We are so excited to have Natalie Ragusa on board as one of our go-to girl for tutorials! This is her first ‘how-to’ tutorial for our blog, and it is so fun!

Natalie is a junior stylist at Edwards & Co. Melbourne.
For bookings and more information visit: edwardsandco.com.au.

Start with clean and dry hair. Waving the hair before starting this style is going to help give it texture and more of a ‘worn-in’ look. With this wave, your sectioning doesn’t have to be perfect as you are just trying to give the hair some movement.

Working with small sections away from the face, hold the wand horizontally. Grab your section and wrap hair around the wand, twisting your wrist as you go. This creates less of a perfect spiral curl and more of a natural bend! Continue this technique throughout the whole head and spray with some flexible hairspray.  I have used R & Co.’s Outer Space Hairspray here. 

Brush the waves out to create a smooth bend in the hair. Divide the hair into three sections.  Grab two front sections from either side of the head, in front of the ear. Leave a larger back section from behind the ears for your ponytail. You can clip the two front sections away to make it easier when working on the back!

Spray some texture spray throughout the back section, into the roots to give the ponytail some volume and grit! I have used Oribe’s Soft Dry Conditioner Spray.

Loosely begin to position your ponytail by grabbing the hair from your back section.  Your ponytail can be as high or low as you like! With the hair length used in this tutorial, the ponytail was placed just above the ears so that it could rest comfortably on the shoulders.

Once you are happy with the position of your ponytail, secure using a clear elastic band.

Divide the ponytail into half. It’s time to get your fishtail on!

Grab a small section from the right hand side, cross it over to the left hand side and join the piece of hair to that left section.

Now swap sides!

Grab a section from the left hand side and join it with the right. To keep the braid tight, hold your thumb on the sections when bringing them from side to side.

If you’re keeping the sections even and tidy, you will begin to create an ‘X’ like shape and this will make up your fishtail braid.

Continue braiding until you’ve done about one third of the ponytail’s length, then secure with a clear elastic band.

To cover the elastic bands, grab a small piece of hair from the section under your braid. Wrap it around the elastic, when coming to the end of the strands, use a bobby pin to hold the hair around the elastic. Secure by placing and hiding the bobby pin into the above section.

You are now going to create the ball like section of your ponytail. This is easier than it looks! Using another clear elastic, tie it around the ponytail, 4/5 centimeters down from your braid. You can choose how big you want this section depending on the length of your ponytail. Once the elastic is secure, simply pull the section apart from side to side and back to front. The wave you’ve put through the hair earlier will help for the expansion of this part.

Cover the hair elastic again, by repeating the previous step, and spray using some more flexible hairspray.

You are now going to finish off your ponytail by doing another little fishtail braid, as described in previous steps.

Your ponytail is now complete!

Time to work on those front sections. When reaching this point, you’ll already be a pro at fishtail braiding!

Repeating the previous instructions, continue to braid all the way to the end of the sections. This may be a little tricky, as the fishtail isn’t as thick as the back section, but keep going!

When braiding, allow for pieces to loosely fall, especially around the hairline and the ears. This will give the style a ‘messy’ and playful look.

Place a bobby pin at the end of the first braid to secure it from unraveling. Repeat the same fishtail on the other side so that both front sections are braided back.

Pick up the first braid and bring it to the start of the ponytail. Wrap this section under the ponytail and around then secure with a bobby pin.

Do the same with the other braid, this time bringing it over the ponytail and under, then secure.

This covers the elastic and gives the style some dimension when looking at it from the sides.

To make this style more ‘un-done’ and textured, begin pulling apart some sections. With your fingers, lightly pull some hair from the head, to create some bumps.

Gently pull your fishtail braids apart and separate the links, this makes your braid look messier and gives more fullness. Step back a little and look at the hairstyle, then decide where you want some wispy pieces to fall naturally. This is generally the most flattering around the face.

You are now festival ready! Your hair is on-point. It’s all out of your face and looks festival FAB from every angle, so you can dance the day away and have the time of your life!

Hair: Natalie Ragusa / @natragusa

MUA: Mae Taylor / www.maetaylor.com / @maetaylor_makeupartist

Photos: Red Rabbit Photography redrabbitphotograpy.com.au / @redrabbitphotography

Model: Chanel Cook / @chanelcook

Styling products used:

Oribe Dry Conditioning Spray

R+Co Outerpace Flexible Hair Spray

Other items you will need:

Babyliss Curling Tong

Clear elastic bands

Bobby pins

Brush

Sectioning clips