Bad Mane Days: A Guide to Fixing That Mess That Came Out of the Box by Scaradango So you ve finally caved. You went to the store and bought yourself a plastic pony in celebration of the first episode of season two. Or maybe you ve had your collection for a while, and you ve just let that hair go because you re not sure what to do with it. I m here to fix that. Hey Rarity, am I a crime against fabulosity? Rainbow my dear, we deserve Nuremberg for what we re doing to fabulosity right now. What we re doing to fabulosity is illegal in forty-eight states and three principalities. Much better, no? This is a style guide for the Mane Six Friendship is Magic characters, as well as some general pony hair advice. As I acquire more ponies, I may update this guide. I am going to apologize now for using Luna in so many of these pictures. Before I started to make the guide, I mostly had my ponies hair done. But hey, bronies are all about the Luna, right?
Getting Started To set the hairstyles, we re going to be using the boil perm method. Go find yourself a teakettle or a microwave. We ll also need some regular water, a comb (I just use the combs that come with the pony), securing devices (your tape or rubber bands), two drinking straws, and several bobby pins. The last two are only necessary for Rarity and Pinkie Pie. You will also need a pair of small, sharp scissors. We ll start easy with Applejack. Before starting, comb all the tangles out of your pony s hair! It is easier to do this when the hair is dry, I think. The basic chronology of my styling is this: Comb the hair until the tangles are gone Wet the hair with warm water to smooth it down Style the hair how I want it to dry Secure the ends of the hair Boil by dipping the pony into a teacup of boiling water I know it might seem like a lot of steps, but it really doesn t take much time at all. There are some basic terms you need to know before we get started. Bangs: Hair that comes out of holes that are arranged horizontally between the ears. In the main Playful Ponies line, Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, and Rainbow Dash have them. Bangs fall forward. Boil Perm: this is when you dip or pour boiling water over a pony s styled hair to set the style. Hair Plugs: how pony hair is rooted. Each bunch of hair coming through on of the holes in your pony s neck or head is a plug. Leg Curl: wrapping part or all of a pony s mane around their leg. This gives a tighter, rounder curl than a n eck curl and looks very nice. Neck Curl: when the mane is secured around the neck before boil perming. This gives a nice soft curl, like Twilight Sparkle s mane. Rollers: Bits of straw or other cylindrical objects thinner than the leg used as hair curlers and secured with bobby pins. Wet-comb: Getting a pony s hair wet, then combing. This is what I do before securing the hair into position. Some people like to do this to style the hair, but it won t hold like a boil perm will. Pony goodness starts on the next page!
Applejack AJ s hair is the easiest to do because it s a simple straight ponytail and then just a trim-and-flatten of the bangs. To do the ponytail in the mane, remember that unlike a human, AJ s hair grows vertically. If you pull it all straight back, it won t fall nicely. You need to pull the hair down at an angle so that it falls nicely over her shoulder. See how I ve done it here? Also, if you ve purchased a toy AJ, be merciful and give the poor girl her freckles. I used paint. You can even use whiteout. Notice that the ponytail kinda spirals. This gives it a round dimension, like on the show. If you like, you can pour boiling water on it, then drape it over her shoulder to give it a nice shape when dry. Secure this with a little rubber band and you re done! The next thing to deal with is her bangs. They look very poofy and ridiculous here. Let s fix that. First, get them wet and pull them straight out. See how even when the hair is wet, they curve? We ll fix that in a bit, but first a trim. Caution: Pony hair does not grow back! Always envision twice and cut once. You want to give AJ s bangs a nice, shallow angle, like so:
Then pull them flat over her forehead and hold them down. You need to hold them down right under her ears and at the base of the angle. Once that s done, brush her tail, dip it in boiling water, put in a rubber band, and trim the base of the tail. It s much easier to do this when her tail is wet. Let her dry- I put her under a sun lamp, but any warm thing that won t melt her will do- and then gently sweep the bangs to one side. The result: Ah still don t have my motherbuckin hat. Should you want to find a hat for AJ, you ll find that the plastic hat from a Sheriff Woody toy will work wonders. Twilight Sparkle I could probably do this without pictures and you d be absolutely fine. I d already done Twilight when I did this guide, so Princess Luna, whose hair I am not doing, is filling in for everything but me fixing up her bangs. Luna has a Rarity head type, so she has no bangs. She misses her abacus already.
