 how to do an easy three section updo. This one is featuring a French fishtail braid. It's very easy. It's only two different sections that you're using in criss-crossing. So I figured that would be a good thing to start with. What I love about this is that especially if you're using, if you're using, oh my goodness, if you are doing a lot of updo's and you're a bridal specialist, styles like this help to make it a lot easier and you can still put your creative spin on it. So it doesn't have to be this exact updo. So you can actually do this with curls, you can do this with different types of braids and you can add a couple of different things. So this is basically just teaching a foundation but just so happens to have the bonus of being a finished updo. So I got into updo's pretty much when I was younger I had a vanity that all 90s girls had that you just sat there and played around with your hair. I usually would flip through magazines and recreate them on my hair. When I got into hairdressing, I fell into styling because that was natural for me. I didn't really have to work at it. So when I worked in New Jersey, especially in Monroe Township, I was known as pretty much your updo winner. So there was Monroe High School where for about four or five years, they had a contest that whoever was voted best hair won. Got a little trophy, little bragging rights and then you got passed down the hairdresser that did it. So that was me. I also got to do a lot of different events for Fashion Week as a result of my styling. So like I said, it's one of those things that I love. Oh, and I'm always talking about Paul Mitchell. At Paul Mitchell, I actually won Best in Show at one of our trainings for recreating a hairstyle that one of the Italian Vogue stylists actually created. So if I'm getting a little braggadocious, it's because I am being braggadocious. I'm proud of myself for that. But anyway, so you saw our pre-done. Now you can see this is what usually my clients would come in with, which is just like sloppy little updo, not really kept very well, not curled, usually about two days of oils or products in there, which is okay because you never want the hair to be perfectly clean and shiny because then it's a little too slippery and it's harder to keep in your style, especially when you're working with a lot of these like boho chic styles. So one thing that I had learned back in the day was to crimp the hair. So that way it had a little bit of grip to it. Nobody has that kind of time. Not to mention nobody wants to deal with crimped hair. So for me, my go-to was spray wax. So that way it gives me a little bit of grip to the hair, especially when I'm braiding, but it doesn't make the hair greasy and it also will keep the style together while still looking like it's very soft, very lived in. So first, I'm just gonna go and brush through the hair. I usually like to deal with a Boris Bressel brush. This one is, again, Paul Mitchell. It's part of their old Marula line. I don't know if they still have these. Hopefully they'll be coming out with more brushes because these have been my go-to for quite a few years. So any kind of dressing brush, I'm just gonna be combining a lot of words. Don't mind me. Combine away, Danielle. It's a little more interesting. Right? Like, can we translate what she's saying today? I don't know. Let's see. How do you guess? It's like, what's that? Mad Gabb, have you ever played that game? Yeah, not in a while, but yes I have. Yeah, it's super fun. And we'll play that today with your words. Perfect. All right, so my translator will be Matt today. So I'm going to use a wide-tooth comb just to section off a little triangle area off to the side and that's gonna go to just about behind the ear. I'm just going to give that just a quick little twist just to keep it out of my way. Of course you can use clips, but in my usual fashion, there's always one thing that I forget. So that's what I forgot today. But that's okay. All right, now going from the high point of the head, going to section across the crown, right behind the ear. And again, really quickly just twist that out of the way. And I appreciate that. All right, so now we're gonna clip that out of the way. So that leaves us with this large section in the back. Now I'm gonna choose to do that off-center, a lot of the brides that I deal with, usually like that. It's a little something that's off to the side, looks a little formal. And it also photographs a lot better than a center part, especially if say the person has long hair and you don't have like little tendrils and things like that to work with. So just using quick little bursts, as you can see of the spray wax. So that way I'm not putting any type of adult coating on the hair, but I'm controlling the flyaways. Now, personally, I like these little bungees. You have to special order them online, but they're really great because they have these little hooks on them. I don't know if you could see that. Okay, there we go. So they're nice and long, they're adjustable, they come in different colors. But again, you have to special order them. So if you don't have that option, then an easy go-to is just taking two elastics and putting bobby pins, well, two bobby pins, and either ends, securing that off to the side. I usually like to go in underneath because it's easier for me to grip that and then just wrap that around. Now, usually I am standing in front of my section. So I'm gonna do that now to make it a little easier on myself. So I use my thumb