Product-Free Party Hair

New Year's 2010: I made a resolution to transition to sustainable beauty products. Since then, I've given up almost all hair products (except hair color: I don't think it's right to try to color your hair without cancer-causing chemicals, and ever since someone called me a "redhead" I've been committed to the fun of coloring my hair).

During the holiday party season, doing cute hair without product can be challenging. I absolutely love parties - especially Christmas parties! - and dressing up is one of my favorite parts. I have very fine hair. Until recently, I thought that Aquanet was the only possible way for me to have cute, upswept hair.

But now ... I have devised a party hairstyle that keeps my fine hair in place, gets lots of compliments, and takes less than five minutes to accomplish. Basically, it's the holy grail of hairstyles.

Want to learn how to do the messy updo that has transformed my party life?

Step 1:

Take a handful of hair from right behind your ear.

(Optional) Step 2:

French braid the hair from behind the ear. I do a little French braid pulling my hair from the neck line. Don't work too hard. Just stop braiding whenever you feel like it. Put a clip on the end of the French braid to hold it in place.

Step 3:

Pull back the hair from behind the other ear. Braid it if you're going to.

Step 4:

So, now you should have two hanks of hair or two braids. Gather the ends together and put a ponytail holder around them. See how messy it is in the picture? Don't worry about it. This is a messy updo - so relax.

Step 5:

So here's the tricky part. Have you ever seen those ads for the Topsy Tail? It's a device that turns your ponytail inside out. That's basically what you're going to do here. Take the ends of the ponytail that you just created, lift it, and flip it through the gap you created when you brought the two braids/ponytails together.

Step 6:

So here's the part that might seem tricky, but isn't. You just take the ends of your hair and roll it up like a burrito. Tuck any stray ends into your Topsy Tail. Again, it SHOULD be messy.

Step 7:

Your hair is now in kind of a jelly roll. Take a bobby pin and stick it in one end. Do the same on the other end. Then take a couple of bobby pins and stick them into the top of the roll. I usually use 4-5 bobby pins. They hold your hair very firmly, so don't go overboard.

And that's it: product-free party hair!

You can see up above how my hair looked from the front when I was at a wedding this summer. I always get asked how I do this style, and now you know the secret.