Hair Series: Spin Pin/ Primark Spiral Pins Topknot

When I'm busy doing something, like taking notes in a lecture or bloogging, I always want to keep my hair out of my face. This is a cute a simple style that you can use to pull all of your hair back so it isn't in your face, or you can leave some bits down at the sides and front, and leave it looking a bit messier. You can do this look with normal pins very easily, but I wanted to show how these spiral pins are used.

Again, thankyou to Leonie for lending me her hair for this post!

For this look all you need is your spiral pins (£1 from Primark, for 2) or Goody Spin Pin (£5.50 for 2, here), and a brush. I use a Tangle Teezer (£10.99, here) but any brush will do.

The first thing you need to do is brush your hair out, and then pull it into a high ponytail, using a brush to keep your hair sleek and to make sure there are no bumps. If you are going for a more relaxed, messy look then you can just pull it back with your fingers.

Twist the hair firmly at the base, to anchor it in place. Twist the remainder of the ponytail and wrap it around the base until it is all used up. Tuck the end of the ponytail underneath the bun.

Grab one of your pins, and literally screw it into the bun from the side closest to your neck. You will get a much more firm hold if you push down on the top of the bun as you do this, and try and keep the pin as close to your scalp as possible. Screw the other pin in from the side closest to your forehead, again pressing down on the top of the bun. They warn you on the packaging not to interlock the two pins, as it will tangle your hair, but when I interlocked them accidently nothing bad happened, they just unscrew the same as before!

And you're done! You could spray some hairspray on your hands and use them to smoothe any flyaways that you might have if you need to.

Primark for Hair Accessories?!

Yesterday I went on a bit of a shopping extravaganza with my friend Leonie. When we left our flats that morning we were planning a day of cluture at the Natural History Museum Bodyworlds exhibit (totally reccomend it!) but we ended up getting round it quicker than we thought we would, and ended up on oxford street until about 8pm!

I had never been to Primark Oxford St before and as it was a weekday we decided that it wouldn't be too busy so we would brave it. I was surprised that I didn't actually buy any clothes, but bought some accessories and quite a bit of hair stuff. I have bought a bun ring from primark before for the bargainous price of just £1, and it was of the same quality as a £5 one from Boots, but they seem to have broadened their selection of hair accessories.

I stupidly chucked all the packaging in the recycling last night when I was in a bit of a cleaning frenzy, so the pictures are without it, sorry! I got the hairbands first, I love these as they come in all sorts of colours, natural and otherwise, and they don't have that annoying metal bit that can catch your hair, and it's only a pound for 30. As someone who is constantly loosing hairbands, that is important!!

The clear and black elastics caught my eye as I like to use the clear ones when I'm doing a more intricate style or when it's important that the band doesn't show. The black ones I probably won't use but I can take them out to Uganda with me where the local women can use them for when they braid their own, or visiting tourists hair. These were also £1 and there are 300 in the pack.

The spiral pins are the thing I was most excited about. I have looked at Goody Spin Pin (£5.50, here) in Boots lots of tims but never bought them because I just couldn't justify spending that much on two glorified hair grips. Enter Primark, with their flagrant copy priced at just £1, and just as good. I'm planning to do a tutorial on these but put simply you pretty much gather your hair in a bun, screw one in from the top and the other from the bottom, and voila, it stays. Much better value and I'm pretty sure the quality is similar.