Smoke and Mirrors

Have you ever seen a celebrity updo and thought to yourself -WOW I didn't think she had that much hair. Well you are probably right, she doesn't. Hairstylist have many tricks up their sleeves to make an updo look, which sometimes requires some smoke and mirrors! Here is a chignon I did on myself using hair extensions aka fake hair. I know the color is a little off, but I did that so you can see where the fake hair is. Of course if you do it you want hair the same color as yours.

Back view of finished Chignon

Side view

I started with curled hair. Nothing fancy just quickly done in large sections

It's then pulled back into a ponytail

Take a weft of fake hair and fold the ends to meet each other
This hair isn't anything fancy just some from Sally's Beauty Supply

Wrap the weft around your ponytail and secure the end with a few bobby pins

Make a "bungee" cord with a rubber band and 2 bobby pins

Fold the ponytail up and use your bungee cord to secure it. Push the pin on one side. Then, holding the other pin, pull the rubber band across the underside of the ponytail and secure the pin on the other side

Now your ponytail should look like this

Take another weft and create a hair pad with it-this will give the the chignon a really full look You can also use a hair rat (awful name I know) close to your hair color to get the same effect

Roll up the weft to make the hair pad

Pin the hair pad to the underside of the ponytail

Use several pins to secure the hair pad into place

Fold the ponytail back over the hair pad and fan out to cover it

Pin around the chignon to hold its shape

Here are a few different celebrity versions

Taylor Swift with a soft side part version

Anne Hathaway with a tight side part version

Reese Witherspoon with a loose deconstructed version

Now go give it a whirl and let me know how it turns out!