Quick And Easy 3 Section Updo! Bridal Hair Tutorial

Hey everybody, i'm danielle downs. Today, i'm gon na be going over how to do an easy three section. Updo this one is featuring a french fishtail braid um. It'S very easy. It'S only two different sections that you're using and crisscrossing. So i figured that would be a good thing to start with um. What i love about this is that, especially if you're, using if you're using oh, my goodness, if you are doing a lot of updos and you're a bridal specialist styles like this, help to make it a lot easier, and you can still put your creative spin on It so it doesn't have to be this exact updo, so you can actually do this with curls. You can do this with different types of braids and you can add a couple of different things. So this is basically just teaching a foundation, but just so happens to have the bonus of being a finished updo. So i got into updos pretty much when i was younger, because i had a vanity that all 90s girls had that you just sat there and played around with your hair. I usually would flip through magazines and recreate them on my hair. When i got into hairdressing i fell into styling because that was natural for me. I didn't really have to work at it. So when i worked in new jersey, especially in monroe township, i was known as pretty much your updo winner. So there was monroe high school where, for about four or five years, they had a contest that um, whoever was voted. Best hair won, got a little trophy, a little bragging rights, and then you got passed down the hairdresser that did it so that was me. I also got to do a lot of different events for fashion week as a result of my styling so, like i said it's one of those things that i love oh and i'm always talking about paul mitchell at paul mitchell. I actually won best in show at one of our trainings for recreating a hairstyle that one of the italian vogue stylists actually created. So if i'm getting a little braggadocious it's because i am being braggadocious, i'm proud of myself for that. But anyway, so you saw our pre-done now you can see. This is what usually my clients would come in with, which is just like sloppy little updo not really kept very well, not curled, usually about two days of oils or products in there, which is okay, because you never want the hair to be perfectly clean and shiny, Because then, it's a little too slippery and it's harder to keep in your style, especially when you're working with a lot of these, like boho chic styles. So one thing that i had learned back in the day was to crimp the hair. So that way, it had a little bit of grip to it. Nobody has that kind of time, not to mention nobody wants to deal with crimped hair. So for me my go-to was spray wax. So that way, it gives me a little bit of grip to the hair, especially when i'm braiding, but it doesn't make the hair greasy and it also will keep the style together while still looking like it's very soft, very lived in so first i'm just going to Go and brush through the hair i usually like to deal with a boar's bristle brush. This one is again paul mitchell, it's part of their old marula line. I don't know if they still have these, hopefully they'll be coming out with more brushes, because these have been my go-to for quite a few years, so any kind of breast dressing brush, i'm just going to be combining a lot of words, don't mind me combine away. Danielle, it's more interesting right, yeah like can we translate what she's saying today i don't know it's like uh mad gab. You ever played that game yeah not in a while, but yes, i have yeah. It'S super fun and uh we'll play that today. With your words, perfect all right, so my translator will be matte today yeah, so i'm going to use a wide tooth comb just to section off a little triangle area off to the side and that's going to go to just about behind the ear. I'M just going to give that just a quick little twist just to keep it out of my way. Of course you can use clips, but you know in my usual fashion, there's always one thing that i forget. So that's what i forgot today, but that's okay, all right! Now, going from the high point of the head, i'm going to section across the crown right behind the ear and again really quickly just twist that out of the way thanks matt - and i appreciate that all right. So now we're going to clip that out of the way, so that leaves us with this large section in the back now i'm going to choose to do that off center. A lot of the brides that i deal with, usually like that it's a little something! That'S off to the side looks a little formal and it also photographs a lot better than a center part. Especially if say the person has long hair and you don't have like little tendrils and things like that to work with. So just using quick little bursts. As you can see of the spray wax, so that way, i'm not putting any type of a dull coating on the hair, but i'm controlling the flyaways. Now personally, i like these little bungees. You have to special order them online, but they're really great, because they have these little hooks on them. I don't know if you could see that. Okay, there we go so they're, nice and long they're adjustable. They come in different colors. But again you have to special order them. So if you don't have that option, then an easy go to is just taking two elastics and putting bobby pins. Well, two bobby pins in either ends securing that off to the side. I usually like to go in underneath because it's easier for me to grip that and then just wrap that around now. Usually i am standing in front of my section, so i'm going