With temperatures soaring into the thirties this week and the heat wave promising to stay for a while, many people are getting more than a little hot under the collar. For those, like myself with long and thick hair wearing it up is an absolute necessity to avoid become too hot to do anything except take a dip in a swimming pool. This is a time when comfort and keeping cool becomes really important, almost as important as looking stylish. Of course it goes without saying, that the red shiny face and complete heat exhaustion look is not at all stylish, so a ponytail is the answer for both style, comfort and keeping your cool.

The high pony tail is  a great way to keep cool it keeps your hair completely out of the way. It also is a fresh and youthful hair style. For me one of the biggest bonuses is that it adds a bit of height and makes me appear a bit taller. Here is how to get the perfect high pony tail.

 1. Start by brushing the hair around your head, whilst holding it in a pony tail, with a paddle brush to achieve a smooth finish. If you like spray a little hair spray onto the brush to tame any loose strands or frizz, which can be a particular problem in hot weather. The pony tail will look very different depending on how high it is, experiment with different heights until you find the right one for you.

2. Once you have it right secure with a non elastic band. You will need to loop the band around until it is quite tight for a secure pony tail that does not fall down.

3. Clip back any loose pieces of hair that are not long enough to fit into the pony tail.

4. Now the fun bit, you can leave your ponytail as it is or decorate as you like by clipping in hair extensions, lots of little plaits (if it is long enough) and also using a decorative band or necklace around the base of the pony tail. For a really elegant way to wear your hair up, I love this Balmain Elegance Cannes Style Clip-in hair piece.