Thanks to the sock bun I can wake up with the perfect soft curls in the morning. I have been coming up with some quick and easy styles using the overnight curls that take just minutes. Turn those simple sock bun curls into an up do with a fun and finished look for a night out or just a nice, easy style for on the go.
Remember, I am a very busy mom who doesn’t have an hour in the morning to style my hair. With about 5 minutes I can get this style and be out the door for the day. I am a hairstylist, so doing hair comes easily to me – if you struggle with styling give yourself more than 5 minutes! If I am planning to put my hair up for the day (in something other than a wet ponytail or messy bun), I have to blow dry my hair, curl it with an iron, and then put it up. That is just not going to happen unless I set my alarm at 4:00 in the morning so I can do my hair. Not to mention, it seems a shame to start pinning up and hiding all of those pretty curls that took a half hour to make. Now that I have discovered the magic of the sock bun I don’t feel even the tiniest bit bad throwing the curls up because they were effortless. This is one of my favorite ways to put my hair up. I guess I would call it a messy side up do. I put a sock bun in my hair before bed and wake up with nice curls to work with. You can watch my sock bun video if you want to see how I do this.
Next I hold my bangs straight up, hairspray at the roots, and backcomb to create some volume. I do about three more sections using the hair from my bangs to the crown of my head the same way. Lift, spray, and backcomb. This does not look pretty while you are doing it, but it is how I achieve the smoothed over volume in the front of this style.
Now I take a bristle brush and smooth the hair down. I brush very lightly in the direction that I want the hair to lie until the just the top has no visible backcombing or bumps. You want to smooth the top over without removing all of the backcombing underneath. Then I use about four bobby pins to secure this part of my hair back as if I were putting my hair half up. You can play around with how much volume you want here. It all depends on where you place the bobby pins. Cris cross the bobby pins so that you get a nice firm hold. If you have super thick hair 4 bobby pins may not cut it and if your hair is very thin 4 might be overkill.
Now I take almost all of my hair (leaving out about a two inch by two inch section) and gather it into a ponytail. Take that hair and make a messy bun that is more to the left (or right if you prefer) side of your head. I do this kind of nonchalantly – it doesn’t have to be perfect. Just wrap your ponytail holder around the whole section of hair once and then pull the hair about halfway through again. Pretend you just woke up and are late for work and are quickly throwing your hair in a messy bun.
The last step is to take the section of hair that you left out and wrap it around the ponytail holder to hide it. Pin it in place using a bobby pin in the opposite direction as the hair is going. Now if you need to, you can piece the curls apart a little and hairspray or throw in a couple more pins if you need to. I like to add some little flowers for fun and … walla! A pretty but easy style that takes hardly anytime at all. No one would know that you curled your hair in your sleep and cheated by using a messy side bun to make this up do!
More On Sock Bun Curls
If you are looking for more information on sock bun curls, take a look at these other posts on ASpottedPony.
How To Use A Sock To Get Beautiful Curly Hair Without Heat
Curly Hair Without Heat Video – How To Put A Sock Bun In Your Hair
How did you get your hair not to be flat on top of your head? Everytime I do this, my hair is flat so I have to wear a headband or something not down. 🙁 I’m not a headband kind of girl.
Ha – I am not a headband kind of girl either :). I have heavy bangs and they don’t go into the sock bun. I usually pin them back, and in the morning have nice volume. Not sure what your hair type is, but make sure you aren’t getting the hair wet that isn’t in the ponytail. You could try some teasing and smoothing to the top after you take the sock bun out.
The 2×2 inch section you leave out to wrap – You take it from where? The top , side or bottom of the rest of the hair?
Thanks for this tutorial! I’m going to try it 🙂
I grab the small section from one side of my head so that I can smooth it over to the ponytail and wrap it around the ponytail holder and pins and cover them up. I go over the ponytail and then under. Hope that helps – good luck 🙂
This is so cool! But every time I try to curl it down with the sock, it falls out and gets messy. How did you make it so perfect?
I have very long hair – down to my waist and it’s thick… Do you recommend splitting it up doing quadrants (four sections)? Oh, I also found these GREAT nylon/knit hair ties at the Dollar Tree and they don’t leave a bump after I take out my pony. 🙂
Let me know what you think 🙂 Thank you!! We are taking family pictures for my daughters 1st birthday and I want to look nice but don’t really have the time to do my hair and get dressed with makeup as well.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Thank you for commenting! I will be stopping by the dollar store for some of those hair ties :)!
I guess I would try 2 first! One On top of the other – but if that doesn’t hold all of your hair four would be worth a shot. I feel like that would be really uncomfortable to sleep in though. Definitely play around with both ways before picture day rolls around! Hope it works for you!
i tried this but it fell out in the middle of the night any advice?
i tried this but it fell out in the middle of the night any advice?
I tried this, but instead of being cute curls my hair looked like an afro….
i do this often but the only thing i have problems with is getting all of my layers tucked into the c
sock. other than that this is the easiest hair style ive ever done. its awesome
Thanks for the video. I am so going to try this. I have fine hair. Quite a bit of it and it has quite a bit of natural wave and curl if its shorter but i hate my hair short. Am going to try this tonite. Thanks again.
One trick that keeps mine from frizzing is to put a teaspoon or more of aloe vera gel from a bottle in my hair before ponytailing and bunning it up!