Messy Updo Prom Hairstyles

A messy updo for prom highlights your layers and bangs instead of hiding them.

Like choosing your prom dress, selecting a prom hairstyle can be overwhelming. Your hairstyle for prom should reflect youthful elegance and fun, not pull your mane so tightly that your hairline hurts. Messy updos are hairstyles that appear casual or loose while conveying a whimsical ease without hours of pulling and pinning.

Messy Clipped Tail

Start with damp locks and massage a quarter-sized amount of styling gel through the hair. Do not brush the hair, as this will make the tendrils frizz. Separate the bangs or any shorter front layers and scrunch and spray the longer sections in the back. Loosely gather the back hair into your dominant hand and twist it once at the scalp before clipping it slightly above the nape of the neck with a barrette. Scrunch and curl the tendrils and wisps spilling over the top of the barrette. Loosely secure your bangs and front layers behind your ear with a few hairpins.

Messy Half-Bump

Dampen and scrunch your hair with gel or mousse. Create a horizontal part between each ear tip and gather the upper section of hair in your dominant hand. Twist the gathered hair once at the base of the scalp and push upward to create a hair-bump on the crown of your head. Secure the hair just below the twist with a simple, sturdy barrette. Curl the hair flowing from the barrette and lower half into half-inch tendrils with a heated curling iron before bending them in loops and pinning them to the scalp. Secure the entire style by applying a few sprays of hairspray over your head.

Messy Fairy Braids

Create two half-inch braids on either side of the head, just above your ears. Dampen, scrunch and curl the remaining hair with mousse and a curling iron. Lift the hair into a loosely coiled bun above the nape of the neck, and secure the bun position with a few hairpins making the tresses leading into the bun soft and billowy against the scalp instead of taunt and straight. Join the small braids behind the head, either above the loose bun for shorter hair lengths or directly beneath the loose bun if you have longer hair. Apply a few shots of hairspray to secure the style.

Diagonal Poof Buns

Part the hair diagonally from the beginning of the hairline above your right eyebrow to the nape of your neck. Tease the top section of hair and secure it in a loose flip-bun next to the tip of your right ear. Tease the lower section of hair before securing it in a loose flip-bun a few inches below your left earlobe. Secure the buns by pinning the hanging end of the bun to the scalp with hair pins. Apply a few shots of hairspray to both buns.

Tags: section hair, above nape, above nape neck, above your, Apply shots, Apply shots hairspray