hair therapy: a 'sweet' twist on the sock bun

Mario Russo, owner and lead stylist of Salon Mario Russo in boston, recently shared with me a fun variation of the oh-so popular sock bun {which happens to be one of his favorite looks for fall}. dubbed "Cinnabun," this bun is actually more of a hair wrap than a traditional bun.

so, if you've been busy cutting up your socks with the hope of creating that perfect round bun, stop! follow these steps and try this new version instead...

begin with a classic blow-dry; apply a smoothing serum to tame any flyaways {try Oribe Smooth Style Serum}.

sleekness is key for the front of this look; it should appear seamless and tight, so use a fine tooth comb to pull all of your hair to the back of your head. for extra interest, place a stretchy or decorate headband at crown of the head. this will help you to better achieve the smooth finish as well as give the style an added twist.

gather hair into a ponytail at the back center of your hair and secure with an elastic, take a 1 to 1.5 inch of hair near the base of the ponytail and create a very small loop with the hair. this loop should loop under and face down towards the neck. 

pin the small loop with bobby pins, fastening it under the elastic of the ponytail. think of this as the center section of a flower ~ it will act as focal point for the rest of the Cinnabun. separate the remaining hair into two parts, one to the left and one to the right of the center loop.

taking the left section first, loosely begin to wrap it around the loop. using a fine tooth comb, make sure the hair that’s being wrapped is smooth. as you begin to run out of hair to wrap, take a few bobby pins and secure the ends of the hair under and into the bun.

next, take the right section and loosely begin to wrap it in the opposite direction around the loop. again, lightly use a fine tooth comb to make sure the hair that’s being wrapped is smooth, pinning the ends under and into the bun.

take the fine tooth comb and go over any section of the bun that needs to be smoothed out; to finish the style, liberally apply a strong hold hairspray all over {Mario's favorite is MoroccanOil Luminous Hairspray}.

what do you think of this updo? will you try it??

2nd image courtesy of Salon Mario Russo