Carrie's Messy Beehive Tutorial

January 23rd, 2011

I Can’t Do Hair!

I’ve always been rubbish at anything to do with hair, which is why it baffles me that so many of you have asked for a tutorial! If you’ve already pressed play on the video above you’ll see that I do it without any care or precision..those of you that are any good at styling your hair are probably gasping – no clean lines, just luck. On the plus side, it’s a super quick up-do that rarely fails me, and I like that it’s messy rather than perfect as I don’t like to feel too put-together and ‘done-up’

I’m not saying this is how you should create a beehive, it’s certainly not traditional, but it’s the way that I put my hair up most days and thought I’d share it with you. I’m sure you could follow the same instructions and make it ten times neater! And just so you know, this time it’s particularly messy due to the fact I can’t see what I’m doing at the back – I normally work in the bathroom with two mirrors, one in front and one behind – if you can do this then I’d recommend it.

I’d be amazed if you understood what to do just by watching the video, so here are some text instructions with stills from the video. Do let me know in the comments if you don’t understand any of it, I’ll be here to answer all of your questions.

Before we start, I’d like to point out that this is best done a day or so after you’ve washed your hair as with very clean hair, it will probably just fall down, although I have had a few lucky times with a lot of hairspray! It also really helps if when you blow dry your hair, you brush everything after your fringe backwards so it gets used to sitting in that position, rather than parting (I didn’t do this in this instance, however). You’ll need a comb, hairspray and a handful of grips.

Firstly, using my fingers, I sweep up the top section of my hair, taking enough to create the beehive and to ‘cover it’. This should probably be about 70% of your hair (depending on thickness & length, it’ll take a few tries to perfect it!). I then twist it and grip it up over my head out of the way.

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With the remaining hair at the bottom, I pull it back into a ponytail, twist it and grip it up, almost in a bun. This is going to be visible at the end so make it as messy or as neat as you wish (I’m rubbish at hiding the pins!), as long as it’s secure. Spray it with some hairspray so that it doesn’t fall out.

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I’ll then take down the top section of hair that I put up in the beginning and start combing it backwards as that is the direction I want it to lie, making sure I leave out my (rapidly growing) fringe. This should now be roughly separated into three parts (minus the fringe) – the large middle section on top, and two small sections on each side. Lift up the large middle section, as seen in the picture above and comb it upwards until you’re happy you’ve got hold of it all.

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Now is the fun part – backcombing! Take your comb to the back of the hair and tease it, the more you backcomb, the bigger your beehive will be! Don’t worry about making it too big as this can be remedied later on. When you’re done make sure to spray the messy bit with hairspray and then simply place your hair back down over the backcombed section. Now it’s time to work on the sides. I take my first side and brush it back (as seen in the picture), and then backcomb a little at the back to give a bit of volume. Repeat that on the other side.

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Now you take your three sections and gently pull them back as if you are going to create a ponytail with them, whilst you are doing this you can shape your beehive slightly, making it higher or lower depending on where you place your ‘ponytail’, you can also comb it down a little if it’s too big and smooth it out. Don’t worry about it looking like a mess, because it probably will! Then, twist the ponytail and grip it like I did earlier with the bottom section of the hair, into a bun shape.

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Now I brush my beehive into shape. There are normally bits that are sticking out, or the sides are perhaps too chunky, so use your comb to brush down any messy bits and then grip them at the back to create the desired shape. This is shown in far better detail in the video. When you’ve finished, hairspray!! Don’t go too crazy with spray on top as you don’t want it weighed down or looking horrible – just enough to keep it in shape.

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Ta-da! The finished product. I really recommend watching the video whilst following these instructions as it shows how I do each of the steps. This beehive really is idiot proof (even I can do it!) so give it a go. Don’t be disheartened if it’s not perfect the first time, sometimes I have days where my hair just isn’t cooperating, it just takes a bit of practise.

Also I don’t know how it works with different hair types/lengths, so do let me know! Good luck! x

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