How to Do Taylor Swift's Messy Side Swept Updo Look

A perfect look for holiday parties, the messy updo is a super chic look that's a favorite of many celebrities. Scott Wasserman of Dex New York uses Taylor Swift's side swept messy updo as inspiration. He shows how to create the look, step-by-step.

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Transcript

Scott Wasserman: Hi! My name is Scott Wasserman with Dex New York for howdini.com. Today, I’m with Kyla, my beautiful model. I did a very sexy Taylor Swift-inspired messy updo. And I’m going to show you how to do it right now. So, basically, to create the look, you’re going to need clips, some bobby pins, ponytail holders, some combs and some hairspray. Okay, first thing, you’re going to have to separate the hair. You want separate the front of your hair from the earlobe all the way up; clip that out of the way. You’re going to do the other side. You’re going to go behind the ear all the way up. You’re going to clip this out of the way. Now, put a ponytail in the back very loose. And what you want to do is you want to take the ponytail and you want to secure it in the back preferably on the side ‘coz it’s a side sweep messy updo. So, you take it and you put it under like this. And you secure it in there. Alright, and now, you want to make sure that you take pieces of the ponytail, very little pieces like that I just did. You put the pin in the hair like that. Okay. And then you just ever so lightly to stick it up in the hair. Again, you put in the bobby pin in mid-length of the hair. And then you’re just going to go in and stick it inside. You’re putting at mid-length because you want there to be some movement in the hair. And you also wanted to create a curve. The further away it is, the more of a curve you have. So, you can kind of play with it a little bit more. See how it’s creating a design now. And now, I’m going to start putting together the front and the back. I’m going to start combining it. So, you’re creating like a basket weave, which creates movement and texture. You see how already you’ve covered the line. That’s the idea of separating the front from the back so you can cover the line. And then, when you’re bringing it back, you just pin it in. Then, I’m going to take some of the hair that’s hanging out already, pin it and then bring it in. So, next, we’re going to take the left side of the hair and you’re going to just swoop it back to cover that parting that you already did. And then when you’re swooping it back, you want to make sure that this is laying nice. So, when you’re laying it back, you can create somewhat of the style. Then you’re going to take the right side and you’re going to pull it behind and pin it up. So, now, it’s creating a crisscross X. So, then what you want to do is you want to take some existing hair that’s already here to cover that mark so you don’t see the actual crisscross. You bring this in, you turn it over. So, you see that there’s something going on but you don’t know exactly where it’s coming from. And that’s basically the idea of what you’re going to be doing throughout the whole hair. You just want to keep on grabbing random pieces and just stick them up in your hair. And then what you’re going to want to do now is to block this gap. You just want to bring a little bit in here and kind of twirl it. Okay? See I’ve created an S. So now, we’re going to be taking hair from the left hand side. And you want to take a little bit of smaller sections. And I’m just ever so lightly place it. Okay. So, now, I take little pieces of hair from this side. I’m going to create movement by bringing it under and then you’re just going to pin it up. Now, take this last bit of hair. I’m going to bring it over ever so gently just lay it on the other hair and then pin it down. So now, what I’m going to do is I’m just going to really tweak and find tune the right hand side. You’re going to take this, make sure it’s nice and smooth with the comb. And then you’re going to lay it down. So, after you put all the hair up, you want to look at the hair and see where the motion is, see how the crisscrossing is and try to take any kind of hair that’s laying out that you don’t like and just pin it in to cover the existing bobby pins. After you’re done, you’re going to look to the whole hair; you’re going to take a comb. And you’re going to sort of like brush out the roots a little bit to make it look a little bit neater. So, the last part is we’re going to spray the hair with some Pantene Ice Shine. This creates a little bit of a shine and it also has a great hold. And there you have it. I’m Scott Wasserman with Dex New York and howdini.com. And this is our Taylor Swift messy updo.