Party hair for long haired ladies

I ain't no hair stylist, not even a little bit.  This explains why I love my Babyliss Big Hair Styler so much.  It makes me look like I have a clue (even though I don't) and so when it comes to actually styling my hair, the easier the better (for everyone).

I saw a picture of Eva Longoria recently and immediately thought "hmm, I could totally do that on Joanne's hair".  Her hair is down to her bum and also finds it hard to do much with it that doesn't involve straightening it or putting it in a pony tail.

This was our inspiration and what we were trying to achieve.

Eva Longoria's image from updosformediumlengthhair.org    Sarah Jessica Parker image from theglamdepartment.blogspot.com

First up, the equipment.  You'll need some bobby pins, we got ours in Penneys for €1.50, grand price altogether.  We used Ojon's Volumizing Styling Spray (€24) that was sent to us to try and Lakme's matt powder (€7.95) that I was given by Adele in Hair Crazy to play with.

The method to our madness:

1.  I pulled Joanne's hair back into a high pony tail, keeping it as smooth as possible.  As sisters, the law was on my side and I was able to pull extra tight, just for the craic.

Right: Joanne's hair au natural.   Left: High pony tail.

2.  I got the matt powder or as I like to call it, dust (dust? anyone? no? dust?) and sprinkled lots of it it into the length of her hair and began to backcomb, creating a big massive hairball on her head.  I could have been the evil older sister and left her like that (and chances are if I wasn't doing it for this blog post, I'd have left her like that for about an hour for more the craic).

Left: Dust sprinkled in hair.  Middle: Hair scrunched to disperse dust.  Right: Backcombpalooza

3.  Next comes the really fiddley bit.  You're going for the bird's nest look.  So you need to sweep the hair around the base of the pony tail, securing it with some bobby pins.  Easier said than done because her hair was a massive ball of fluff and the matt powder made it go a bit sticky but it's that texture that makes the hair stay put and not fall, so we got stuck in.  Literally.  Joanne's hair is really long as you know, so it took about ten minutes to get it looking halfway decent.

So this is what we ended up with folks; a simple messy bun that anyone can do.  You can obviously make this as neat or as unkempt as you like.  I think it all depends on how much time you have when you're getting ready!

This was the first time I'd used the matt powder.  I didn't know how it worked to be honest but Joanne and I are both in awe of it!  I thought she'd be there for hours brushing that and the hair spray out of her locks when we were finished, but it didn't take too much time at all.  What she was left with, however, was absolutely stunning hair that was full of volume and texture and just looked bouncy and fabulous.  So basically, if you can't do the messy bun, all hope isn't lost.  What we did find with the matt powder was that it left that grey haze in Joanne's hair but to be honest, I put a huge amount in her pony tail because her hair is so long.  I'm sure we could have gotten by with half the amount.  (To tell you the truth, I wanted to see how big we could make her hair with it!)

So folks, do you think you'd be able to give the messy bun a go?  It really is easy peasy lemon squeezy!