1. Begin with clean, dry, tangle-free hair. You may opt to blow curly or wavy hair straight for a smoother look. Work a little mousse through your hair and tame any flyaway hair with a drop of anti-frizz serum before starting your chignon.2. Brush your hair back into a low ponytail. Shorter side layers can be pinned back with jeweled hair pins or a head band. Get a firm grip around the base of the ponytail and use your other hand to twist the tail into a tight spiral.
3. Hold the base of the ponytail with one hand, then lift the tail straight up with the other. Begin to coil it clockwise around the base. When you’ve made half of a circle, release the hand holding the base and use it to hold the forming bun as you continue to coil the tail of the chignon.
4. Complete one rotation – a little more if you have longer hair – then tuck the end of the tail under the chignon. If your hair is long enough, you might be able to push the tail through the bun and make a knot.
5. Secure the chignon using a few prong-shaped bobby pins or a hair stick. Push one pin through at any outside edge, collecting a small amount of the bun as you make the insertion. Secure the opposite side with a second pin. If you’re using a hair stick, push the tip up through the right corner of your chignon, so that a thin flat layer rests on top of the stick. Rotate the stick 180 degrees and push it gently through the base of the bun. As the stick begins to emerge, hook a small amount of hair on the underside of the left corner, then center the stick.
