How to Make Half Ponytail Hairstyles

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Co-authored by Janet Miranda

Last Updated: August 31, 2025 References

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Making a Simple Half Ponytail

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Making a Hair Bow Half Ponytail

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Things You'll Need

The half ponytail allows you to wear up some hair in the ponytail style while leaving the remaining hair out. This style manages to pull the hair back away from your face and keep your hair neat and tidy. This is suitable only for long-medium to long hair lengths.

Half Up Ponytail Tutorial

Professional hair stylist Janet Miranda suggests doing a simple half-up, half-down hairstyle. Brush back your hair and section out the top portion of your hair with your fingers, drawing a horizontal line across the tops of your ears. Then, gather the top half of your hair into a ponytail.

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Making a Simple Half Ponytail

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This will make it clean, allowing for a natural look. If your hair is wavy, it will hold its natural wave in the morning.^{[1]
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Leave your bangs down.
Separate the top and bottom equally.
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Tie the top up with a hair tie.
- If you want your half ponytail to have a bump in front, tease the top section of hair using a comb with teeth that are close together. Then tie it up without pulling too much on the section you teased.^{[2]
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On one side (if you have long bangs to one side), put two bobby pins in an X shape on the side opposite of your bangs.

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Making a Hair Bow Half Ponytail

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1
Decide how large you want the bow to be. This will determine how large a section you take from each side of your hair. Pick up a section of hair from each side of your head based on this, each section being of an even size.
- A larger bow will be more effective.
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Tie both sections together into a ponytail at the back of your head. However, on the last pull-through of these sides to form a ponytail, don't pull it all the way down. Instead, leave it halfway in a loop.
- Leave the remainder of your hair flowing down and free of the elastic.
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Divide the loop of hair in half, placing a finger into each loop and stretching the loop into two even sides. This will form two smaller loops. Push one aside and pin down with a clip––you'll work on the free loop first, then come back to this one.^{[3]
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- Leave some of the ponytail down to wind around at the end.
Spread it apart to widen it and push it flat against your head. Push a bobby pin into the top part of the spread loop and another one into the base of the spread loop.
This will form a bow shape at the back of your head.
Hold in place with bobby pins.^{[4]
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