Twilight s mane is just a simple loose neck curl. It is vital that you do not trim this until it is dry! Otherwise, you run a serious risk of cutting it too short. Also, be sure that the mane only curls on one side of the neck. On the show, it s the same side as her cutie mark, but I almost always put my plastic Spike on her back, so I had it curl around the other way. See how the hair is just laying over Luna s neck in the picture? That s exactly how I did Twilight s mane, just wrapped it around the neck. I didn t even have to tape it. The nice thing about this hairstyle is that it can flip around to the other side, too, if you want to switch it. For her bangs, do what you did for AJ, only cut them straight across and arrange them on either side of her horn. For Twilight s tail, just pull the tail out straight, dip it in boiling water, and then secure the end to her back hooves. This will create a curve like in the show. You can trim it after it s dry. And the result?
Rainbow Dash Rainbow s hair is also pretty easy to do. For the mane and tail, do exactly what you did for Twilight. The difference here is in the cutting. Cut them at an angle and feel free to be a little rough with the scissors. Tuck this between her wing and neck and do secure the end to her neck this time. That will pull the hair straight. For Rainbow s bangs, you ll want to do similar to what you did for Applejack. Get em wet, pull them straight, and do some trimming! You want a nice sharp angle here. Then, lay them flat on her forehead and secure them. Gently sweep them off to the side to give them volume once she s dry. Results?
Fluttershy Alright, this one s the big leagues. Sure, neck drapes and ponytails are easy. But Fluttershy, cutest and sweetest and most graceful of ponies, has curls. Three of em. She has the piece that drapes over her far eye, the piece that comes in front, and then that little bit at the end of her tail. Fortunately, Fluttershy is not a sea pony and comes with legs. This makes doing those curls easy-peasey! But first, let s start with her tail. Start by doing what you did with Twilight Sparkle to create that curve. Then, wrap the bottom of her tail around one hoof and secure it. Then, separate her mane and get it wet. You want to flop the hair in front of her ears over to the non-cutie mark side and the hair behind it so that it is pinned between her neck and wings. I should probably explain what s going on with my Fluttershy here. I m redoing her mane and tail after she got messed up when I was moving her up to school. This is why you can see that weird tail curl in the second image- it isn t that big when you re done with it- and why her hair s already curled in the first image. Anyways! Once you have Fluttershy s mane separated out, it s time to curl her mane. Curl the two pieces in opposite directions around her legs- you want to maintain that heart shape she s got going on. The piece that drapes over her face will naturally be shorter than the long bit, but if you want to make sure that it s shorter, then just curl it tighter.
The easiest way to secure the mane for drying is not to tape or rubber band the two pieces individually, but rather to wrap one long piece around both front hooves and hold them tightly together. I ve found that Fluttershy s bangs really look a lot better if you dry her upright. I m not sure why. They just floof nicer. Y-you don t have to dry me upright if you don t want to
I m pretty sure that Fluttershy has the second-best hair of any pony, and the results show this. But who has the best hair? Rarity There s two really good ways to do Rarity s hair, and I ll be showing you both of them. The first depends entirely on rollers; the second is two leg curls and a roller curl. Before I jump into showing you Rarity s hair, I m going to discuss Rarity s hair. That gradient is fascinating. Rarity s hair is unique in that it shows a specific inside and outside. The flat purple is out; the iridescent stuff is in. Be sure when doing Rarity s hair that you take this into consideration and curl it the right way. Rarity s hair is also unique in how amazingly gravity-defiant it is. I d say that Pinkie s is pretty gravitydefiant, too, but hers makes sense. Think of Little Orphan Annie s gingerfro when you think of Pinkie s hair. While the curls aren t tight like that, the basic principle is the same. But Rarity s hair curls and bounces in a really weird way, and to mimic that takes caution. Also, that tail? If you do that exactly like it is on the show, it looks really terrible. It does not translate well into pony hair. The way I m about to show you looks much, much nicer.
