My work involves a large amount of formal events, travel, and cocktail parties – sometimes a combination of all of the above.

It’s hard to look pretty and poised when you’ve likely been on an 18-hour flight just an hour before, or are coming off a day of six appointments. Essentially, the easier the hairstyle the better – but it has to LOOK like a million bucks.

To help me with this conundrum, I consulted Eugene Toye, Ryan Cunningham and Eddie Ngai  – master hair stylists from the Rita Hazan Salon.

They said one great style to try is chignon – but in a very messy, modern take, and it can easily be done from home – or your hotel room!

Step 1:  To give hair just the right amount of movement and keep it from being too close to the head, use a volumizing cream and apply to freshly washed and well-towel-dried hair.
Comb product through hair and put a deep side part in hair.
Step 2:  Blow dry hair with a medium round brush for added body.
Step 3:  Then, brush hair back into a low ponytail and fasten just above the nape of the neck.
Step 4:  Begin winding the hair around the base of the ponytail, securing it underneath and on top with bobby pins as you go. Leaving the ends out.
Step 5:  It’s more modern to have pieces out for a look that’s slightly undone. Use gold or colored bobby pins to spice it up! (And that gives the added benefit of seductively REMOVING your pins at the end of the night!)

So, there we have it! As we are getting closer to the holidays, I’m sure that we all have more events than ever coming up. I’ll keep these style how-to’s coming!

By Aly Walansky