the length of hair - Hettie's hair is quite long now and this amount made nice big fat curls. Lots of little ones would also look fab.


Get yourself a bobby pin ready (I used these fab new pink ones I picked up so you could see them, but ordinarily you'd use ones that blend with the hair.

Wrap the hair around your finger until you have a nice curl.


Now here is the slightly tricky part. You need to pin the curl to the head. You can either remove your finger before or after you put the pin in. I find it easier to put the pin in whilst my finger is still in there - when you first slide the pin it it might feel like it won't go but just give it a good push you will have a nicely secured curl. Try not to wrap the hair too tightly around your finger or you will have trouble getting it out again.



Continue sectioning the hair and pinning it down - if you divide your hair effectively you should end up with curls spalyed out right round the pony in a bun.


Now doesn't that look nice!


You can decorate with bows or flower or little sparkly pins.


It looks nice too if you curl only part of the hair and leave the rest hanging down like this.


Plus as an added bonus, if you do it wet and leave the curls in over night or even for the day, you'll end up with big bouncy curls when you take them out - cool hey! Thanks Miss Suzanne!

Which brings me to the second part of the post - birthdays. Yesterday was Hettie's birthday! SIX! A big highlight of our day was opening the very big box of AG Girl dolls clothes which my friend Robin of Tallulahsophie made especially for Hettie - I cannot begin to tell you how beautiful they all are - Hettie, myself AND my mum had SO much fun! I can' t wait to share them all with you but for the time being here is a photo of Hettie wearing her requested Doggie suit cuddling Molly in some of HER new threads!

French Braid ballet bun hair how to

Okey dokey, time for a new hairstyle - actually I can't take credit for this one - Hettie's dance teacher's daughter turned upwith this fab creation and let me say I was impressed. Hettie was all too pleased to emulate her idol! So to start with you need to section off the front of the hair and do a French TOP braid across the head. It is a rare moment that I do French braids on Hettie's hair - curly hair can make French Braids hard work - but if her hair is all clean and shiny I am good to go. For the top style braid, rather than braiding under you just braid over. There are lots of French braid tutorials out there so I'll point you here if you need further instruction.



So after the French braid you already have a great hairstyle. But it was ballet day so we needed to keep going. I stopped the French braid about three quaters the way across her head. Then you take a thin piece of ribbon and thread it through a large needle. Start at the elastic end and criss cross the ribbon right along the braid and then back down again. How pretty does that look!




You then sweep the rest of the hair into a pony. Again pop the braid into the pony and a great hairstyle. But we weren't finished yet!


Next up you wind the pony hair into a bun and secure it with a pin - you can find further how to do a ballet bun instructions here.


Next you take the braid and wrap in around the bun.


After than you finish the bun using the how to do a ballet bun instructions - pop in any decorations and you are ready to impress your dance teacher and be the envy of all the other ballet mums!


And after ballet or if you don't want to do the whole bun thing you have just about the cutest hairstyle around!

Ballet Hair and Villains!

What's new at Bownstuff? Well quite a bit as it happens - in order new set and new hair. The latest from the Bowznstuff machine room (ha ha) is the very Villainous Set! You can see more here.


And time as well for some ballet hair. You know when I first started doing ballet hair, I thought to myself, how long can this last? How many ballet styles are there?? Well me of little faith there are MANY! To start this one, I divided the hair roughly in two with the majority of the hair in the top pony and about 1/4 hanging free at the back. I did this roughly as people with curly haired children will KNOW that a part if very seldom a straightforward affair. I often watch in wonderment as straight hair is parted with a swift yet deft flick of the comb - curly hair just 'usually' isn't this way - it sticks together in its curls - it doesn't want to be parted. Some days I am up to the challenge of forming the perfect straight part, others I am not - for this one I was not BUT the great thing about curly hair is it is VERY forgiving so oftentimes, even if you don't have a straight part - you can't tell. So to get back to business, a 3/4 to a 1/4 part with the 3/4 being on top of the head. You take the majority of your hair and tie in in a top pony, right up there on top of the head..ONLY you dont' pull the last round through. The last time you pull the hair through the elastic, you leave a little bunch on top. I am fond of leaving these little bunches and I do them LOTS. For a start Hettie's hair is getting longer and lots of times you will want shorter than the actual length showing, so these bunches are a great way to do that. Also they give height and a well.....cool sort of look. It's sort of like a messy piggie but not messy.


