And here's a closer view:
It's a donut made of dark brown mesh. I'm guessing there might also be some sponge on the inside of it, but I've never cut one open to find out. Maybe I'll give it a look when my current hair donut gets too battered to use anymore. They're lightweight but seem to be pretty dense, as you can tell when you start sticking pins into them. You can buy them in different sizes, though none of them are especially small, since that would rather defeat the point. I go for the larger ones since I've got plenty of hair to cover it with.
To use a hair donut, you also need some U-shaped pins. I don't think I ever used them when I lived in America, but in Japan they're quite easy to find. Drug stores have them, but so do 100 yen shops (essentially dollar stores) as well.
U-shaped pins are very convenient. Unlike bobby pins, they don't get ruined very easily. If a U pin gets bent in a weird way it's very easy to bend it back into the correct shape, whereas once a bobby pin gets messed up there isn't much you can do to fix it. You can use U pins over and over again; I don't think I've had to throw a single one away.
Anyhow, you use the hair donut to make a large, round bun. It adds a heck of a lot of volume. I've heard this style called a "sock bun", because you can also get this look using a rolled up sock. I've never tried it with a sock since most of my socks are very dear to me, and the mesh hair donuts are so readily available. But here's the look. Forgive the messiness; this style can be done very neatly, but I took these pictures after taking a nap, so there's a lot of stray hairs all over the place. But the style is surprisingly intact considering what I'd been doing.
The brown bow in the pictures is just a barrette. You can add a lot of different decorations, or you can leave the bun plain. It looks pretty good either way.
You may have already guessed how the hair donut works; the styling is pretty simple. First you put your hair into a high ponytail. Today I managed to get it right up on the top of my head, which isn't always the case. Then, you slide the ponytail through the hole of the hair donut. Once the donut is right against your head, you wrap the hair around it however you can and secure it with the U pins. There are different ways to wrap the hair around, but all that really matters is that you cover all of the mesh. It's especially important if you're using a donut that doesn't match your hair color, as I am. Black mesh peeking through my red-brown hair would look pretty odd.
Overall, it's a really simple style. Wrapping the hair around to cover all the mesh can be tricky at first, but once you find your preferred way of doing it, it gets easier over time. I think it's a fun and cute look, and it stays put pretty well. You can make it smooth and tidy, or big and messy depending on your preferences. You don't need a ton of styling products, though it is helpful to use a little gel of some sort to smooth the hair that isn't in the bun. If you have a lot of stray hairs at the nape of your neck you may want to secure them with bobby pins, as well.
Well, that's about all I've got to say about this one. Thinking about it, it really should've been my first post, as it's probably the first weird cosmetic product I tried out upon coming to Japan. They're very commonplace here, and it seems to be a very popular style for young women.