Method 1: Rollers I ll tell you now, I don t like the way this one looks as much. It looks kinda strange with the way the nylon falls but this is the more show accurate of the two, so whatever rocks your world. To start, get Rarity s tail wet. Pull it out straight, then using a piece of straw, start rolling. To do this, place the roller on top of the flattened piece of hair, roll the end over, secure with a bobby pin, then roll the rest of the way up to the top of the curl, adding more bobby pins as you go. It s way easier to start in this position than to have the hair on top of the roller. Don t roll all the way up, but do get pretty close as the curl doesn t really start until the bottom of the roller. Secure it with bobby pins, as many as you need. If you turn this at an angle to dry (tucking the bundle between her hind legs), it will fall much like it does on the show. Turn it so that the curl points down. Then, separate out her mane like you did with Fluttershy and trim a bit from the front section. You want this to be shorter, otherwise it won t have the necessary lift. Put in a roller and flop the front section over to the non-cutie side. In the terrible Hasbro vector, her head is turned so that it is kind of difficult to tell, but normally the long barrel roll is on the cutie side while the smaller roll hangs over behind her horn.
It is important that you don t put the roller in all the way. Make sure that you ve got it about like this, so that there s enough mane to drape over her face. Then, secure the bundle to her face so that it dries with a curve. Rarity also dries much better upright.
After that, it s time for the big mane! Use another roller and roll it up to where you want the mane stops curling over her neck. In this picture, her tail is pointed the wrong way because I knocked it when arranging her mane. Tuck the bundle in between her front legs and stand her up to dry. When you take out the curlers, be sure not to separate the curls, but do tease them gently between your fingers to give them some bounce.
Method 2: The Good Way If you want a Rarity with more naturally-falling curls, then change up the way you do the tail and the larger section of mane. You definitely want to do some trimming here. Here s how long my Rarity s hair is when it s dry. I am pretty dang happy with it! To do Rarity s tail, do a leg curl and wrap the whole tail around her leg. It s just like what you did with Fluttershy, only tighter and using the whole tail. To do her mane, do a front leg curl, similar to Fluttershy. The difference here is that you turn the head to get a super-tight leg curl, like so:
Keep doing her bangs like you did in the roller method, though. I ve seen it done where you wrap it around her horn, but I find that it dries with a strange angle to it and doesn t curl out; it curls into her face. This is what she looks like in the end! Rarity is not my favourite pony, personality-wise (that honour goes to jeez, I don t know, Discord Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash/Twilight Sparkle), but she is definitely my favourite when it comes to her appearance. I am a sucker for purple hair. And, much like Fluttershy, her hair is very fun to do. But there is one pony who is my favourite in almost nothing. She s too hyper, too pink, and I m afraid that she ll figure out where I live and murder me in my sleep. Fourth wall? HAH. She showed knowledge of internet memes in the first episode of season two. It s only a matter of time, bronies. Oh, and her hair is a total pain in the flank. I don t even own a rooted Pinkie Pie, so Luna had to fill in again. She wasn t happy. But! I have done a rooted Pinkie Pie, belonging to a dear friend of mine, so I can show you what that looks like. For Pinkie, the goal is bounce and volume. You will be doing tight roller curls, but once they are dry, you really want to tease them to give Pinkie as much of that zazz as possible.
Pinkie Pie For the tail, wrap the whole thing around one curler. I guess you could do it with two, but with one, you get this big, fluffy corkscrew. Dip it in boiling water and get ready for the hard part. Pinkie s mane is in four major masses of curls- the front bulk, the behind the ear, the middle forehead, and the swoop. You want to split the mane into four sections based on this. The first section should be the smallest, and the lowest section should be the biggest. The second section, that one in the middle of her forehead, should be a bit bigger than the one behind her ear because there s more definition. The curlers should be short- you don t want long curls, you want bundled ones. It s also ok if they frizz a bit; that adds to the volume of the mane!