Next you take the part of the hair at the back and twist it up towards the pony on top. Twist a bit bast the bunch and then secure the whole thing with a second elastic.
Doesn't that look nice?

Later in the day when we moved from jazz and tap to ballet, I simply toook the hair that was hanging down and twisted it around the bunch - a GREAT way to do an easy ballet bun. I secured it with pins and a net and we were all set with a fancy shamancy ballet do
But before that I added a barrette of flowers and we were good to go for jazz and tap.




This would look equally fab with straight hair, or you might want to add some curls. A versatile do that works as an up and a down do and adds a touch of fancy to the everyday!

Ballet Hair, Rag Doll Dresses and Unicorns.

So here I am, as promised back with lots of news and photos and even a hairstyle! Go me! So lets start with hair. As I mentioned, having survived the shock of Back to School, a little over um 3 months ago I have actually managed to revive my morning hair routine. I've become particualarly partial to rows of knots. I like the knot. I am not so fond of a single knot, but a row of knots, now that is something. First up it is quick and easy - who can't tie a simple knot? Secondly it looks interesting and in a row if you aren't a hair guru you sort of look at it and think...mmmm how did she do THAT - looks complicated! Meanwhile you can chuckle away to yourself knowing all the while that it is just a knot! I like to combine my knots with other little decorative simple styles. My combo style of perference at the moment has been twists. There are so many variations on the knot twist combo that it could keep you busy for weeks! So to start us off, a quick recap on what a knot is.
So you take your section of hair, divide it in half and tie a knot, like so.

Knots are particularly good in damp hair. This is just one knot, to do a row, just keep knotting till you get as far along as you like.

So on Saturday I used the knot twist combo for ballet hair. Usually when I do ballet twists, like most people I do a t-part and do a twist either side leading back into the bun, but really why limit yourself when there is so much more fun to be had. So for this week's style, I sectioned off the back of the hair for a pony tail and then divided the front part into three sections like so.


After putting the back part into a nice tight pony I started with one of the side pieces. You simply twist inwards until you get near the pony and then secure with an elastic.

Repeat on the other side so you have a real Princess line twist going.


And now with the centre piece we are going to knot. Just keep knotting till you get to the pony and secure it with elastics - by this time you will have 4 elastics round your pony. This is perfect for a dance style - nice a secure.

Don't those knots look cool!

So now all is left to do is pop in a ballet bun - you can find instructions here and a bow and voila!

As I said there are so many variations on this style - during the week I had a row of knots on one side and three mini twists on the other like so. You see the possibilities..endless.



Speaking of endless, I have been spending what seems like endless hours at my sewing machine in a bid to clear my custom list. The Bowznstuff List is temporarily closed so at the moment the only way you can get your Bowznstuff is to bid! Two new sets up at the moment...the first is a vintage meets cute Raggedy Ann set - I've been saving that piece of Raggedy Ann fabric used for the knickers forever, I am so pleased to finally reveal it. You can see more here.


And just listed today a Bowznstuff Collaboration between Lula*Bee*Boutique who you can find here and myself. Lula*Bee does among other things the sweetest patchwork skirts and dresses - I love to look at them!
You can find my set here and the matching sister set here.

Fabrications and Ballet Hair

I had alot of fun this week, diving headlong into my fabric stash and coming up covered in more than a few threads, finding a few pieces of long lost fabric, marvelling at what on earth I could have been thinking when I bought some and ending up at the end of it all with a big smile in my face, clutching some real gems - collected from all over the world, some old, some new all fabricationally fabulous! You can see the strip work dress here , the knit set here, and the bows here


Also Ballet season is back and with that comes some more ballet hair. A simple take on side buns. I started with low piggies that sit just on top of the ear - I find these super cute for messy piggies and they also work well for buns.

Start with a middle part with a t-part at the front as shown. Make two low piggies.

And then take the two front sections and make a small braid and pop the piggies inot ballet buns. More detailed instructions for that can be found here.


Once they are all pinned up, criss cross the braids at the front, wind them around the bun and pin them into place.


Add some bows and fluff and voila - cute side buns with a twist!


This parting also works well for the everyday - shown here with messy piggies with the braids pulled straight back rather than crossed over. The braid looped in with the messy piggies is particularly cute.