i-Images, Stephen Lock
A few days ago I decided I would not go another day without trying to recreate one of Kate’s up dos. Knowing myself and the amount of tries that would lead to me sobbing into a $4 bottle of wine, I called on celebrity hair stylist Jonathan Colombini. Why? Because he knows what he’s doing, and he likes British television (the latter wasn’t exactly a pre-requisite, but isn’t that wonderful?)
Colombini is responsible for making Laura Prepon, Fergie and AnnaLynne McCord look hot-to-trot, and my hope is that he’ll one day work on Kate’s hair and confirm that it smells like lavender and loves a good G&T.
Ok. Up dos. Kate. Let’s do this:
“It’s refreshing to see her [Kate] bring such a modern “twist” to such a traditional role in the British monarchy,” Colombini told me. With all due respect to Princess Anne, the loaf isn’t doing anyone any favors.
Moving on…
“To achieve this twisted up do, it looks as if Kate has chosen a side part, which gives a more formal elegance,” Colombini explained to me. “You can also do middle, if you’d like, as a day look.”
Related Story: What Kate Middleton REALLY thinks of her own hair
To Start:
• Prep the hair with texture. On damp hair Colombini recommends – root to ends – any products from Joico‘s body luxe line; their elixir is my favorite.
• Power dry with your hands till about 90% then with a round brush focus on smoothing ends. If the ends are a little dehydrated, spray a bit of the line’s smoothing cure.
• Once your base is done, part the hair on desired side.
•Section out about an inch of the hairline from top of ear to ear and let that drop out. Gather the rest of the hair but drop out the nape from ear to ear (essentially, you’ll have a half up/half down look).
• If you choose, do a bit of proper back combing in the crown for shape and volume.
• With loose tension, secure a low pony with the top section. Colombini advises a bungee to keep tension and not create bumps.
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Now let’s send our attention to the nape that’s been dropped out…
• Apply a little paste (try Joico’s matte grip) to your hands for control.
• Grab little sections of the hair and twist ( If you notice, Kate’s twist are also rolled). This is the easiest break down to achieve: Grab a small subsection of hair from the nap and make a little ponytail with a clear rubber band at the end. Then twist that subsection of hair from the nape, so that the grain of the hair will all be in one direction. Twist until you can’t twist any more, holding the ends with moderate tension without letting go.
• Holding those ends tight loosen the tension you are holding out, as to almost set the twisted pony into the head.
• You’ll notice as soon as you do that, the pony will begin to then twist around itself and hug to the head.
• With each little moving of the twist, secure to the head with hair pins. When you get to the ends, find a little opening to tuck and place the hair. Pin to hide.
•Do this step all over again until the entire nape is all twisted and rolled up as shown in picture.
Let’s return to that inch section around the hairline we dropped out.
• Smooth that section out.
• Spray a bit of Joico’s Ironclad and go over with a flat iron at medium heat.
• With very loose tension, begin to wrap that hair around the base of the pony and over the twisted nape. This is our connecting shield to create uniform from the top and bottom of the up do.
• Secure loosely as you wrap around and find the ends to reach all the way around the very bottom.
• Do the same for both sides of the parted section.
• Give a final spray from any of our Joico shape finishing sprays.
Tip: Look for balance in your updo; you can pull some pieces and hair strands out to soften and give it a messy look.
i-Images
• Follow the same steps as explained above, but braid your connecting shield this time. This adds a younger, more playful look.
• Stick a rat tail comb in the front and pull up a bit to create that volume in front.
Stephen Lock
For Kate’s look in Canberra (below), you follow the same steps with a few minor changes:
• Instead of the small pony, twist in the nape. Then roll that entire section over.
• With our connecting shield, instead of wrapping around, we are going to secure them right at the top of that French roll.
• Twist the shield in soft circular shapes and secure with hairpins!
i-Images
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