How to Make an Easy Hair Bun for Ballet Class

When my daughter moved to a more advanced ballet class, a hair bun went from being optional to a requirement. I had no idea how to make one. My daughter's hair was short, only shoulder length, which made putting a bun into her hair more challenging. I started to panic until I finally found an easy way to make a ballet bun.

This is a very simple and quick method to make a bun that will work for long or short hair. It takes no more than a few minutes to do after a little practice. My daughter wore this bun to ballet, tap, and jazz dance classes and it never came loose. She sometimes wore it all day and it stayed tight. You will need several items to make this bun.

You will need all of the following items to make a bun:

• Chignon hair donut (or bun foundation) - if you are making a bun for a child or for someone with short hair, the petite size will probably work best. You can buy these from amazon.com or from Sally's Beauty Supply Stores. I originally bought a blonde colored hair donut because it was the only petite size I could find. Try to get a color that matches the hair color of the person who needs the bun. That way, you won't have to worry about trying to hide the donut
• A set of bobby pins - get a lot because they get lost easily
• Hair Nets - I get the Jac-O-Net Chignon Bun Hair Net brand. They're fairly large, so you may have to wrap them around the bun two or three times. You can also get them in different colors, so you can match the hair color of the person who needs the bun. These nets are delicate, so stock up on them
• A set of ponytail holders
• Elastic bands - it's best to get the ones that are made for hair but regular elastic bands will work as well
• Comb
• Round hair brush
• Hairspray
• Hair gel
• Bun cover - this hides the bun foundation. It is especially important if you can only get a bun donut that doesn't match the hair color of the person who needs the bun. It can help to hide the color if any should show through
• Hair Scrunchie

Watch the video below to see how to make the bun. Here are the steps:

1. Spray the hair with hair spray
2. Make a ponytail using a ponytail holder. Brush the hair as smooth as possible
3. Put the chignon hair donut over the ponytail holder
4. Put the hair that makes up the ponytail around the hair donut until it is covered. Wrap any excess hair around the back of it. Watch the video to see how to do this
5. Put an elastic band around the back of the bun donut to hold the hair in place
6. Cover with a hair net. Wrap around the bun until the net is tight
7. Use four bobby pins to secure the bun donut. Stick them directly into each side and the top and bottom
8. Cover with a bun cover
9. Wrap a scrunchie around the bun cover to hold everything in place
10. I use hair gel to smooth any excess hair that sticks out and comb it down and I use bobby pins to keep it pinned down.

The hair bun is now finished. Once you've done this several times, it probably won't take more than 5 minutes to do.