to do that now to make it a little easier on myself. So i use my thumb to anchor that down so that i can get the tension that i need without letting go of my section and then i just pop that bobby pin right in, and that gives me a nice secure, ponytail, that's not going anywhere. Now i like to give just a little squeeze part that and tighten it up just a little bit and now with the section that was on the left hand, side, which is our larger section, i'm just going to turn that so you can see. So this is our larger section. What'S going to happen here. Is that we're actually going to be pulling that over to the right side, and that's just going to veil over and it's going to cover the ponytail that we just did now? A great thing that you can do is that you can actually curl this so that you can get a little texture, and that way you can create some height and also, like, i said, a little bit of texture without having to actually tease back comb or anything Like that so totally up to you or you can leave it as is, and just pull that straight over the section all right danielle have you ever heard of uh bungie tape? No, i haven't actually heard of that. She says it's life-changing. So all right i'll have to look into that. Okay! Well, thanks jess cool thanks, jess! So again, short bursts with that spray wax, and i'm just going to show you really quick why you want to do short bursts, because otherwise, when you're spraying that can really build up, so it is spray wax all right. I'M just going to use a little bit of that in the ends, so spray wax is something that i first started using. When i had a rihanna mohawk years and years ago, it was great for and then like. I said i transitioned that over to updos because it just made it a lot easier to work with. So now that i've smoothed down my flyaways, i can drape that section. I'M just going to turn this, so you can see all right. So now i'm just going to drape that over one thing that i learned from lucy dowdy, which again can't mention paul mitchell enough she's, the editorial director for them and updo extraordinaire - i mean well. She could just do anything, so she had taught us that using these large bobby pins are good for just when you're draping the hair, and you want to just test out without committing to putting an actual pin in there and securing the hair. So you get to test it out. Of course you would be looking in a mirror making sure that your balance is correct and that your client's happy one thing that i always tell people is look. This is going to look a little crazy for a little while, but it's like a giant lego trust me it's going to come out well and of course you get the usual. Oh, i trust you with that kind of nervous. Look and it's like. Well, you don't have choice now, but trust me. It is going to be good and it always is so you wrap that over the top and then underneath exactly so once i get my draping to where i like what i'm seeing on the other side, it's nice and tight there's no little bubbles in the hair. Then i just use that to wrap around the base of the ponytail just to get the hair out of the way. Now i like to use hair pins just for lightly securing the hair where i'm like, i said, i'm not making a commitment to that hairstyle just yet. I just want to lightly place it there and then, when i'm happy with it, that's where i switch over to my bobby pin and i start sticking those in now. Some people pride themselves on how few bobby pins they use. I really don't care, i'm just there to get the job done. I need to make sure that, no matter how much you get wasted at the wedding, at whatever event, whether you are the craziest dancer or the craziest sleeper, because i've also had clients tell me that they slept on their hair and it stayed so again. Just being a little braggadocious, but i also find it to be a fun little game to count just how many pins there are all right. So usually, i also start out with just a little light: curling iron action. This one has a little curl to it, but i just want a little bit more and it's not like you have to do a bunch of sections, so i'm just using a one and a half inch barrel. Actually, no, this one's a one and a quarter inch, and i just give that a light turn just so that the ends are a little polished and also that i can smooth down some of those flyaways. Now. One thing that i do appreciate about this more natural lived-in, boho kind of look is that people don't mind their flyaways as much they like tendrils, they like looking like they've just been out and the hair is wind blown or whatever fantasy you want to make up. I don't know, but they like a little bit of mess, and so do i so now i'm just going to finger comb through that get a little bit of texture, because we do have that spray wax in there. I'M going to twist it around pull a couple of sections just to loosen that up and again we're just doing a little draping. Actually, let me turn that, so you can see that a little bit better now, normally i'd be right in front of my section, but in order to see this a little bit better, i'm just going to stand right in front of her face, which is just a Little awkward if it was a real person so again, seeing as how this is curled clockwise, i'm going to go with that, give it that little spin pull that out just a little and then just start draping, that around you're going to hear me say: drape a Lot because that's just where we're softly figuring out where we want that to live. So i like how that looks, and again i'll use my larger hair pins just to secure that, but not commit to the bun itself. All right. I