My school’s homecoming was just this weekend, and I was asked by a few of my friends to do their hair, which gave me the perfect opportunity to try out some cute up-dos. My favorite one that I did was on my sister. It is a loopy bun with a braid that would look good not only for homecoming, but prom, or any other formal event.
First, I started by parting the hair deep to the left side. The side of the part doesn’t really matter but it determines what way the braid will be going.
Next, I loosely curled all of the hair with a curling wand, a regular curling iron will work just as well, but i prefer to use a wand because it saves time. The curls do not need to be perfect, or all the same, because they are only needed to give the bun texture and fullness.
After I finished curling the hair, I sectioned off about a 3.5 inch section, starting from the part and going all the way back to right behind the ear, and clipped it off to the side to be used in the braid. With the rest of the hair, not going to be in the braid, I started at the crown of the head and teased it. I did about 3 sections making sure to apply hair spray to the roots after each one. Then I smoothed out the top of the tease and pulled the hair into a half up-half down ponytail using a clear elastic. Make sure to secure it low and not too tight or else it will be hard to cover up later. You could skip this step but I found by applying the elastic to the teased section it kept more volume when I made the the bun.
Now onto the bun. I actually did this hairstyle two separate times and the first time (shown in the picture above) I made the bun more centered at the back of the head, which I think looks pretty, but my sister was worried the bun wouldn’t show in pictures. I ended up doing almost exactly the same thing but moved the bun to the left. 
In both looks I gathered the hair into a ponytail at the nape of the neck( where you place the ponytail determines where the bun will be). Then I took about 1 inch pieces from the ponytail, twisted it around loosely a few times to give it definition, then looped it up and pinned it against the head. I continued this until all of the hair was arranged in the bun.
The last step is to add the braid. I unclipped the previously sectioned hair and began dutch braiding at the part. A dutch braid is almost the same as a french braid but instead of bringing the outer strand of hair over the middle strand, you bring the outer strand under the middle strand. Just like a regular french braid, keep adding in sections as you go. When you run out of hair to add in, continue braiding normally the rest of the way down the hair. Before tying the end of the braid with a clear elastic, I pancaked the braid to make it fuller and fluffier. To do this, hold the end of the braid in one hand and with the other hand gently tug on the outside of the braid. Start at the bottom and work your way up each individual loop of the braid, making it bigger. When you have the braid to the fullness you desire tie the end with a clear elastic. Next, all you have to do is wrap the braid around the top of the bun, pinning it down as you go, until you reach the end. Make sure to place the braid over the elastic from earlier, so that it’s hidden.
When everything is in place smooth down any fly aways and spray the whole head with hairspray.
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