The Fundamentals of Hair & Postiche - Buns

The Fundamentals of Hair 

First Lesson...

Today I had my first lesson of hair at university, I was extremely nervous because I have never done anything to do with hair prior to this course. As soon as we got into the class we were told what we would be learning and practicing today which was a variety of buns, including a simple bun (without using a donut), twisted bun and a plaited bun. 

Simple Bun

The first one we learnt was the simple bun, which is on top of the head, this was secured onto the head using normal bobby pins, open grips and one single band. We started by sectioning half the hair and then putting it into a ponytail.

Once this was done we then took the first section of the ponytail from the front, 

I learnt that it is easier to work in sections with most hair styles because if something goes wrong it means you don’t have to start right from the beginning again. So once we had that first section of the ponytail we then backcombed the top part which is the piece we went on to folding round. Once this is done we then curled the piece of hair so it looked like a loop which you can see below. I used a normal bobby pin to secure that down, then we did three more sections the same way we did that one.

    

After all the sections were done and secured to the head we were left with quite a few gaps where the sections didn’t meet. To blend these sections together we used one of the open grips to pull the hair together to shut the gap between the sections, once this was done we then secured that by pushing that grip into the hair then changing to the opposite direction to lock the hair in place. We then did this the whole way round. This was my final outcome. 

Twisted Bun

The second bun we learnt and practiced was the twisted bun, which was a lot easier to do. We started with the same half up half down ponytail we used in the first bun. Once we had the ponytail we started twisting the hair, once the whole ponytail is twisted we then wrapped it round the base of the ponytail. We then secured that with a normal grip using the same locking technique as the first bun. 

 Once we had secured that to the head we then used the open grips to play around with it and neaten it up. We did this by moving the hair around and then pinning it in different places around the bun to even it out. This was my final outcome.

 Plaited Bun

We then went on to attempt a bun using a plait. We started with the same half up half down ponytail and with this we did a basic plait through the hair in the ponytail. Once the plait was finished we then wrapped it round the base of the ponytail and then secured this with a normal grip using the same locking technique as before. This was slightly tricky as it kept sliding through the grip so I added another grip while twisting it to take the weight off of the last grip holding it all together. At first it sticks up quite a lot as the hair is quite short but we then fixed that by using the open grips to pin down bits we wanted to flatten. 

Evaluation

This lesson taught us the basics that we can then go away and build on them. It was important that we learn the basics because when it comes to doing more complex hair styles we need to know how to do the basics to hold up these interact hair styles.

The part I found really interesting is how to use the hair grips properly. We got shown how to lock the hair into place by using a technique where you push the hair grip into the hair and then change the direction to then lock it in place, this is really important when doing hair styles because this means it's not going to fall out over time.

The part I found most challenging was on the first bun when we got onto the stage where we had to blend the hair together from each section to complete the bun. This was harder than I thought it would be because if you don't backcomb the hair enough the hair doesn't hold its shape, so when it came to blending the hair together I don't think I backcombed the sections enough for it to hold the shape while trying to pin it. When I next practise this bun I will make sure I backcomb each section enough for it to stand up on its own then I know it can hold the shape once secured to the head. Overall it was a very successful lesson and feel like I learnt all the basics from and won't forget the basic stages needed for these hair styles.

The images below show some examples of buns one on the left shows a more mordern looking bun and on the right shows an elizabethan portrait which shows a slight bun at the back.