to anchor that down so that I can get the tension that I need without letting go of my section. And then I just pop that bobby pin right in and that gives me a nice, secure ponytail that's not going anywhere. Now, I like to give just a little squeeze, part that, and tighten it up just a little bit. And now with the section that was on the left-hand side, which is our larger section. Just gonna turn that so you can see. So this is our larger section. What's gonna happen here is that we're actually gonna be pulling that over to the right side and that's just gonna veil over and it's gonna cover the ponytail that we just did. Now, a great thing that you can do is that you can actually curl this so that you can get a little texture and that way you can create some height and also, like I said, a little bit of texture without having to actually tease that comb or anything like that. So totally up to you. Or you can leave it as is and just pull that straight over the section. All right. Danielle, have you ever heard of bungee tape? No, I haven't actually heard of that. She says it's life-changing, so. All right, I'll have to look into that. I mean, DSL's one, she said, I'll have to check it out. Okay, well, thanks, Jess. Cool, thanks, Jess. So again, short bursts with that spray wax. And I'm just gonna show you really quick why you wanna do short bursts because otherwise, when you're spraying, that can really build up, so it is spray wax. All right. I'm just gonna use a little bit of that in the ends. So spray wax is something that I first started using when I had a Rihanna Mohawk years and years ago. It was great for restyling. And then, like I said, I transitioned that over to Uptoose because it just made it a lot easier to work with. So now that I've smoothed down my flyaways, I can drape that section. There's a lot to do here, Miss, so you can see. So now I'm just gonna drape that over. One thing that I learned from Lucy Dowdy, which again, can't mention Paul Mitchell enough, she's the editorial director for them and Uptoose extraordinaire. I mean, well, she could just do anything. So she had taught us that using these large bobby pins are good for just when you're draping the hair and you wanna just test out without committing to putting an actual pin in there and securing the hair. So you get to test it out. Of course, you would be looking in a mirror, making sure that your balance is correct and that your client's happy. One thing that I always tell people is, look, this is gonna look a little crazy for a little while, but it's like a giant Lego. Trust me, it's going to come out well. And of course, you get the usual, oh, I trust you with that kind of nervous look. And it's like, well, you don't have a choice now, but trust me, it is gonna be good. And it always is. So you wrap that over the top and then underneath. Exactly. So once I get my draping to where I like what I'm seeing on the other side, it's nice and tight. There's no little bubbles in the hair. Then I just use that to wrap around the base of the ponytail, just to get the hair out of the way. Now I like to use hairpins just for lightly securing the hair where I'm, like I said, I'm not making a commitment to that hairstyle just yet. I just wanna lightly place it there. And then when I'm happy with it, that's where I switch over to my bobby pin and I start sticking those in. Now, some people pride themselves on how few bobby pins they use. I really don't care, I'm just there to get the job done. I need to make sure that no matter how much you get wasted at the wedding, at whatever event, whether you are the craziest dancer or the craziest sleeper, because I've also had clients tell me that they slept on their hair and it stayed. So again, just being a little braggadocious. But I also find it to be a fun little game to count just how many pins there are. All right, so usually I also start out with just a little light curling iron action. This one has a little curl to it, but I just want a little bit more. And it's not like you have to do a bunch of sections. So I'm just using a one and a half inch barrel. Actually, no, this one's a one and a quarter inch. And I just give that a light turn, just so that the ends are a little polished and also that I can smooth down some of those flyaways. Now, one thing that I do appreciate about this more natural lived in boho kind of look is that people don't mind their flyaways as much. They like tendrils, they like looking like they've just been out and the hair is wind blown or whatever fantasy you want to make up. I don't know, but they like a little bit of mess instead of why? So now I'm just going to finger comb through that, get a little bit of texture because we do have that spray wax in there. I'm gonna twist it around. Pull a couple of sections just to loosen that up. And again, we're just doing a little draping. Actually, let me turn that so you can see that a little bit better. Now, normally I'd be right in front of my section, but in order to see this a little bit better, I'm just gonna stand right in front of her face, which is just a little awkward if it was a real person. So again, seeing as how this is curled clockwise, I'm gonna go with that, give it that little spin, pull that out just a little, and then just start draping that around. You're gonna hear me say drape a lot because that's just where we're softly figuring out where we want that to live. So I like how that looks. And again, I'll use my larger hair pins just to secure that, but not