hair

ROPE BRAID CHIGNON

photography/post/graphics: Kristin Ess

You asked for it! Remember the hair flowers post from Valentine’s Day? We got a ton of emails asking if we could show how the hairstyle from that post was done. You’re going to need a few important things to get this look, so we’ve teamed up with Pantene Pro-V. For this tutorial, we’re using 3 products from the Pantene “Stylers” line which is endorsed by one of our favorite hair heroes, Pantene Celebrity Stylist Danilo! We’re using a heat protector, a soft texturizing wax and a shaping spray. Here we go!

1. Blow your hair out all the way and put it on top of your head in a bun for about 10 minutes. That should help re-direct the hair so it doesn’t lay too flat.
2. Grab a little pile of bobby pins in assorted sizes.
3. Take a “pea-size” dab of Texturizing Sculpting Wax in your palm. Rub your hands together to warm + soften it up.
4. Massage it into the root. This will give us the proper texture and will keep the hair appearing flat + limp. Remember– this wax is water-based so don’t be afraid.
5. Grab your 1″ curling iron + your Heat Protection Spray.
6. Spray a light veil of heat protector over your hair, wait for it to soak into the hair, then wrap curl your whole head for more texture.
7. Do a rope/french braid on one side and pin it in place using a large supportive bobby pin.
8. Then rope/french braid the other side.
9. Lightly tease the hair in back. This will give volume to the bun portion of your chignon.
10. Pull all of your hair to one side and twist it the same direction you’ve twisted the rope braid. In this case,  you can see she’s twisting it upward and toward her face.
11. Pin it in place as you go.
12. When you get to the ends, tuck and pin them as you see illustrated in picture 12.
13. Gently tug at your rope braid to loosen up the look and make it a bit more romantic.
14. At this point, you should pull out any small whispy pieces you’d like. You can see what it looks like with more pieces pulled out versus zero pieces pulled out in the Valentine’s Day post.
15. Do a final veil of hairspray with something that will stay put but not look helmet-y. Obsessed with this Shaping Spray.

Oh… and that cute little peach tulle dress is right here.