Sunday 17 December 2017

Simplified version of the Ellingwoman bun


The Elling woman was found in Denmark in 1938. She is one of the many well preserved bog bodies found in northern Europe. She died around 280 BCE and was around 25 years old.

What makes her famous in the longhair circuit is her long hair (90 cm), which was braided and knotted up in an elaborate bun.

The braid started in a regular three stranded braid using the crown hair. Then adding in the rest of the hair at neck-level into a six stranded braid, where the strands were braided in two and two. This must have required some sort of twisting to keep the strands separated. 
It probably had some sort of symbolic value, maybe magic numbers or something?
The braid was tied off using the hair itself. This is perhaps the thing that is the hardest to recreate, since this is incredibly hard to replicate on modern, sleek and clean hair. I think some sort of fat or oil must have been used to keep it in place?
The braid was then wrapped up under the initial braid and a knot/bun was formed.

The knot has a really good stability and is often praised for being comfortable.
Compared to some of the other historical hairstyles, this is also fairly easy to recreate.

However, there is a few "cheats" I like to do with it...


Start with a normal French or Dutch braid.
Optional: Skip a "step" when taking in hair, so you have a "gap" to easier wrap the braid through.
Mine is here in the right side at top of ear-level.


Poke fingers through the braid to find a place to pull the braid through.


Pull braid through the gap.


Depending on the length of your braid, you can stop here.
You can also wrap until you have the length of braid left that you want.


Or keep wrapping up into a complete bun with no loose braid.


Tuck ends in.


The bun is incredibly self stabilizing.
This is perhaps the only rival to the Nautilus bun when it comes to stability.


It doesn't even need a tool, but I like to add one anyways.


I think a bone hair stick is suitable!
This one is from WoodArtJewelry.

2 comments:

  1. Wow! This is amazing!! I'll share with a few friends who are struggling with some stabilizing issues with their buns.

    On a side note, I found the CUTEST hair thing--it's a sock bun kit that gives you the ability to 'dress up' your bun as a snow man, penguin or Santa. I can buy one for you and send, but I doubt it'll get there for Christmas :(

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  2. It always looks really pretty when you gather up the flyaways with deep conditioner...it gives the "unintentional messy" look!

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