Start with the front section and alternate wrapping directions. You can do this with the hair wet or dry. Dry gives it more twist, but doing it wet makes the curlers way easier to manipulate. I just did the front two sections on Luna here, but you can see what I mean. The front section is bigger than it is supposed to be; with Pinkie, this looks nice trimmed. Afterwards, do a boil dip and then let her dry. If you can dry her upside down, gravity helps pull those curls into an upright position. Once you take the curlers out, tease the curls until they look just how you want them. Results (along with a Sweetie Bell and a Fluttershy I also did)? One bouncy pink pony with some crazy hair.
Pony Hair Tips and Tricks The first thing you need to realize about doing pony hair is that it is not like people hair. It is vinyl; in other words, plastic. It also produces no natural oils, so you don t really need to wash it. I ve seen style guides that recommend a full shampoo and condition of the hair, and then use hair gel to hold it in place. Why would you do that? Hair gel will just make the hair get gross eventually. Maybe if you were going to do a permanent display, you could use hair gel or do that horrible glue trick, but seriously, you shouldn t do that. If you want to wash your pony s hair- maybe it got dirty or something- then that s fine. Use a TINY bit of shampoo or liquid soap, though. Conditioner can also be nice, too, but there is a trick to that. If you choose to condition your pony s hair, you need to use a tiny bit- just touch the stuff with your finger and what comes off should be enough- and not wash it out all the way. That way the hair will stay soft and silky. Never use human heated hair care products on your pony. You will melt her. Tiny rubber bands for doing pony hair can be found at most chemists/drug stores, your orthodontist, or your pet store. For holding hair in place while it s drying, I like to use the little rubber bands that come around the bags of crickets I buy for my pet lizards. They can also be found on some of the ponies- AJ comes with one red one, Shine Bright Fluttershy comes with one yellow one, Luna comes with a clear one. When securing pony hair, you can use small rubber bands or tape. If you are going to use tape, though, use a thin masking tape or my favourite thing to use, first-aid tape. First-aid tape is waterproof, meaning it won t come off when you do the boil perming, and it doesn t frizz the ends of the hair like scotch tape or packaging tape would. To do Rarity s hair and Pinkie s hair, you need curlers. The best way to do that is to get a plastic drinking straw and some bobby pins. Depending on how you dry the pony s hair, you need to be careful about bobby pins. Most bobby pins are made of metal, and if you leave that on wet hair for too long, it ll leave gross rust spots. I never have left bobby pins in for more than an hour or two- the lamp I use for drying is pretty closerange- but if you are just going to let the hair air-dry without any additional heat/air movement, then use coated bobby pins. That s what I use on my hair, and I found a 150 pack of them for a dollar at Walgreen s. If you have a mylar-haired pony, such as Princess Luna, this guide will work a little differently. Mylar hair doesn t hold a style like nylon hair does. I am also of the opinion that Luna s hair is way too pretty to cut. If you have a Shine Bright pony (like the Rainbow Dash you ll see in this guide), be mindful of her electronic components. Always dip into the boiling water; never pour it over or you ll short her out. If you have a Shine Bright Fluttershy, which has electric bits AND mylar in her hair but is pale yellow and pale pink and super cute, even if her saddle is a little ridiculous, well you re outta luck, I m afraid. It s not really a good idea to submerge your pony in water. There s a chance that mildew might happen or the washer holding the tail in place might rust. But pouring/dipping won t let enough in to cause a problem. The way I do boil perms is by filling a tea cup with boiling water and then
dipping. I hold the hair in the water for a few seconds, pushing it down with a chopstick or bobby pin or spoon or something if it doesn t all get wet. If your first style attempt doesn t go so well, have no fear! You can always try again. It s why you should always be so careful with your trimming, though.