Makeup & Beauty

How-To: Awesome French Twist

I know, I know: this look (from the Fourth Of July Jordan In The House segment)…well, sort of impossible to recreate. And I’m not gonna lie: I think this is a practice-makes-perfect situation. And extra hands on deck help. But it is definitely doable, so long as you go into it knowing two things:

1) Hairspray is your friend.

2) The key to a great updo is backcombing, because it gives the pins something to hold onto.

Now, let’s talk how to do that ‘do.

1. Prep The Hair

To start with, you spray the roots of your (dry, and preferably not too clean) hair with Dove Style+Care Strength & Shine Flexible Hold Hairspray, and then brush the product down through the ends to distribute it.

Next, separate the top third of your hair and curl it, then pin the curls in place and spray again. You’re going to leave those curls there for awhile, so get used to looking a little funny.

Next step: add some bend to the bottom 2/3 of your hair by curling sections with a 1 3/4″ iron.

2. Put In That Body

Tease the sides of your hair (we’ll worry about the top in a minute) by taking sections and holding the ends of the hair while back-combing towards the roots (starting about 2″ from the scalp, not all the way down the length of the hair).

3. Do The ‘Do

This is the complicated part, so we took some shots to make it easier to explain.

To make the French twist, start by pulling all your hair off to one side and arranging bobby pins down the center of your head in the crosshatch pattern shown below.

Next, wrap the hair that you’ve pulled off to the side back around the bobby pins, and tuck into place with a few more pins.

See? It’s not as hard as it looks, but an extra set of hands definitely helps.

Last step: adding volume to the top of the hair. Unpin the curls and backcomb the hair (holding the ends and only backcombing 2″ away from the scalp)…

…and gently comb the top section back into the twist, using more pins to secure the locks in place. Finish with a generous helping of hairspray.

Thanks so much to Ansley Meredith for the tutorial and the lovely ‘do!

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