commit to the bun itself. I like this little curve right here, but I wanna close that up a little bit more. So I'm just gonna take the edges of my pin, place that in there, and that's where you do want the pins to kinda be sticking out where you can find them. And now that we've got our two sections down, now we're onto our last section on the right-hand side. Now, as you can see, because we took that larger diagonal section on the left-hand side, that kind of marries into our right-hand side. Now, I usually like to do zigzag parts so that I can really have that disappear in there, but I figured for today, let's make it a little easier and just do straight parts, and especially because this hair is a little fuller, it's kinda easier to work with. And again, we're gonna spray a little bit with our spray wax just so that I have a nice grip. Use our dressing brush to just smooth that down. Now, the ends are a little bit rough, so I'm gonna use some Hold Me Tight. Now, this is a texture spray, so you can layer it onto the hair. I like it because it has these little fibers, so anytime that I'm working with updoos, I want products that are very light, touchable, and when I comb it, they disappear. So now you can see that it's a little bit better. It's not as blown out and rough in the ends. And when I go to hide that later on, it'll be a lot easier to work with. So now, I'm just gonna take a little triangle section right in the top. Now, I like to have a looser French fish, a French fishtail braid. Fishtail braid, that's what I was gonna say. Yeah, that's a tongue twister. Try to say that 10 times fast. I know I can't, but for me, that's what happens when you pierce your tongue and you flinch. Oh, well, there you go. It's off center and hits a nerve and then you get tongue tied all the time. Wait, is that really what happened? Yes, it really is. I love these lives. I learned so much about you guys. Right? I mean, I hardly ever talk. Brian can't hold a job except for this one. And I am like Murphy's law. Anything that can happen will happen. All right, so with my first section, I crossed my left section is underneath the right section. So now I took from the left side and crossed over that section that was on the right. And that's all we're doing is crisscrossing back and forth. It's just two sections. And the tinier of the section that you take, the more detailed your fishtail is. Okay, so now my right section is over that left section again. I'm just gonna grab that in my thumb and my index finger. I'm gonna grab another tiny section, pull that out and try to detangle it, cross that over. And then you'll see that I keep switching hands. That's just how I'm comfortable with doing it. I feel like everybody's a little different with how they hold it. This is just my way. It'll take a little bit of practice to find out what works for you, but it's kind of cathartic. I always say it. I love repetitive motion, hairstyles, and this is just yet another one. So crossing over, tightening that section, and then grabbing with my thumb and index finger, grabbing a tiny little section on the left-hand side, crossing that over. And just over and over again. That is what we're doing. Now, the closer that you keep this to the head, the more like a French braid that it is. If you're lifting it up, you'll get a little bit more height out of it. So especially if you're doing, say, like a Mohawk section and you wanna create a very large dimensional kind of updo, then this is definitely what you would wanna do is lifting. I wanna keep this pretty close. And as I said, this is more about technique. It just happens to be a finished hairstyle. And I have done this where I've just done it with curls because believe it or not, every black girl does not know how to braid. So when I got into cosmetology school, I was the youngest on both sides of my family, so I always got my hair done. I never did hair. I had lots of dolls, but I never really did their hair. I just played with the clothes. But then when I got into cosmetology school and all of my teacher would give me were braids, I was just like, all right, well, I gotta be good at this. If this is all I'm gonna get. So my best friends, my dearly departed best friend, she had five daughters. So I would go over there on the weekends and I would help her wash, braid and style her daughter's hair. So I got good enough where I could do things like this, but I can't say that I'm like a braid master. I can just get by. Did you say you're using a texture spray with fibers in it? Yes, it's spray wax. Spray wax. Yep, palmachel spray wax. Now I have used all of my hair that I was feeding into the braid to keep it close to the scalp and now I just have those two sections. So what you do with that is that you take the outer corner, I'm gonna try to show that a little bit better. There we go. Yeah, I have to make sound effects to say that that works. So again, if you're taking tiny, tiny sections then you get that really fine herringbone effect with your fishtail. If you take slightly larger sections then it almost looks like a three strand braid. So you can fake different kinds of braids just to let you know. Perfect. That's where it's great when you have a boss that really does have your back. Okay, so again, taking a small outer section, crossing that over. Now I keep it pretty loose so that at the end I'll be able to expand this. You can keep it small and tight if you're doing a lot of them and arranging maybe a braided kind of gamethrones like updo, but