How do I make the hair...bun...thingies?

March 7, 2010 5:58 AM

There's a very adorable women's hairstyle I've seen several times that my girlfriend and I have been trying to figure out for some time. It's right about where pigtails would be, but very short and compact little...uh...hair pops? I don't really know what to call them because I am a boy. Puffs? Poofs? Buns? Knots? We usually call them "bunnypops" which is of no relevance to this question except to say that these are much more on the cute rather than elegant end of the spectrum. It almost looks like the hair is pulled back through itself. I've googled and googled, but I can't even find a picture of it, let alone how to do it. Would one of the ladies here in the house please clue me in?
posted by The Dutchman to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (14 answers total)

Odango style? I have no idea how to do it, but if this is what you're referring to, it could point you in the right direction.
posted by srrh at 6:24 AM on March 7, 2010

Kind of like this or this? Easy: you make pigtails, only the last time you're pulling the length of your hair through the hair tie, you don't pull it all the way through.
posted by oinopaponton at 6:27 AM on March 7, 2010

Like Gwen Stefani? All she did was put it in pigtails, then twist it and put the hairband around it one last time without pulling her hair all the way through, like oinopaponton said. The key is, I think, that it works best with short (shoulder length or less) hair, maybe a little longer for well behaved hair.

For related hair styles... some girls twist their hair upward (like a french twist, but without tucking) and then clip it down with a jaw clip so the ends come out the top. An octopus clip works well and is less bulky than a normal jaw clip. Again, this is probably best left to shorter hair.
posted by anaelith at 6:59 AM on March 7, 2010

Just popping in to say that if you're looking for what oinopaponton & anaelith are talking about, your girlfriend's hair-type will play a role. Thicker, wavier hair tends to look best in the oinopaponton-mentioned style (and can hold the style even as the hair grows longer, but the puffs get bigger & bulkier). My hair is very fine & straight, so the anaelith-mentioned style is the one that worked for me (before my hair got beyond shoulder-length), but I imagine that I could either coil the hair into something like what srrh mentioned, pinning the end of the twisted pigtail once I was done twisting. I could also do bigger puffs (oinopaponton-style) if I wanted to tease the pigtails out (and maybe use a curling iron) to add texture.

Oh, and I have no idea what they're called either. My friends and I call them hair-puffs - I wonder if that's because I imagine the look was inspired by afro-puffs?
posted by pammeke at 7:25 AM on March 7, 2010

Though I'm far too lazy to do this myself, I recently came across the wonder that is sock buns.
posted by inkytea at 8:01 AM on March 7, 2010 [10 favorites]

Making a ponytail, and then pulling the hair partway through during the last pass has never worked for me :( I always end up with a "u" of hair.** Any advice for how to get the "bunnypops" to work for me? I've always wondered their secret!!

**like the hair doesn't touch at all? it just is one long, sleek bend of hair that you can see through - almost like a circle the space between the hair is so large.
posted by Point n Click at 8:57 AM on March 7, 2010

No, no, bunnypops are when there's no extra ponytail remaining--kind of like sock buns but there aren't any socks involved. Just two little buns of hair. I know a girl who has this style and I love it but have no idea how to properly twist my hair. I do the thing where I wrap the elastic around my ponytails twice then twist them up so the hair ends are at the top and then wrap the elastic one more time, which is a similarly cute but messier look.
posted by leesh at 9:28 AM on March 7, 2010

No, no, bunnypops are when there's no extra ponytail remaining--kind of like sock buns but there aren't any socks involved. Just two little buns of hair.

If you're thinking of what I'm thinking of, I can do this by:

1. making a ponytail and not pulling the last loop through all the way (as said above,) then,
2. taking the loose end, twirling it around the rest of the "bun" and tucking it back into the elastic. my hair has enough texture to hold this shape, but you could use a bobby pin.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:51 AM on March 7, 2010

Ooh, I bet my hair is finally long enough to do that, thanks! (Sorry for the minor derail, but I do think that hairstyle is what the OP is asking about.)
posted by leesh at 10:11 AM on March 7, 2010

It's odango, like srrh said. Googling that term will help you find billions of cosplay sites with how-tos.
posted by elsietheeel at 11:46 AM on March 7, 2010

Response by poster: Between Odango, the Gwen Stefani link, and other comments here I think we at least have some material for experimentation. From a perfunctory google, there seems to be a lot of kinds of Odango without a whole lot of information on how to do the kind we want (although this is maybe a good starting point).

I guess maybe it's just twisting the hair that makes it look like it's all going inward through the center.

More ideas welcome. We shall try them and report back.
posted by The Dutchman at 12:39 PM on March 7, 2010

I am hopelessly hair-impaired, but I was able to make a classic bun and Zulu knots using the Whirl-a-Style (I bought them at Claire's).
posted by Oriole Adams at 12:45 PM on March 7, 2010

BTW "dango" means "dumpling" in Japanese. According to Wikipedia, the style was popularized by Sailor Moon. See the entry for double bun.

You should Youtube for how-to's.
posted by MesoFilter at 5:56 AM on March 8, 2010

This might help. Not sure if you want a messy look or a tidy one, but it could be neatened up. Your GF can use clear hair elastics.
posted by yawper at 8:26 AM on March 8, 2010