The Four-Step Braided Knot Bun

Good morning and welcome to our first ever Hairstyle Saturday! Today I'll be showing you how to do a beautiful braided knot updo.

I have always admired the elegance of braided chignons, but I've never had enough hair to do them. This is a hairstyle I created by taking what I loved from other styles and adapting them to work with my own hair. You can create variations for yourself too if you're lucky enough to have more length than I do. It's very easily adaptable and it also works very well with hair extensions, if you have them. Today I'm showing you on the centre of my head, but I've worn this style to the side as a chignon and I've gotten lots of compliments that way too!

Without further ado, I present the Four-Step Braided Knot Bun!

First, you'll want to gather your hair into a low ponytail wherever on your head you want your bun to be. I'm showing you in the centre, so I've just made a standard ponytail. Obviously you'll do a side ponytail if you want to end up with a chignon.

Now take your ponytail holder and tug it down to about halfway down your hair. Separate the hair on your head into two groups and guide your ponytail through it to form a twist.

You should end up with something that looks like this:

This last step is where you can get a little creative! What we're going to be doing is tucking all of the hair hanging down up into the twist at the top. You can just tuck it all in as is, which is how I did it the first time, and it looks like a very pretty bun. I did a standard braid this time, which gives it more of a complex look, and at the end I'll post a picture with a fishtail braid, which I think is absolutely gorgeous. The fishtail gives it a lovely, lived-in texture, especially if you plump up the braid a bit.

Whatever you choose to do, you're going to want to grab a bobby pin or two and flip the hair from the ponytail up into the twist, then pin it in place. To hide the bobby pins, just tuck them between the twists too. If you choose to braid, wrap a clear elastic around the end to give the bobby pins some grip.

Here it is with a fishtail braid (I apologise for the lighting!)

There are a lot of ways to jazz it up a little with clips or a little bling. A comb or some flower clips look really pretty between the two twists!

And that's a wrap for our first hairstyle Saturday! If you come up with a creative way to do it, post a picture in the comments and show me. See you on Tuesday!