I’ve always wondered how women did those. I’m a woman myself and every time I make a pony tail it just looks like it’s at the base of my neck like this.
How do people do the ones that look like they’re coming out of the back of the hair, like in the middle of the rest of the hair? Like this one? Or this?
Thanks! have wondered this for years.
Tighter rubber bands?
I think it has to do with the way you pull. It feels natural to bunch hair together at a downward angle, but if you want a perky pony you need to pull it back horizontally. Or get someone else to do it. I can put mine up for a minute or two, but it slides back down. Hence the tighter scrunchies.
I think it has to do with the hair in question as well: how thick or straight or smooth it is. One night at a party, I was chatting with another woman and she casually took a hairband from her wrist and pulled her hair into a perfect ponytail without even thinking about it. When I try, I need two mirrors, a brush, and at least three attempts before I have something sorta kinda passable.
Hmmm… I’m trying to figure out a way to explain this that will make sense without any visuals.
You know how when you make your low ponytail, you’re essentially just grabbing the hair at the nape of your neck and sticking it in an elastic? Well, you basically do the same thing, but up higher on your head.
I have a brush, elastic and bobby pins easily accessible before I start. I brush my hair back so there are no tangles. I bring both hands to the back of my head, and gather all the hair high on my head. I hold it with one hand, and grab the brush. I brush the hair underneath the ponytail up towards the hand that’s still holding the ponytail, and then brush the rest of my hair towards the ponytail, just to make sure it’s smooth. You have to sort of loosen your grip so you can grab the brushed hair. Then I drop the brush, grab the elastic, and put it around the hair. In order to make it stay up there, the elastic has to be pretty tight - for me, that usually means three times around. I have layers in my hair, so I use the bobby pins for any stray bits that aren’t quite long enough to stay in the elastic. About an hour later, I take the whole thing down because it’s giving me a headache.
Try doing it without the brushing at first, until you get the hang of it. And yes, I did put my hair in a ponytail while I was typing this. 
I would suggest going to YouTube and searching for ponytail videos. There are actually lots of hair-style tutorial videos that are really well done, and you can get lots of helpful hints. A lot of them seem to be done by high-school girls that are clearly much more put together than I was at that age.
Yup, a tighter (coated) rubber band should do it. Bobby pins help also.
twicks, who sometimes does the high pony tail thing in the summer to keep the hair off her neck
Okay, thanks, everyone. It sounds kind of complicated and since I usually wear mine loose or sometimes in a clip, I probably won’t attempt it any time myself. Glad to know there are suggestions if I ever do!
But - if you have no trouble with a low ponytail, you shouldn’t have trouble with a high ponytail! Just do the same thing with your hands held higher. Just try it while you’re hanging around sometime, if you can gather your hair while you’re not trying to get ready to go somewhere, you won’t feel stressed about it. Just try it while watching a movie or something.
It’s absolutely not difficult, you just need to try at a time you’re not in a hurry to leave or something. My favorite ponytail is the one really high up, which I then wrap in a bandanna so it kinda bounces around. Cute!
FWIW, my sister says she can make much better pony tails if she’s laying down on her back on something (bed, couch, piano bench) with her head hanging off the side.
Back when I was hiring tech writers, I’d ask them during the interview to write instructions for something really simple. If their instructions made it sound complicated, they were out. Let’s see if I can avoid failing my own test!
(I’m a guy, but I used to wear a ponytail, so I should be qualified to answer this)
There are two tricks to this:
Pull the hair tight where you actually want it. You want a high ponytail? Don’t grasp the hair at the nape of your neck - pull it up high on the head.
Put the rubber band or ponytail holder as close to the skin as you possibly can, and make sure it’s pretty tight. Scrunchies won’t do it.
Try this right now: make a ponytail on the very top of your head. Grasp all of the hair you can, and pull it together until it’s straight up in the air. Make sure you’re grasping it tight. Put in the rubber band. Got it? If it’s not clean and tight, try it again. Keep going until you can make a perfect ponytail sticking straight up (well, flopped over, unless your hair’s quite short). Now you should be able to repeat that process pretty much anywhere on your head.
You gather the hair all together where you want the ponytail to be - you have to pull hair up from below, or down from above, just where you want it. I think if someone showed you in person, your puzzlement would disappear - it really isn’t complicated.
I just flip my head upside down, brush it out and then back into the pony tail wherever I want it to stick out. In fact, mine are usually in the center of my head. My hair is growing out so I will occasionally need a bobby pin, but otherwise I just use the pony tail holders that are 30 for $3 at Wal-Mart.
If you are close by I will do it for you if you want.
Bingo – in my long-hair days, that was always my trick for getting a good ponytail.
Ah, that’s the thing: it can’t be loose. A high ponytail needs to be tight. I can do mine with scrunchies but it’s got to be tight. OTOH, I can’t use clips unless they’re real tight too, as my hair is very fine and opinionated and will escape if not held tight.
I saw the post about lying down with your head hanging off a bed. What works for me is to just tilt my head back. Stare at the ceiling while you make your ponytail.
This aids in the French twist, too. I can do a French twist with one hand and two bobby pins.
It’s all about directing the hair. If you gather it at the nape and then pull it farther up your head, of course it’s not going to stay. You have to use a brush or comb or fingers to pull all the hair on your head higher.
And yes, a nice tight elastic. You can even use some of your own hair around it, which is deceptively simple.
I just flip my head upside down, gather the hair where I want it, and use a hairband. A brush is unnecessary, as long as it’s already neat and tidy. I can’t just pull it up where I want it and gather it. Takes about five seconds.
As someone who writes documentation for [del]idiots[/del] my fellow helpdesk monkeys, I usually go by the rule “If I have no idea how to do something, would I be able to do it following these directions?” I was able to follow them just fine. I haven’t had hair long enough to make a ponytail in years, it’s just now growing out again. I made a neat-o ponytail that resembles a garbage bag tied up! Oh yes and I’m a guy.
Yes, this is what I do. My hair is unreasonably long, though, so if yours is shorter you might be able to get away with just tilting your head back.
Of course, given that it is so long, it is also heavy, so usually after a couple of hours it has crept down the back of my head and is pulling excruciatingly at my hairline. This is why I don’t do that very often.
It isn’t hard at all, unless you want it to be really really neat, in which case you need to comb it out first. As others have said, it needs to be tight. It also depends on what type of hair you have. I don’t have slippery, silky hair - mine is curly, and though it’s soft, it holds ponytails really well because the bands never slide down. I can keep a high ponytail in all day (though it does give me a headache after several hours).
For one like the second picture, it’s easier if you spray some water & put a bit of gel into your hair, then you brush or comb it while you’re pulling it into the pony-tail to get it smooth. As others have said, it does help to lean back, and you do need a band that won’t slide off.
Hopefully that makes sense, but I’m not sure. You might try googling for instructional pictures, I know they’re out there for a lot of styles.