like this little curve right here, but i want to close that up a little bit more. So i'm just going to take the edges of my pen place that in there and that's where you do want the pins to kind of be sticking out where you can find them, and now that we've got our two sections down now we're on to our last Section on the right hand, side now, as you can see, because we took that larger diagonal section on the left hand, side that kind of marries into our right hand side. Now i usually like to do zigzag parts so that i can really have that disappear in there, but i figured for today, let's make it a little easier and just do straight parts, and especially because this hair is a little fuller, it's kind of easier to work With and again we're going to spray a little bit with our spray wax just so that i have a nice grip use our dressing brush to just smooth that down now the ends are a little bit rough, so i'm going to use some hold me tight. Now this is a texture spray, so you can layer it onto the hair. I like it because it has like these little fibers so anytime that i'm working with updos. I want products that are very light touchable and when i comb it they disappear. So now you can see that it's a little bit better, it's not as blown out and rough in the ends and when i go to hide that later on, it'll be a lot easier to work with. So now i'm just going to take a little triangle section right in the top. Now i like to have a looser french that was french fishtail braid fishtail braid, that's what i was gon na say: yeah! That'S a tongue twister, try to say that ten times fast. I know i can't, but for me that's that's what happens when you pierce your tongue and you flinch. Oh well, there you go it's off center and hits a nerve, and then you get tongue tied all the time. Wait. Is that really what happened? Yes? It really is. I love these lives. I learned so much about you guys right. I mean i learned that brian can't hold a job, except for this one, and - and i am like murphy's law. Anything that can happen will happen all right. So with my first section i crossed my left section is underneath the right section. So now i took from the left side and crossed over that section. That was on the right and that's all we're doing it's criss-crossing back and forth. It'S just two sections and the tinier of the section that you take the more detailed your fishtail is okay. So now my right section is over that left section again, i'm just going to grab that in my thumb and my index finger, i'm going to grab another tiny section, pull that out and try to detangle it cross that over and then you'll see that i keep Switching hands, that's just how i'm comfortable with doing it. I feel like everybody's, a little different with how they hold it. This is just my way. It'Ll take a little bit of practice to find out what works for you, but it's kind of cathartic. I always say it: i love repetitive motion hairstyles, and this is just yet another one, okay, so crossing over. Tightening that section and then grabbing with my thumb and index finger grabbing a tiny little section on the left hand, side crossing that over and just over and over again. That is what we're doing now, the closer that you keep this to the head, the more like! A french braid that it is if you're lifting it up you'll get a little bit more height out of it. So especially if you're doing say, like a mohawk section, and you want to create a very large dimensional kind of updo, then this is definitely what you would want to do is lifting. I want to keep this pretty close and, as i said, this is more about technique. It just happens to be a finished hairstyle, and i have done this where i've just done it with curls, because believe it or not. Every black girl does not know how to breed. So when i got into cosmetology school i was the youngest on both sides of my family, so i always got my hair done. I never did hair, i had lots of dolls, but i never really did their hair. I just played with the clothes, but then when i got into cosmetology school and all my teacher would give me were braids, i was just like all right. Well, i got to be good at this. If this is all i'm going to get so my best friends, my dearly departed best friend, she had five daughters, so i would go over there on the weekends and i would help her wash braid and style their d, her daughter's hair. So i got good enough where i could do things like this, but i can't say that i'm like a braid master, i can just get by, did you say you're using a texture spray with fibers in it? Yes, it's spray wax spray, wax yup paul mitchell spray wax. Now i have used all of my hair that i was feeding into the braid to keep it close to the scalp, and now i just have those two sections. So what you do with that is that you take the outer corner. I'M gon na try to show that a little bit better. There we go yeah. I have to make sound effects to say that that works. So again, if you're taking tiny, tiny sections, then you get that really fine herringbone effect with your fishtail. If you take slightly larger sections, then it almost looks like a three-strand braid, so you can fake different kinds of braids just to let you know. Thank you see. That'S where it's great, when you have a boss, that really does have your back. Yes, okay! So again, taking a small outer section crossing that over now i keep it pretty loose so that at the end i'll be able to expand this. You can keep it small and tight if you're doing a lot of them and arranging maybe a braided kind of game of thrones like updo, but seeing as how this is just