seeing as how this is just the single one, like I said, I wanna keep that loose so that I can expand it. So that's where I keep my two sections further apart so that there isn't as much tension. Now I'm taking slightly larger sections now so I can get through this a little bit faster for you guys because I don't know, I feel like that's pretty much like watching paint dry. No pressure, Danielle, take your time. All right, so you can see that starting to form and you don't have to braid it completely down to the ends. One of the other great things about this is that it works on all different hair lengths. So even if somebody has short or even a bob, I wouldn't say a pixie, but obviously if they have at least hair, I would say past the nape of their neck, even if it's only like a half inch past their nape, then this is definitely a possible updo for you. So that's another reason why I prefer to take a couple of different sections like this so that way I can make it look like somebody has long hair because let's face it, not everybody that sits in our chair on that special day is going to have the length that we need. I have used extensions on people. I even had a bride where she grew her hair out and then took a jog the morning of her wedding and then decided, you know what, I don't know why I did this. Can we cut my hair into a pixie? Really? Really. That's a cool story. Oh, I love it because she had like a kind of flapper kind of dress where it was a flute style dress and then she had instead of a traditional veil, she had a birdcage. Oh. So that actually went with it a lot better, it gave her a little finger wave. That's great. Didn't hurt that it was a childhood family friend so I didn't feel that kind of pressure. All right, so now that we have our braid all finished, I've just done two little soft loops of the elastic so that way as I'm pulling, the hair will actually move. So you want it to be secure in the elastic but you don't want it to wear, the hair is really tight. So now I just grab a tiny little section, where am I? There I am. So I just grab a tiny little section at the ends just to keep the tension but I'm not grabbing a whole piece of the ends of the hair. So like I said, when I am expanding the braid, it'll easily do that because I'm not grabbing the entire ends. So now I'm just grabbing random little sections. You can go through and take each and every little section but I like it to look a little bit more on the messier organic side. So that is where I like to take just random sections and as you can see as I pull, what I'm holding is further away because now that braid is sliding up. Another option that you have is actually pushing that braid and that way it compacts it a little bit more but as you can see when you do that, that actually pushes the side forward a little bit and creates a little bit more expansion. So if I had a couple of braids going across the top, that's great. But seeing as how this is a little tighter on the sides, I really don't want that. So now I'm just gonna retract that a little, pull that back out and tighten up this section. I am gonna take the front and just give that a tiny little pull so that way she almost has like a little bang. Now because I did that, this got a little tight right through here so I'm just gonna again pull that a little bit and now when I'm looking, yeah, I know, not really professional, it's to just turn them ahead but that's what I'm gonna do. So now, perfect. Okay, so now I just wanna make sure that we have a good balance going through the side here. So I'm just gonna hold the braid so that way I can make sure that this isn't sticking out. I'm going to take my hairpin from back here. I use that to just secure the side of the head or the side of the braid just to see where I like it. Another cool trick that I had learned is the disappearing hairpin. Cause I don't know about you guys but one of my pet peeves with going to formal events is seeing a whole bunch of hairpins sticking out. I had literally tapped on people's shoulder and fixed their hair because it drives me nuts. But anyway, so you can take your hairpin or you can take your bobby pin whichever and instead of going right through your section and now, well, I shouldn't be so good at hiding pins. Anyway, so if I were to take this entire section and just stick the pin in, you can see where it's pulling the hair. I don't wanna see that. Also it's a lot harder to find that pin and pull it out without creating a little bit more texture and flyaways. So with the disappearing pin trick, you put that underneath the section that you wanna pin, pull that halfway through and then stick that right through and it instantly disappears while it secures the hair. So I'm gonna do that with an actual bobby pin rather than the hairpin because the closed sides of it actually secure the hair a lot better. So you're gonna take the closed ends, go underneath your section, have that pop through, grab it and right before it goes all the way through, you push that right back in and it just disappears and it secures the hair. So it's little things like that that have definitely helped with my updo game and why I've gotten to do Fashion Week and the last event that I got to do before COVID was a Vogue Fashion event with Paul Mitchell, which was very exciting and I'm not gonna lie, I geeked out a little bit because I got to see in a winter and a bunch of other fashion icons. I could care less about the celebrities, I love the fashion icons. All right, so now