Effortlessly Chic: 3 Summer Hairstyles

The most carefree season of the year is summer, and there’s no better time to give your hair a breather. Almost any hairstyle can pass as acceptable, as long as it comes across as “effortlessly chic.” Here are three easy ways to style your hair for the warm weather.

1. Casual Side Braid

The versatile hairstyle, modeled by Alessandra Ambrosio, can be worn casually at the beach with a loose tee and cutoffs or paired with a silk dress for a more formal look. The hardest part of creating this style is making sure the texture of your hair is just right. If you have natural waves, you’re set! For the rest of us, curl small sections with a 1 or 1.25 inch barrel curling iron. Make sure you break apart your curls to create separate waves. Using second-day hair is also a good idea to insure that the braided style does not look too perfect. After you create the texture, tease the crown of your hair with a fine-tooth comb to produce volume. French braid the rest of the hair on the side of your head that has longer face-framing pieces, so that more of the hair goes into your braid rather than gathering around your face. After you have secured the look with an elastic (or a piece of your hair if you’re feeling ambitious!), gently pull parts of the braid to loosen the look. This creates a more casual feel and voilà.. the look is now complete. Make sure you add a little hairspray to make sure that the style stays put all day.

Image Courtesy of Barefoot Duchess

2. Sock Bun

One of my favorite hairstyles (and one of the easiest to create) is the sock bun, a style that has rocked the beauty world with its ingenuity. It gets its name from how it was originally created before H&M came out with its ready-made sock bun “donuts”: from a rolled-up sock with the toe region cut out. If you have short hair, this doughnut acts as a filler, creating the extra volume you need to create the hairstyle. There are two ways make it. One way is to slide your hair into the middle of the doughnut and roll the doughnut over and over again until it reaches the base of your pony tail. At that point, a bun should be created and can be secured with bobby pins, as shown in this video. The other way is to slide the bun all the way to the base of the ponytail and fan your ponytail out around the sock bun. Secure the hair with another piece of elastic at the ponytail base, capturing your hair over the sock bun. With the loose ends left, braid the remaining parts and wrap the braid around the base for more volume. This video provides a good walk-through.

3. French Braid Knot

Now, we’re going to combine the above two styles into one look that you can wear during the day or night. This style is called the French Braid Knot. Flip your head upside down so you can begin to French braid backwards, starting at the nape of your neck. When you reach the region where you want the bun to lie, stop and secure the rest of your hair into a high ponytail. Then, create a bun with the remaining hair. You can use the sock bun technique or the traditional technique. Since this style is already pretty complicated, you can be the judge on how big you want your bun to be. The trick with this style is to make sure the French braid is secure. Because you are starting at the nape of your neck, the baby hairs near the top of your neck may be peeping out. Secure them with either a bobby pin, or smooth them over with a bit of hairspray.

These three looks will keep your hair out of your face on hot summer days – and they’ll make you look effortlessly chic. Don’t forget to have fun experimenting with these styles!

– Cindy Yuan

 Images courtesy of realbeauty.com, tampabay.com, familycircle.com (and last photo), and darlingmagazine.org