the single one. Like i said, i want to keep that loose so that i can expand it. So that's where i keep my two sections further apart, so that there isn't as much tension now, i'm taking slightly larger sections now, so i can get through this a little bit faster for you guys, because i don't know. I feel like that's pretty much like watching paint dry, no pressure. Danielle take your time right, so you can see that starting to form, and you don't have to braid it completely down to the ends. One of the other great things about this is that it works on all different hair lights. So, even if somebody has short or even a bob - i wouldn't say a pixie, but obviously if they have at least hair, i would say past the nape of their neck. Even if it's only like a half inch past their nape, then this is definitely a possible updo for you. So that's another reason why i prefer to take a couple of different sections like this, so that way i can make it look like somebody has long hair because, let's face it, not everybody that sits in our chair on that special day is going to have the Length that we need, i have used extensions on people um. I even had a bride where she grew her hair out and then took a jog the morning of her wedding and then decided. You know what i don't know why i did this. Can we cut my hair into a pixie? Really? Really that's a cool story? Oh i love it because she had like a kind of flapper kind of dress, whereas a it was a flute style dress and then she had instead of a traditional veil. She had a bird cage so that actually went with it. A lot better gave her a little finger wave. It was great, didn't hurt that it was a childhood family friend. So i didn't feel that kind of pressure all right. So now that we have our braid all finished, i've just done two little soft loops of the elastic. So that way as i'm pulling, the hair will actually move. So you want it to be secure in the elastic, but you don't want it to where the hair is really tight. So now i just grab a tiny little section: where am i there? I am so. I just grab a tiny little section at the ends. Just to keep the tension, but i'm not grabbing a whole piece of the ends of the hair so, like i said when i am expanding the braid it'll easily do that because i'm not grabbing the entire end. So now i'm just grabbing random little sections. You can go through and take each and every little section, but i like it to look a little bit more on the messier organic side. So that is where i like to take just random sections and, as you can see as i pull, what i'm holding is further away, because now that braid is sliding up. Another option that you have is actually pushing that braid and that way it compacts it. A little bit more but as you can see, when you do that that actually pushes the side forward a little bit and creates a little bit more expansion. So if i had a couple of braids going across the top - that's great, but seeing as how this is a little tighter on the sides, i really don't want that. So now i'm just going to retract that a little pull that back out and tighten up this section. I am going to take the front and just give that a tiny little pull so that way she almost has like a little bang now, because i did that this got a little tight right through here. So i'm just gon na again pull that a little bit and now, when i'm looking yeah, i know not really professional to just turn the head, but that's what i'm gon na do so now. Oh perfect! Okay! So now i just want to make sure that we have a good balance going through the side here, so i'm just going to hold the braid so that way, i can make sure that this isn't sticking out. I'M going to take my hair pin from back here. I'M going to use that to just secure the side of the head or the side, the braid just to see where i like it. Another cool trick that i had learned is the disappearing hairpin, because i don't know about you guys, but one of my pet peeves, with going to formal events, is seeing a whole bunch of hair pins sticking out. I literally tapped on people's shoulder and fix their hair because it drives me nuts but anyway, so you can take your hair pin or you can take your bobby pin whichever and instead of going right through your section and now. Well, i shouldn't be so good at hiding pins anyway. So if i were to take this entire section and just stick the pin in you can see where it's pulling the hair, i don't want to see that also it's a lot harder to find that pin and pull it out without creating a little bit more texture And flyaways, so with the disappearing pin trick you put that underneath the section that you want to pin, pull that halfway through and then stick that right through and it instantly disappears, while it secures the hair. So i'm going to do that with an actual bobby pin. Rather than the hair pin, because the closed sides of it actually secure the hair, a lot better, so you're going to take the closed ends, go underneath your section have that pop through grab it and right before it goes all the way through you push that right. Back in and it just disappears and it secures the hair. So it's little things like that that have definitely helped with my updo game and why i've gotten to do fashion week and um. The last event that i got to do before kovid was a vogue fashion event with paul mitchell, which was very exciting and i'm not gon na lie. I geeked out a little bit because i got to see anna wintour and a bunch of other fashion icons. I could care less about the celebrities. I love the fashion icons all right so now i like how that looks and how it's secured to