The Best Updos

Updos lend an air of sophistication and elegance to complete your look for a special occasion. The best updos compliment your formal wear, face shape, and skin tone, stay in place for the entire event, and make you feel confident. Updos never go out of style. Some of the more popular updos are:

• Fanned updo. Create this updo with a low ponytail, twisted upwards, then anchored with bobby pins, allowing the hair ends to fan out at the top.
• The chignon. Secure a low ponytail with an elastic band, then create one or several loose buns from the ponytail, pinning them into place at the base of the neck with bobby pins.
• Formal ringlets. This dramatic updo takes a considerable amount of time because you must first pull the hair up into a ponytail, resting on the crown of the head, then tightly curl half-inch sections of the entire ponytail into tight ringlets.
• Messy updo. A variation of the severe bun updo, the messy updo entails pulling the hair into a ponytail on the back of the head, creating a single loose bun pinned into place, and allowing for sweeping bangs and loose tendrils surrounding the face and hanging down the base of the neck.
• Pinned up ringlets. This updo is really a half updo in that the top half of the hair is pulled into a ponytail at the back of the head and held in place with an elastic band. All remaining hair, including the ponytail, is then curled into tight curls with a curling iron or rollers. When the curls are cool, they are pinned at random at the crown of the head, leaving cascading curls down the length of the neck.

The best updos suit your attire for the occasion. A bundled high updo showcases jewelry worn just at the neckline, whereas updos based at the neckline can frame dramatic earrings. Sweeping updos, with heavy bangs, cascading curls, and defined pleats, accentuated with jeweled barrettes, clips, or tiny flowers, are worn best with solid colored apparel since the eye is drawn to the hair focal point.

If you have short hair, add hair extensions to create your updo. There are many updo styles from which to choose, with variations on each. Research the look you want by looking at pictures of hairstyles of movie stars or fashion models in magazines or online. Hair salons also are a good reference source, as they carry many hairstyle magazines.

The best updo is one with which you feel comfortable and confident for the entire event.