Today, I shall be explaining to you that thing that I do with my hair that everybody keeps asking about.

This is by no means a historical tutorial. It's just the easy, and smart-ish, way that I've adapted to doing it every day

over the years.

If that is of interest, then please may I suggest that you obtain a hairbrush, a small elastic band,

and approximately half a tonne of hairpins.

I like to also use a bit of dry shampoo to give my hair a bit more weight and body as the style is rather more

difficult to do when your hair is wispy and limp.

Begin by undoing whatever "swamp hag" styling that you probably just woke up with.

Then I like to brush it out well, so that it's all nice and easy to work with.

I also find that this helps it to look cleaner for longer, as brushing helps to distribute the natural oils down the

length of the hair - which I have heard is actually quite good for keeping it long and strong. :)

If you're not averse to the sight of loose hair, collect the lost ones from your hairbrush and save them.

This is a method that I understand actual Victorian and Edwardian women would do, in order to pad out their hair

if they didn't have quite enough to give it a proper fluff. You know, before those plastic doughnut-y things existed!

Obviously my hair is very long and straight, but I think you can achieve this just as easily with shorter and/or curly hair.

If it's shorter, you just won't have so much volume in the bun on top - but we shall get to that in a bit. I'm starting

just by separating off a little chunk at the centre front, and just biting this for a second, to keep it out of the way.

Then this side can get pinned up. The key to getting it to puff nicely,

is to put a little twist into the point, just where you're going to pin it down, and to push the lock forward a bit.

The farther back on your head that you pin it,

the flatter it will be. Then this one can be smoothed out,

and pinned to overlap that little side bit, so that it looks like one nice, seamless puff.

Again, make sure that the lock is gathered into a concise little bunch where you want to pin it down,

and pin it however forward you want the puff to be high.

Then I just do the same thing for the other side except without the top puff because asymmetry is cool, I guess.

Now take a moment to question your life choices

and realize that it actually looks rather lovely when worn down, brushed out, and flowing freely in the breeze...

Then remember that it is bothersome, sheds everywhere, and that you are in fact a

respectable woman of the wrong century, and, get on with things!

These backside pieces just get folded up on top of the head and pinned.

I don't do this particularly neatly at all, because I just can't be bothered,

so perhaps take this opportunity for a bit of *executive improvisation*.

The remaining length is delicately separated into three to be plaited. Make sure that when starting your plait,

you do the first couple, erm, stitches? behind your head, so that they are centred.

When you reach the point where you run out of arm length, you can pull the plait over to one side to continue,

but turn your head sharply away from your hands, so that the plait is still centred at the back of your head.

Once you have some slack, you can just continue on comfortably.

I like to plait it down as far as I can, so that I get that gradient width where my hair loses fullness at the

bottom. Not technically desirable in long and luscious hair,

but it does have a really lovely effect when you spiral it up into a bun and

the outer rim of it is a finer plait than the inner one - embrace the beauty in your flaws, my friends!

This gets folded up onto the head, wrapped in a spiral on top, and secured with another half tonne of pins.

Again, there is probably a neater way to do this, and to hide all of the pins in process

but, you know, the Edwardians were masters of the messy bun aesthetic, so...

And she's done! At this point, you can go in and tweak the puffy bits, fluffing them up a bit more if desired.

As with any hairstyle, these things take a bit of practice.

I recommend doing it up every day so that you get it down to a routine.

This really only takes me about five minutes to do each morning, and is well worth the bit of minimal daily effort I think!

So go forth my merry friends and live your best neo Victorian life - I suppose!

And perhaps I shall see you again next time, when we return to our regularly scheduled historical sewing :)