Help With Ponytails Please

[SewMuch4Kids]

Okay. So my teenage daughter is not into her hair at all.  I was never a ponytail gal.  Can someone tell me how to get a nice smooth ponytail?  What brush - styling product - bands?  She has medium thickness of hair, is a dark blonde and her hair has a slight wave.  My avatar photo is very old.  She is 14 now.

Thanks! :O)

[Fullmoon]

I'm 18 and I've been rocking a pony since I was like 3.

For brushing, I'd recommend one of these:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Goody-Finish-Mini-Gel-Brush/14658250
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Goody-Eco-Movement-Paddle-Brush/14657414
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Goody-Start-Vented-Gel-Brush/14657419

I've never used a styling product in my hair and never had a problem, and my hair used to be very very very veryyyyy thick. It's thinner now because I pretty much stalk my hair place to get my hair thinned... A lot... And I purposely try to get it overly thinned because my hair weirdly enough thickens back out pretty quickly.

As for bands..

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Goody-Thin-Medium-Black-Hair-Elastics/10320282

You can use these w/o a band underneath, but I've found that they work best with a normal band underneath.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scunci-The-Original-Mini-Scrunchie-1-ct/10313232

For brushing it smooth, when I was little, my mom used to brush my hair (Which was down to my butt for like ever, so it took a while) until tangle free, and then would sort of pull it back with her hand, and would brush at it until it was smooth and she could hold it smooth and in a pony, then would tie it in a band.

What I do for my hair to get  it into a ponytail is one of two things:

Brush it then put it into a messy pony with my hand and try to brush it smooth and then tie it back

Flip my head down, brush the hair into my hand so it's smooth and not messy underneath and on the sides, go back to standing normal with my hair still in my hand like that, and brush out the top and at the sides a bit more so that it's all smooth and even, and then tie it back with the band, and maybe put a scrunchy over it.

Hope this helps

[lissablair]

I'm totally a ponytail gal and never really thought about how to do it until I started teaching Pretty Princess Poopydrawers how to do it, so here goes.

First I brush it out as though I were going to wear it down, just to get all the tangles out.  Next, I'll slip a hairband (I also rock the Goody's Ouchless bands, they come in all kinds of colors) onto the wrist of my dominant hand and loosely gather up my hair in my other hand, holding that hand wherever I want the ponytail to be.  Next, I brush along my hair from the hairline back, tucking the freshly re-brushed hair back into my hand until it's all smooth.  Finally I'll pull the hairband off my wrist and around the hair, wrapping it however many times i'm comfortable with (I've found that I've grown comfortable with my hair being tighter as I've gotten older). 

If it's hot out, or I'm in a hurry, I'll simply not pull my hair completely through on the last wrap-around, leaving it in a little bun-looking thing.  Not exactly red carpet styling but hey, it's easy and takes literally like, 3 seconds.

A couple of things to consider: If she starts getting headaches, her ponytail is too tight.  Also, I've got wavy hair too, but if I wear my hair in a ponytail for long periods of time, it will straighten itself out somewhat, and will need some "encouragement" to get back to wavy.  If your daughter's like me and hates her wavy hair, that will be a plus ^_^

Oo! Also, ponytails are awesome with neat hair clips or barrettes or things of that nature.  Check out the Jewelry/accessories board for ideas!