Beehive Tutorial

Okay dolly darls! Here I will teach you how to style a 1960’s inspired beehive the way that I do, keeping in mind that my hair reaches about three to four inches below my shoulders, I have a fringe and that I am no hairdresser!

You will need:

- A good brush
- A tailed teasing comb
- Clips to separate the strands of hair (I make do with little hair ties)
- Bobby pins (I myself prefer the larger ones that are about an inch and a half long)
- Hairspray if desired
- A scarf, ribbon or bow if desired

Here we go:

- Firstly, brush you hair so that it sits naturally upon your head, coming down from a middle part.
- About an inch up from where your fringe starts on the crown of your head, comb the top of your head back with the tailed teasing comb.
- Then, place the comb vertical on top of your ear and brush the hair behind the comb backwards, leaving the hair in front of it to hang straight, and making a nice and clean part. Do this on the other side as well.
- To make it easier for me, and to stop them getting in the way, I then tie up the loose strands in front of my ears separately with the little hair ties.

Okay, so we should now have a nice clean part that should go evenly up from your ears and to the top of your head where you first combed it back.

- Now, with the comb (not the tailed end), scoop up about a 1cm thick strand of hair from the top of your head and hold it up, combing it up the front and the back so it is nice and smooth. Use the tailed end to scoop or separate the strand more at the back to make it even.
- Still holding that strand up in one hand, scoop a little more up from directly next to it along that part around your head, with the same thickness, and group it with the first strand. Do this on each side of your head, continuing to comb the front and back smoothy. But stop scooping hair up when you’ve reached down to about one inch and a tad up from where your ear connects to your head.
- Comb this group of hair directly up, nice and smooth, and then tie it on top of your head with a hair tie in a little bun or looped ponytail. Then let it fall in front of your face, but to the side so that you can see. This is the first layer.
- Now, begin the second layer. This is created exactly like the first layer, about 1cm thick , but this time, collect a tiny bit more hair along the part when it comes to the bit neat the ears. Like the first, secure it with a hair tie and let it fall forward in front of your face. It’s good to lean forward a little bit just to make sure they don’t get in the way.
- Continue to create these layers until you’ve reached where your ears connect to your head, the very back of where your hair starts at the back of your head.

Okay, so we have all these separated layers of hair. Now we need to begin backcombing, or teasing, to create the volume for our beehive.

- Collect that last layer of hair at the back, with your head down to make it easier to reach, and hold it up. Beginning towards the ends of the hair, lightly backcomb it, with stronger backcombing towards the roots. Do not worry about making it too perfect as it will all be concealed.
- Take out the hair tie of the next layer up and backcomb in the same way.
Continue doing this until you’ve come up to the first layer on the very top of your head. Remember all this time, do not touch those two strands hanging down in front of your ears.

Now we need to shape it into the beehive. Bobby pins at the ready.

- Very gently collect that mass of backcombed hair up in your hands, up, up, into a nice rounded beehive. Hold it in place.
- Now push bobby pins up into the back of the beehive. Use as many as you like until you feel it is quite secure and stays in place. Don’t worry about how it will look with all the pins as it will be concealed with the two strands hanging down in front of your ears.
- If the beehive looks a bit too wide, you can always make it a little bit narrower by pinning the sides in, directing the pins towards the back of your head.

Now you should have a lovely looking beehive. Use the comb very, very gently to smooth it up a bit. Now, those two strands.

- Take out the hair ties for the strands in front of your face.
- If you like, use the comb to create a side part out of those strands. Otherwise, you can leave it as a middle part. Side part works best with a side fringe.
- Collect one strand, I begin with the one on the right side of my face. Pull it out straight out from where it grows from your head. Use the comb to make it very smooth. It should not be thick, but the strand should be wide.
- Using both hands, pull it taught but gently up around your head, following the shape of the base of the beehive. If your hair is a bit longer, like mine, you may have to curl the ends around once or twice. Hold them flat against your hair, and then pin it so no bits are sticking out.
- Do the same with the strand on the other side of your head.
- Place more bobby pins in where you feel necessary.
- Fix your fringe as you like, and spray the beehive with hairspray. I myself prefer to not spray the fringe as I like the wispy soft look.
- If desired, add a scarf, ribbon or bow.

And there you have it!