hair

PREPPING HAIR FOR A PONYTAIL EXTENSION

photos/post/graphic design: Kristin Ess

Clearly we don’t all have a perfectly full hair. And while we definitely encourage you to embrace what you have and make the best of it everyday, sometimes we can all use a little boost for a special event. Thank goodness the ponytail extension exists. My clients and I love these things! They’re really easy to attach, but the most important part is prepping your own hair before clipping it in. Over the years I’ve done this about a billion times and this is truly my favorite way to get that sleek looking ponytail without any lumps & bumps. You may also opt for a more natural, loose look with your pony for which this is still a great technique. Let me show you how to “double up”! The idea with this technique is to make one ponytail inside of another. You can have a bumpy first ponytail and smooth it out with a comb and then pull your second (outer) ponytail over it to cover up any little mistakes. Here we go…

1. Use a tail comb to make your first ponytail. This first ponytail should follow the shape of your hairline, but should be a couple inches back.
2. Take the fine side of your comb and work out any little bumps. It’s okay if you drag the bumps up to the ponytail holder because they’ll be covered by your next ponytail.
3. Once you smooth out the inner ponytail, you should have something that looks like this.
4. Next, gather all of the hair from the outer section. Start brushing it with a soft-bristled smoothing brush like the one you see above.
5. Continue gathering and smoothing until you feel like your ponytail is lump-free.
6. Now put your second ponytail holder in.
7. Spray a strong holding hairspray directly on to your smoothing brush.
8. Use that to smooth down any fly aways. By doing this you will get less hairspray on your face/skin (which can clog your pores!).
9. Now attach your ponytail extension. I would love to tell you how to do that, but each brand will have a different way of attaching. This tutorial is more about prepping the hair so be sure to read the instructions that come with your ponytail!

Good luck little ladies! Can’t wait to see it if you do it. By the way– if you already have a full ponytail, whether curly, wavy or straight, this is a great method to make a perfect pony even without an extension. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes @TBDofficial!

In case you’re wondering… the specific ponytail extension used in this tutorial was this one in “Buttered Toast”!