the head. So now i'm going to go back to my braid and draping that around the bun, so seeing as how this is a little bit shorter. Actually let me turn that a little bit more, so you can see this side. Okay. So again, i'm just going to work upside down there. So now we you can see that we have those pins that are just securing but not committed, so we're going to wrap that around we're going to take that pin out wrap the hair underneath grab that little bit of hair again. Stick that in because again we're not totally committing just yet we're still working and playing with the hair i'm going to take out. This pin wrap the ends of the hair around and hide that in there let me get a smaller bobby, pin or hairpin sorry. So i'm going to take my smaller hair pin secure that end. Underneath now, i'm going to take this little section where i like that little opening just give it a little push with my hand there and again take that large hair pin just see. Do i like that section, not really so i'm going to take a smaller hair pin and i'm going to drop a few things on my pretty tray and again just give that a little lift. I like to detail with my hair pin as i'm working to see how i like to close it and where so again, not totally committing. I like how that looks, so i'm going to push that hair pin in so that disappears. I have my other little anchor there so now that i like what i see i'm going to use my hair pins while my actual bobby pins, sorry and now, i'm going to commit to that and start to arrange the hair a little more another thing that helps Me is my straight pen, studio box. I love this thing because you can have 50 million in one different size and different type, hairpins bobby pins, ponytail holders, hair accessories and it's in a box there's even a magnet on it. So it keeps everything in one place. So i have had this thing for years and i just keep restocking it so that was from um pamela peretti she's, also like another updo and curly hair extraordinaire from paul mitchell. So right now, i'm as you can see, i never open my hair pins for one. Never ever use your teeth because on a bride's special day, she wants to use a lot of things, but not your spit to make her her day special, so never ever use your teeth. Besides that you're gon na chip, your teeth and it's just not a good look and when you open it, you're pinching, more hair together and that's gon na disturb your updo. So i just find the little anchor pieces that i want and i slide that right in okay, so this piece is a little tight, so i'm just going to pull that in arrange, i'm just going to turn this, so you can see that better. So i actually spend more time securing the looser part, which is the bun than i do on anything else, and i always make sure that my guest does an actual head like twist turn shake, and all of that. So i can make sure that nothing is flying out and everything is secure. Okay, so right here is a little bit loose for me. I'M just gon na take another bobby pin, go inside of that section, go inside of the section and just push that right into the hair. Now you always want to check in with your clients like, say, there's a little resistance there, because i've already put a couple in and just lightly take that out. You always want to check in with them, because good hair should not mean that they're going to be in pain all day, because a bobby pin is hidden on their scalp okay. So again, i don't like how that looks. So i'm just going to pick it up. Find that section there we go and now that i like, where everything is i'm going to take my extra body firm, finishing spray. I love this stuff because it is basically like concrete in a can and it does not take a lot to secure the hair, but it doesn't give it that really hard kind of look. But yes, it feels very secure. I'M just going to give that a spray, and now i'm going to take out those large hair pins that i was just using to make sure that i liked where it was, and you can just push those in if you wanted to. But she's already got enough pins in there, so i really don't want to, and that is our finished look and actually i'm going to get out of the way. So you can actually see it. Okay, she's so low. Well, i'm short, so i need to get leverage on the head, i'm not tall like you and brian. I guess all right. So this is our finished updo, and that was just three sections. Oh well, i don't like how that looks. So again, let's use our little disappearing, pin trick to address that little problem, and then i swear i'm done. I think that's a good tip, though, is to look at it at all angles, because i mean straight on, could look fine, but then, if they slightly turn their head, if it doesn't, then exactly so like this little area right here, that's also a little loose. So i'm just gon na lift that up with a hair pin there we go. We are all fixed now, all right, so that is our finished updo. So i would love for you guys to give this a try on your own and show me your variations. You know tag me on instagram at the hands downs. I would love to see it and let's talk about even more ways that we can do that, but i'm also interested to see what you guys would like to do. Next week i was thinking, maybe again a curly haircut, but this time on wet hair. Last week i did a dry haircut and i just wanted to show the different ways that you can do that, if not we're always taking requests in the comments. So let us know, but thanks for watching and wherever you are in the world, stay safe tune in next week. We'Re always live so tuesday, wednesday thursday. There'S always somebody on thanks guys, you