Easiest Bubble Ponytail Tutorial

Are you a ponytail kinda gal? Looking to up your game a bit and try out a bubble ponytail? You’ve come to the right spot!

I’ve loved doing this style on my own hair for years (both with and without my extensions) and now get to do them on my daughter’s hair!

This ponytail hairstyle is a great option for long hair to give you regular ponytail a bit of a facelift. If you have short hair you could create this as a french braid style, starting at the top of your head with a small chunk of hair and continually adding to it.

Today I’m going to walk you through a step by step bubble ponytail tutorial. I first found this ponytail through one of my absolute favorite hair bloggers – Amber Fillerup of Barefoot Blonde and loved it!

The first time I did it, I was heading to my 10 year old niece’s basketball game so I decided even if it looked crazy I would be surrounded by 10 year old’s who maybe wouldn’t know the difference. 😉

I was surprised when a few of the mom’s complimented on me on my cute hair! Winning!! (Scroll to the bottom for that one!)

Since then I’ve done tons of different variations including a simple half up style. This simple hairstyle will create endless options for you!

This is legitimately one of the easiest hairstyles to do. I’ve literally put it up in 5 minutes while running around the house getting Penelope in her carseat and Roy’s shoes and jacket on, right before I’ve left on a date night and while P finished up breakfast!

Check out the full tutorial, I hope you try it too!

Bubble Ponytail Tutorial

Now that Penelope is old enough to sit for a few minutes, I’ve tried to do some fun hairstyles on her hair.

Since she’s only 2 I don’t get too crazy on her hair and it’s far from perfect but it stayed in for most of the day – even through a nap!

Things You Need

• a brush
• detangle spray (more necessary for kids than grown ups)
• clear elastic hair ties
• bobby pins

Here’s how to do it.

1. Get any tangles out.

I know, this kinda seems like a no brainer but it’s worth mentioning. If you start with tangled hair it’ll make the ponytail look funny and it make it so hard to work with.

2. Put it in a ponytail.

Obviously there are a ton of varieties of this ponytail but for the most basic and beginner style, this is the easiest way to do it. When you get more advanced you can add in 2 ponytails or do a “french” style.

3. Cover the elastic hair tie

This part is totally optional! If you do it, simply take a small chunk of hair from underneath your ponytail. Wrap it around your hair tie until there is a small tail left underneath the ponytail.

Using a bobby pin, pin the tail under the base of the ponytail. Easy peasy!

4. Tie another clear elastic slightly below the first

You can use make this as big or as little of a gap as you want. This will depend on how much hair you have and how you want the ponytail to look.

5. Create the bubble

Next, you’ll want to gently tug a bit of the hair above the second elastic but below the first.Slightly tugging it loose will give it a full, bubble look to it.

6. Cover the elastic hair tie

Again, a totally optional step. You can either tuck the hair inside the hair tie itself or use a bobby pin at this point.

7. Repeat the process until you’re all done!

For both me and Penelope I create 3 “bubbles”. She absolutely loved this hairstyle and even more loved that it was super quick!

Tips & Tricks

If you’re looking for a few additional tips to make this work for your hair, here’s a few!

1. If you have thin hair, tease your hair in sections. When I did P’s, I didn’t tease it but I always tease mine. I have way less hair than her!

The easiest way to do this is to pull up half of my ponytail and tease that and then do the underneath section. My hair isn’t super thick so this helped it thicken up a bit.

2. I didn’t wrap my hair around the middle sections. Again, because my hair isn’t super thick I wanted to make sure the bottom sections filled out! However, with Penelope’s I did because she had enough hair.

3. I used Oribe Texturizing Spray to help everything hold better in my own hair. My hair was freshly washed so this kept everything filled out and the elastics in place. (I only wrapped the elastics around once since they’re so tiny!)

And there you have it! A super simple Bubble Ponytail! What do you think?

Be sure to check out my fishtail braid tutorial next! It even includes a video!