This tutorial will walk you through an easy professional high ponytail that’s perfect for work or play. Polished, fun and start to done in about three minutes. This post contains affiliate links.
I want to preface this post by saying that I love watching and feeling inspired by easy hair tutorials and I think, “Yes! I can totally do that.” Fast forward to actually doing it and what I end up with is a hairstyle that’s technically correct but it’s somehow missing the spirit of the style and it’s just not cute. For these tutorials, I’m not coming to you as a talented styler of hair, but as someone who has an incredibly talented hair stylist sister who coaches me through what went wrong. So if you’ve ever done a style and thought, “what happened??” and not in a good way — I’ve absolutely done it wrong too and had to call in my hair coach. My first attempt at this high ponytail resulted in something that looked like a flat post-high school volleyball practice ponytail. So these tutorials will offer you the best of both worlds: a hairstyle you can for sure accomplish because a real person did it, but with a pro called in for some really fab tips to make it great.
I’ve written out the steps for the ponytail first, or there’s a picture tutorial and video below. I want you to walk away feeling 100% about this style!
Grab your tools: Two ponytail holders, a teasing comb, a brush for smoothing and some hairspray.
Start with: Hair that’s dry and styled down — I started with wavy hair, but I think straight would work equally well. I will say that the bigger you can have your hair (check out my big hair style note below), the better, but this style is workable with a lot of hair types.
Next: Section the front part of your hair like you’re pulling it into a half ponytail and tie/clip it out of the way
Then: Work your remaining hair up into a high ponytail, using your brush to smooth. I will say that I get a way better look from this if I pull the ponytail up to just a little higher than where I think my crown is. So take it up about an inch from where you think you should stop.
Time to Tease: For this part, my sister instructed me to: “Tease it to Jesus and then bring it back down!” So use your teasing comb and hairspray to start back combing/spraying to create volume. This is your personal preference ~ if you like a ton of volume, do some extra teasing, or if you want a little bump, tease just a bit.
Put it all together: Use your brush to smooth this teased section back and add it to your original ponytail, tying it off with your second ponytail holder. I really like using these for the second ponytail holder. Especially if you have thick hair: it will keep it in place, but not make it so tight you get that ponytail headache. Then, ta da! An easy high professional ponytail you can wear to work or for fun!
High Professional Ponytail Picture Step-by-Step
Style Note: My Birchbox arrived with some Ouai Volumizing Spray right before I posted this. Normally I have waaaay plenty big enough hair, but I don’t think you can have too full of a ponytail for this style. I sprayed it on damp hair and blow dried with it with my normal stylers (Kenra curl cream and Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray) and it made a huge difference in the volume of the crown and ponytail and just made it fuller and better. This product is actually targeted for finer, straight hair, so I think this one could be a win for anyone.
How did this High Professional Ponytail work for you? Any additional steps you’d add if you start with straight/curly hair? Tell me in the comments!
P.S. Don’t forget if you haven’t already you can sign up for emailshereso you don’t miss a beat ~ I promise never to spam you, just want to keep you in the loop 🙂
Photo by Jennifer WareHi, Friend! I’m so glad you’re here. I’m Carissa ~ wife, working mom of two boys and someone who’s always looking for ways to make things just a little bit easier...Read More
