Copy Reese Witherspoon's Updo

Rick Farber, Hair Stylist:

Hi, I'm Rick Farber. I'm here to do a look on our model inspired by Reese Witherspoon. We're going to do a soft upswept chignon.

What I've done now is got her hair slightly damp and I'm putting a little setting lotion in her hair just to thicken it up a little bit so as I blow dry it she'll have some volume. She's got very fine hair so we want to build that up just a little bit. And now we'll begin blow drying. I don't use any brushes for this. Just rough dry to dry the products on the hair. You want to get a little bit of lift in her crown so where I've got the product I'm concentrating the heat. I just rough my fingers across it to get a little bit of bounce to start with. We don't want a lot, we don't want big hair, but we do want to have some volume. When you feel like it's dry, move on. Next thing, give it a real light spray of thickening spray all over. Let it dry quickly on its own. Then take a large barrel iron, really hot, and hit the ends with it so you get a little bit of spiral, a little bit of movement. As I turn the hair and twist it into the chignon, it's going to have a nice grab. It's going to give a nice full shape.

So now we're going to switch back quickly and work on her bangs for a minute. I'm going to take a blow dryer and set them and just give it a slight little bend because they're very straight and I want them to pop up here. And after you finish bending, you just want to secure it for a while, take a curl pin and let that sit as it cools. Now we're going to work on the crown. Take a brush, I'm going to use a comb, but whatever is comfortable for you to work with that lets you get into this small space will work. You want to very lightly back comb the roots. Once you do, just push them out of the way. We're not making big hair, we're giving it a little foundation. Now we move on to create the chignon.

I want a mid-head shape. You really want to stand back and look at your profile to decide what's best. This look is really about height and moving up. Your elastic: I like to use the bungee cord type where it just hooks where you wind it and adjust your tightness easily and it's much easier to get it on a pony. If you're not using one of these, at least try to get one without the metal band. And then I'll go back and pull a little bit out so it's not so tight. You want to break your ponytail into smaller little sub pieces that you start shaping and forming and creating movement. She's very fine-haired, so we're going to do a little bit of back combing on the pieces so they stay together when you turn them. You just start building from here. Take your sections, secure them with a pin, then move on. When you do your back combing, try and do it to the underside of the surface, so your outside stays clean. You don't need very much. As I'm doing it right now, I'm just making one loop. I take each piece, I do a little back combing, place it based on where you need fullness, and then I pin it right to the middle of that section at the base. So we're working on our last piece now, I'm just going to finish creating the shape as I lay this one over. Look at that nice full bun. It's important to focus on the color of your pins. She's a blonde so we want to use the lightest color so they blend in. Then take out the pin curls in the bangs and you get a nice bend there, and brush to smooth it out. Take a little polishing cream and give it a nice shine.

And here she is with her finished look! Enjoy.