Easy Summer up-do's for Long Hair

I love my long hair. I love that it's feminine and counter cultural. I remember seeing a mother and teenage son together several years back and I swear they had the exact same hair cut. Our current culture seems so bent on blurring the lines between men and women, and frankly I want to part of it. But. In the summer, in the heat, I am sorely tempted to chop it all off, despite the fact that this is not what a actually want. But I have learned that instead I just need to commit to putting my hair up for the summer.
Of course one of the fasted and easiest ways to put your hair up is a pony tail or a bun. I've found this new little tool to be immensely useful. You can buy them at most any drug store, and I even picked mine up at the grocery store.

The thing I really love about them is that even with chasing twins, canning tomatoes or whatever craziness my day can hold, my hair stays up and in place and Lord willing out of the bread dough. I'm not sure how well it would work on thinner shiny hair (leave us a comment if you know), but I do know the work well on shorter hair. My mom had should length hair and they worked great for her. They work well for other things besides buns. There are a couple of ideas that come in the box, and I'm sure you could up with a few more.
But of course one can get a little tired of wearing a bun all the time and sometimes a pony tail is just not up and cool enough, so I've gone in search of all the different easy up-do that don't take too much time investment and stay up well. Some of them do take longer than others, and some do stay up better than others, but hopefully this leaves you with lots of inspiration. Before I get into the photos and descriptions of less common ideas here are a few easy ones.

1. Make a french braid (look it up on youtube if you don't know how), but pull the braid a little away from your base of your head as you are braiding and secure the end of the braid with a pony tail holder. Then shove the tail up under the braid and secure with hair pins.
2. Divide you hair, as you would for pig tails and french braid each side and secure each end with a pony tail holder. The cross the braids like you would for the first step of tying your shoes and pin it in place, taking care to hide the ends.
3. Pull your hair up into a pony tail but don't pull it all the way through, leaving it looped up...seriously, everyone modern American female already knows that trick, but I noticed a cute riff for this "do" on a friend's daughter, which is to wrap wide ribbon around the pony tail holder and tie a bow. It makes it look much less I-just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-have-no-time-to-care-for-my-hair look.

Most of these pictures were kindly taken by my sister-in-law...I sure am getting a lot of white in my hair these days. The twins must be making me awfully wise, lol. I'm not into high maintenance hair so I don't plan on dyeing it, unless The Man changes his mind and thinks we would like it better that way. I don't have to look at me all day, and I want him to be looking at me all day *smile*. Plus I think I can be plenty sexy with white in my hair...just think of Curella De Ville, right? lol. Anyway, back to our topic...
Here's the first one, which I am calling:

The Flip-Through Bun

1. Put your hair in a loose-ish pony tail.
2. Divide your hair between the pony tail and your head.

 3. Pull the pony tail up and through the hole you have created by dividing your hair.

 We always called this a flip through when I was a kid, and it can be a nice look all on its own.

 4. Then take the ends of your pony tail and tuck them into the top of the flip through, and secure it with hair pins.

 You can create variations on this look by moving your pony tail higher or lower, parting or rolling back your hair in the front before you make a pony tail, or by braiding the ends of your hair in one or multiple braids after step 3.

 

Here's the second "do"

The Flat Coil

1. Pull the front part of your hair up into a bun.

 2. Then, hold it on both sides to keep it coiled, and flip it over so the top is now against your head. And secure with pins. (This also makes a nice look all on it's own.)

 3. Take the remainder of your hair and divide it in half. Twist it up as shown in the picture below.

 4. Wrap it around the flip bun and secure with hair pins.

 5. Repeat with the other side.

 It creates a look that is very similar to a bun, but flatter and with more intricate wraps and coils. You could change the look of this hair do, in several ways. You could divide your hair in the front, creating a part and then make two small buns or make a small instead of twisting and coiling it.

 

And lastly I remembered an article in an old magazine I have and looked it up for you. Click on the picture to view it full size. It's a little hard to read the text, but it's basically to small french braids  at the front, and then you pull the rest of your hair into a loose bun and wrap the ends of the braids around the bun. I haven't done it yet, but I think I would just do regular braids instead of french braids to save time, unless I was taking more time to dress up for something.

 

Well I know the heat of summer is almost past. I did intend to get the post done sooner, but life seems to happen over here all the time! Even so I hope someone will find it useful. Blessings!c
P.S. After I made this post a friend told me of some other blog posts where they had gathered some great hair do ideas. You can see them here.