I like how that looks and how it's secured to the head. So now I'm gonna go back to my braid and draping that around the bun. So seeing as how this is a little bit shorter, actually let me turn that a little bit more so you can see this side. Okay, so again, just gonna work upside down there. So now you can see that we have those pins that are just securing but not committed so we're gonna wrap that around, we're gonna take that pin out, wrap the hair underneath, grab that little bit of hair again, stick that in, because again, we're not totally committing just yet, we're still working and playing with the hair. Gonna take out this pin, wrap the ends of the hair around and hide that in there. I'm gonna get a smaller bobby pin or hair pin, sorry. So I'm gonna take my smaller hair pin, secure that end underneath. Now I'm gonna take this little section where I like that little opening, just give it a little push with my hand there and again, take that large hair pin, just see do I like that section, not really. So I'm gonna take a smaller hair pin and I'm gonna drop a few things on my pretty tray and again, just give that a little lift. I like to detail with my hair pin as I'm working to see how I like to close it and where, so again, not totally committing, I like how that looks. So I'm gonna push that hair pin in so that disappears. I have my other little anchor there, so now that I like what I see, I'm gonna use my hair pins, well my actual bobby pins, sorry. And now I'm gonna commit to that and start to arrange the hair a little more. Another thing that helps me is my straight pin studio box. I love this thing because you can have 50 million in one different size and different type, hair pins, bobby pins, ponytail holders, hair accessories and it's in a box. There's even a magnet on it, so it keeps everything in one place. So I have had this thing for years and I just keep restocking it, so that was from Pamela Peretti. She's also like another updo and curly hair extraordinaire from Paul Mitchell. So right now, as you can see, I never open my hair pins for one, never ever use your teeth because on a bride special day, she wants to use a lot of things but not your spit to make her day special. So never ever use your teeth, besides that, you're gonna chip your teeth and it's just not a good look. And when you open it, you're pinching more hair together and that's gonna disturb your updo. So I just find the little anchor pieces that I want and I slide that right in. Okay, so this piece is a little tight so I'm just gonna pull that and arrange and turn this so you can see that better. So I actually spend more time securing the looser part which is the bun than I do on anything else. And I always make sure that my guest does an actual head twist, turn, shake and all of that so I can make sure that nothing is flying out and everything is secure. So right here is a little bit loose for me. I'm just gonna take another bobby pin, go inside of that section, go inside of the section and just push that right into the hair. Now you always wanna check in with your clients, like say there's a little resistance there because I've already put a couple in and just lightly take that out. You always wanna check in with them because good hair should not mean that they're gonna be in pain all day because a bobby pin is hitting on their scalp. So again, I don't like how that looks so I'm just gonna pick it up, find that section, there we go. And now that I like where everything is, I'm gonna take my extra body from Finishing Spray. I love this stuff because it is basically like concrete in a can and it does not take a lot to secure the hair but it doesn't give it that really hard kind of look but yes, it feels very secure. I'm just gonna give that a spray and now I'm gonna take out those large hair pins that I was just using to make sure that I liked where it was and you can just push those in if you wanted to but she's already got enough pins in there so I really don't want to. And that is our finished look and actually I'm gonna get it out of the way so you can actually see it. Well, I'm short so I need to get leverage on the head. I'm not tall like you and Brian. Yes. All right, so this is our finished up too and that was just three sections up. Well, I don't like how that looks. So again, let's use our little disappearing pin trick to address that little problem and then I swear I'm done. I think that's a good tip though is to look at it at all angles because I mean, straight on could look fine but then if they slightly turn their head if it doesn't then... Exactly. So like this little area right here that's also a little loose. So I'm just gonna lift that up with a hair pin. There we go. We are all fixed now. All right, so that is our finished up too. So I would love for you guys to give this a try on your own and show me your variations, you know. Tag me on Instagram at the hands downs. I would love to see it and let's talk about even more ways that we can do that. But I'm also interested to see what you guys would like to do next week. I was thinking maybe again, a curly haircut but this time on wet hair. Last week I did a dry haircut and I just wanted to show the different ways that you can do that. If not, we're always taking requests in the comments so let us know. But thanks for watching and wherever you are in the world, stay safe. Tune in next week. We're always live. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday there's always somebody on. Thanks guys. Bye.