How To Do A Ballet Bun

The classical Ballet bun for dance classes, exams and show

What you will need for the perfect bun: 

• Hair brush
• Hair band
• Hair net
• Hair pins
• Hair grips

Step 1: Make the Pony Tail

To make the perfect ballet bun you need to start with a perfect pony-tail. Begin by brushing back the hair, and gather it into a tight pony tail with a single hair band.

For a classical ballet bun, it’s important that the bun isn’t too high or too low, so you need to make sure that the pony tail sits in the middle of the head and just above the top of the ear line:

Top Tips: 

• For very wispy hair, you may want to slightly wet the hair before brushing it back into the pony tail.
• For a nice neat ballet bun, you want a tight pony-tail! Wrap the hair band around a few times to keep the pony-tail secure.

Step 2: Choose the Right Net for Your Ballet Bun

It’s important that you choose the right type of net for your ballet bun.

We recommend that you use a hair net rather than a bun net. 

Step 3: Make the Ballet Bun

Start by taking the pony tail and loosely wrapping it around in a circle. It doesn’t need to be too tight at all, it can just be really loose at this start

Top Tip: 

• Apply a slight twist to the pony tail as you wrap it around in a circle. This will help your ballet bun to keep its shape.

Step 4: Gather the Bun in your Hair net 

Next you need to take the hair net and wrap one end of it around the whole of the bottom of your ballet bun.

Then pull the other end of the hairnet upwards towards the forehead.

Step 5: Twist, Wrap, Repeat 

Now you need to twist the hair net before bringing it back down to the bottom of the bun, catching all of the loose bits of hair.

Then you start the process again - wrap the hairnet around the bottom of the bun, pull the hair net up towards the forehead, twist and come back down to the bottom of the bun again.

The hair net is nice and big so after you have wrapped it around the bun once you can repeat this process 3 or 4 more times (depending on the thickness and volume of hair you are working with) ensuring that you catch all of the wispy bits of hair to make a neat ballet bun.

Step 6: Shape Your Ballet Bun 

Now you need to begin to shape your ballet bun by teasing the hair into a nice symmetrical round shape, ensuring that there is no hole in the middle.

Step 7: Add the Hairpins to Your Ballet Bun 

Next you need to add the hair pins to your ballet bun to hold it securely in place. Take a little bit of the bun, with the pin pointing outwards away from the centre of the bun.

Then, go up and over before pushing the pin back in towards the centre of the bun.

Repeat this process, working your way around the ballet bun in a circle, using 6 to 8 pins, depending on how big the bun is.

Top Tip: 

• Try the ‘Super Pins’ for ballet buns by Tendu. Available in 3 colours to match your hair, these sturdy pins will keep your bun in place and you only need one 'Super Pin' for every 2 or 3 normal pins.

Step 8: The end result

Please make sure that gel, hair spray is applied so there are no wispy bits.

Miss Marie will add a bow for the exams.