Taming the Beast: Lolita Hair Tutorial Review Part 1- Puffy Pigtails

So, here I go with my first entry for my hair experiment. I am starting with a hairstyle I have seen on a lot of girls. I thought a tutorial on Violet LeBeaux looked the easiest to follow. This is not the only place where you can find this sort of tutorial.

http://violetlebeaux.com/2010/04/hair-tutorial-hime-pigtails/

Note- I left out the hime pouf part because it was not to my personal taste.

Here is how it turned out (with pictures taken in the bathroom because it has better lighting!)

It doesn't quite look the same without the pouf but I think that for a beginner the result was not too bad.

How easy was the tutorial to follow?

It certainly looked easy when Violet did it. Violet's tutorials are quite straight-forward and I did find the instructions to be very clear. My main concern is the part where you use bobby pins to pin the pigtails higher up on your head. It looks as though Violet used less pins than me but I had to use extra to support the weight. Whilst I could have left out this stage, I decided I would put the effort in and pin up my hair. It took me a while to get the pigtails looking even and I had to start over a few times to get a better shape.

How long did it take?

After curling my hair and taking a few attempts to give my pigtails a desirable shape, about 50 minutes had passed. This time will probably get shorter with more practice. A majority of the time was spent re-pinning my pigtails.

How long did it stay in place?

I was not expecting this hairstyle to stay in place for very long but with all the pins and hairspray I used, I was proved wrong. My hair stayed in the same shape for 5 and a half hours which would have been longer, but I needed to take it out to go to bed.

Was the end result as expected?

I don't think my pigtails look as cute as Violet's. Even after a bit of restyling, the pigtails were not exactly even and I should have curled my hair a bit better. I am confident this style gets better with practice.

Would I try it again?

Yes but this is not a style I would do if I was in a hurry just in case I needed to re-do some steps.

How to cheat

If you pin your hair up into 2 buns then you could use some hair extensions/falls and clip them over the buns. This would give a thicker and more exaggerated appearance. The main issue would be getting extensions which are similar in colour to your natural hair. If you wanted, you could use a different colour to your natural hair for different results. Check to see if your extensions can be curled and backbrush them to make them look like the style shown in the tutorial. You may find some extensions wont work as well with this style and thicker styles would probably work better. Please note this is only a suggestion and I have not tried this on myself!

Rating out of 10- 7.5/10