A Bun, Hair Grips and Gel

A ballet bun is the traditional hairstyle worn by ballet dancers but it also has a very important purpose. Tying your hair back in a bun keeps it out of the face when you are doing leaps, twists and turns. It also allows the teacher see the neck, shoulders and back more easily and gives your body a sense of centre, which supports balance. Often gel, hair grips and a net are used to secure and bun and help it to stay in for an entire class, performance or exam.

Despite what people may think, the ballet bun is a very easy hairstyle that can be learnt from a young age. In one of my Friday classes I had a lot of children coming in without a bun so I decided to run a little competition. I asked all of the children to have a go at a ballet bun themselves and come back and show me the next week. Next Friday soon rolled around and I have to admit I had totally forgotten about the competition until one little dancer came running up to me and said ‘Miss Emily, are we still doing the ballet bun competition?’ To which I replied ’yes of course’ suddenly remembering what I had said the week before!

This little dancer proudly turned around and said I did the plaited bit myself, my mum twisted the rest into a bun and I put the sparkly headband on top. It was incredibly neat and I was very impressed. I asked the rest of the class if they had done their own hair or had helped to do it to which they responded no. There was one dancer who had forgotten completely and quickly started to twist her ponytail into a bun and secured it with an elastic. ‘Good try’ I said, ‘but the problem is that will come out when you spin so do you have some hair grips at home you could use?’ She nodded and seemed excited about trying to do it herself with hair grips the next week.

So now you can see as well as having a practical role in dancing, the bun helps young dancers develop their own independence in getting ready for class. It helps them to learn something new and gives them a chance to make their bun special to them by adding plaits, sparkles and clips!