The MY LITTLE PONY PHENOMENON

OR: HOW TO LOOK MORE CYBER IN MINUTES.

You may well be wondering what all this is about. Well, a lot of people, when they go clubbing, like to have mad manga type hair. (Bunches, dredlocks, mohawks, high ponytails, plaits, in pink, UV yellow, white, black, green, purple, or any combination of the above. You can see some examples of this here. ) You can achieve this by

1. Spending many hours with a bottle of peroxide, 'Directions' hair dye, and a bottle of ShockWaves (TM), to emerge triumphant with pink fingers and a ruined bathroom, or

2. Making yourself some rather trendy hair extensions, which you can clip in before you go out, astound everybody with your vertical manically coloured hair, and then whip out in time for work the next day.

Although there are still the die-hard brigade who are prepared to suffer for their art, some of us have jobs to go to and have had to research different alternatives...

TO MAKE A PAIR OF BUNCHES (THE "MY LITTLE PONY" STYLE)::

YOU WILL NEED:

1. Two large metal hairgrips (The ones that look like bulldog clips. Make sure you get ones that either have small handles, or pretty ones you don't mind showing. Claires Accessories do some good ones with hollow handles to thread the hair through. Metal ones are best, as they don't tend to break. You could use
   actual bulldog clips, which would be very post-industrial and cyber but might hurt your head.

2. Ribbons and various artifacts to attatch to your ponytails. If you're a trad goth you'd probably use black lace ribbons and black and purple fake flowers, if you're a cybery type you'd want dayglo ribbons or those plastic UV strings, with glowing beads... be creative. If you're not taking it very seriously, you could use plastic spiders or dolls heads or pompoms.... go have a look at the toy stalls on the market for inspiration, or a haberdashery department. For more ideas, try the Strawberry Switchblade look....

3. Elastic bands. You can get little black ones which are all the same size and look neater from afro carribean hair shops and stalls.. if you don't have these nearby you could try hairdressers, or give up and buy a packet of multicoloured ones from a stationary store...

4. Something to cover up the messy bit where it wraps around the clip. You could use a scarf, or scrunchies, or my personal favourite, the cut-up nylon tight scrunchie...

5. The Hair. The best stuff to use is the proper fake nylon hair in bright colours from afrocaribbean shops, usually about £2 or £3 for enough to make one ponytail (or two if you're frugal)...if you're not lucky enough to live near one of those shops, you can use wool. Make the wool twice as long as the finished ponytail will be so you can double it up. Try 2 or 3 contrasting colors..pink/white is good, or black/purple/white - you get the idea. White often glows under UV, which can only be a good thing! You'll need a couple of balls of wool, either very fine or very thick, or a mixture of the two works well. Aim to make the ponytails about the same length as your real hair, remembering they will be sticking up a bit so they'll need to be a couple of inches longer. If you have very short hair you'll need to be inventive with the clips you use, or maybe use a hairband instead so that they hold in properly.

6. ..thats it. You are now ready to MAKE THE HAIR

ASSEMBLING YOUR PONYTAILS

NOW CLIP IN YOUR HAIR, PUT ON YOUR PLATFORM BOOTS, AND PARTY LIKE THE HOOPY FROOD YOU ARE.....