How To Put African American Hair In A Bun

When it comes to hair styling, knowing how to put African American hair in a bun can seem a little challenging.

But doing this is actually very easy. There are only a few steps that you have to follow.

In this article, we show you the steps to getting your hair in a nice, secure bun.

Contents

Wash Your Hair

The first step to putting African American hair in a bun is to wash the hair. You will want to shampoo it using a good nourishing shampoo.

Washing your hair will allow it to be rid of any unwanted substance that may be in it.

This is good for styling because there will be no obstructions in your hair that will prevent it from being easy to maneuver into a bun.

The best kind of shampoo to use is one that will thoroughly cleanse your hair but will prevent it from drying out and losing nutrients.

Good ingredients to look out for in a shampoo are essential oils and vitamins. For instance, jojoba oil, avocado oil, olive oil, vitamin E and vitamin B.

These ingredients are known for their enriching properties and their ability to strengthen hair.

This is good because as you style your hair, you want to make sure it’s protected from breakage.

Hydrate Your Hair

The next step to putting black hair in a bun is to add moisture to your hair.

Washing your hair is good for hydrating it. But before styling African American hair, you need to make sure it is extra moisturized.

Black hair needs extra moisture because without it, it can be prone to damage.

When your hair is dry, it becomes more brittle, which makes it break easily. This is not ideal if you’re going to be manipulating your hair into some kind of style.

A good way to protect your hair from breakage is to use a product like hair lotion. Or you can also apply essential oils to your hair to hydrate it.

Oils like jojoba, olive or black castor oil are good.

Gather The Right Tools

Once you have hydrated your hair, you need to make sure you have the right tools for putting African American hair in a bun.

There are a few things that you will need to achieve this.

Stylish Products

In order to do a sleek hair bun on black hair, you need good hair products. For instance, edge control or styling gel.

You will need these products to help you lay your hair back as neatly as possible into one position so you can make a bun without any hair sticking out.

Detangling Tools

Before you can put African American hair in a bun, you need to make sure it is detangled. This process requires you to have the right tools.

For this step, you will need to get some detangling combs or brushes. The best kind to get are wide-toothed ones to minimize the friction on your hair.

This is important for making sure your hair doesn’t experience breakage in the process of styling.

Accessories

Getting accessories will serve two main roles when it comes to putting African American hair in a bun.

Firstly, you need good scrunchies or bands for securing your bun, as well as a silk scarf for protecting the style afterwards.

Then you can also get accessories such as a headwrap to just enhance your look after you put your hair into a bun.

Once you have gotten all the tools that you need, you are ready to start putting the style together.

Detangle Your Hair

Detangling your hair is an important step to putting African American hair in a bun.

Using a wide-toothed comb or detangling brush, you will want to remove the knots in your hair gently from the scalp moving to the tips of your hair.

As you move up your hair, you should also use your fingers to gently detangle hard knots.

This will protect your hair from breakage and prepare it for the next step of the process.

Section Your Hair

The next step to putting black hair in a bun is to section the hair.

You will want to part your hair somewhere that will make it easy to tie up or back depending on how high you want your bun.

It would be advisable to part your hair right in the middle as this is really easy to do and it looks good.

For this step, you should use a comb with a rat tail end. This kind of comb is good because it makes a clear line as you section your hair.

You should start from your forehead and move in a straight line down to the nape of your neck.

Once you have completed this step, you can move on to the next part of the process.

Tie Your Hair Up

In order to tie your hair when it comes to putting African American hair in a bun, you need to use a good scrunchie or band.

You will want to gather the hair on both sides of the part your made. Then you bring them together where you want to make your bun.

If you want to do a low bun, at the nape of your neck for instance, then you need to bring your hair to the back of your head.

If you want to make a really high bun, you may want to bring your hair together in an upward motion. Then you need to secure it with your scrunchie.

The tightness of your ponytail should be depending on how tight you want your hair to be in the bun.

Generally though, you shouldn’t make your ponytail too tight as this can strain your hair and cause breakage.

Make The Bun

Now that your hair is secure, you are ready to make a bun. To do this, you need to first apply the styling gel.

Applying the styling gel around the edges of your hair will help to slick all your hair back nicely so you have no hair sticking out from your ponytail.

Once you have done this, then you have to comb out the ponytail section of your hair to make it smooth, so you won’t make a bumpy bun.

The next step depends on the type of bun you want to make.

If you want to make a high bun, you will want to pull your ponytail upwards then forwards.

Then fold the hair and tuck it around the scrunchie in the shape you want for your bun.

If you want a mid-level bun or a low bun, you will want to wrap the ponytail hair around the area where you tied it with the scrunchie.

Make sure you wrap your hair around in a way that makes it even all round and not bumpy on one side.

Smooth Out Your Bun

When you’ve completed the step to putting black hair in a bun, you should go around your head smoothing out the style.

You will want to make sure you tuck in hairs that may be sticking out from your bun to make it more compact.

For this step, some may want to use additional tools like hair clips or bobby pins to secure the hair in place.

If you find that you cannot tuck the hair away or around the scrunchie with just your fingers, then pins and clips are recommended.

After that, you will want to go around your whole head again, adding more styling gel or edge control to slick back any hairs that stick out.

Accessorize

The last step to putting African American hair in a bun is to add some accessories.

A good accessory to add is a headwrap or a scarf. This is an easy accessory to incorporate into your style that will enhance the look.

Another type of accessory you will need if you want to keep the style intact overnight or for a while is a bonnet.

Silk bonnets are especially good because they protect your hair against friction that can split your hair or undo the hairstyle.

Once your style is secured and you have the accessories you need to protect it, the process is complete.