Any recommendations for ballet hair gel?

[LizzieCa]

My daughter has a ballet exam coming up. The last time she had one I bought some hair gel for the bun etc (apparently they can't have a single frond escape), and it had a powdery residue afterwards which took a couple of washes to get out.
Wondered if any ballet parents had recommendations?
Many thanks! 🩰

My dd used V05 mega hold gel spray. It was in a blue bottle, but I think they may have changed the packaging to pink now.

I found hair spray tended to be better and less messy. Brush hair into the ponytail, spray all over and brush it through. Secure the bun and spray, spray and spray like your life depends on it.

Agree, gel spray is the best formula for ballet hair

Hairspray can set off fire alarms if you use it in dressing rooms, as I once discovered when it happened when I was chaperoning. We had to evacuate the entire theatre mid-performance.

Since aerosols can also have an adverse effect on people who have asthma, their use is often discouraged by dance schools from their changing rooms, and residential vocational dance schools don't allow aerosols in the dorms.

Incidentally, a ballet bun should be relatively high on the back of the head, diagonally opposite to the chin.

Thanks all! I'll look into the gel spray :-)

My daughter uses loads of wax for Royal Navy.
Much better hold.

We are ballet exam vets now. We use (on dd2 thick straight shoulder length hair) both a wax stick - cheap on Amazon and you warm it up with the hairdryer and Got2b freeze hold hairspray - bright yellow can with black lid. We had Ellnette for years but tried the Got2b after we saw all the big girls use it. It's amazing I use low too.
Got2b also sell a really nifty tube of gel with a mascara type wand that you use to slick doen the fluffy hairs. It's brilliant.

Needs to be the flimsy type hair net in her hair colour - yog can get them in chemists but for normal lessons we use the sturdier string nets that are 59p in savers!

Bun should sit between the ears on the back of her head not up near the crown. Been at italia conti for years for my sins.

Agree with PP that spray is better than gel as a single product, although I tend to use a bit of both for exams. The seniors at our studio also have a mascara-type wand with light gel to deal with flyaways at the last minute.

IME ballet bun positioning and the part/no-part question varies hugely across different studios (and grades/levels within studios) so always best to confirm that one with your teachers before each exam.

Ballet buns look better on the high side as they show off classical line nicely. If you have a lot of hair, the weight of a bun that is too low will throw your weight off a fraction and make you hold your head very slightly too far forward to compensate.

That's great advice, many thanks!

@pastypirate Tring, Elmhurst, RBS, Central, ENBS and EYB all prefer a bun slightly higher than that for purely classical training, and also like it as flat to the head as possible. I think for general MT/ballet, the vocational schools such as Italia Conti are not quite so pedantic. 😂

Urgh the flat bun looks like a squashed pastry. We do it for the ballet acro crossover stuff but I hate the look of it.

Dd uses a wax - armed forces.

Necessary when you are performing though, and have changes of headdress or wigs to contend with.