Our favourite beauty trend to come out of the 2020s? Embracing greasy, dirty hair and turning it into the ultimate ‘clean girl’ hairstyle by simply slicking it back into a chick bun. Gross girls unite! We love anything that can help us prolong a hair wash. And while the slick back style a la Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner is easy to achieve in theory, there are some tips and tricks to keep in mind to ensure it doesn’t put too much stress on your delicate strands. No one wants to wake up one day with a receding hairline because they donned a slick Rick look one too many times.

Here, we roundup the tools, products and techniques you need to adopt to ensure your slick bun both looks incredible but won’t wreak havoc on that gorgeous head of hair you’ve worked so hard to keep healthy.

An artist is only as good as their tools—and the same can be said for slick bun enthusiasts. Without the correct hair brush, you could find yourself ripping, tearing and breaking your hair off while trying to get that perfect high-bun angle (more on that later). So, invest in a proper smoothing brush to gently sweep your strands into the preferred spot and ensure your hair is pulled back in an even way (which will give the appearance of thicker, shinier hair). 

Our favourites include the Base Camp Beauty Smooth Finish Bristle Brush, the Rory Rice Boar Hair Bristle Brush and the Denman Natural Bristle Single Nylon Quill Medium Grooming Brush.

Top tip: To find the perfect height for your sleek bun, take your brush at a 45 degree angle to your ear and brush the hair upwards from there. This will snatch your cheekbones and give you that Bella Hadid look effortlessly.

Almost more important than the tool is the mechanism chosen to slick the hair back and achieve that put together look. Many reach for gel to give that wet look, but this can become damaging and stressful on the hair when it is applied in such huge amounts. After all, it is sitting in the hair for upwards of 12 hours, so you want something that will keep it sleek but will also nourish at the same time. 

Our advice? Look for a nourishing hair mask or serum to keep your hair back. As it is sitting in your roots, it’s best to opt for something lightweight and workable (i.e. not your ultra-nourishing, once-a-week hair mask). Our favourites include the R+Co Bleu Sleep Masque Night Repair Serum, the R+Co Two Way Mirror Smoothing Oil and the IGK Crybaby Frizz Control Smoothing Serum.

Fine, fine, fine, we’ll let you have one product to really lock in your slick style. We get it—sometimes a serum, oil or mask just simply won’t cut it when it comes to staying power. So, we’re here to compromise. You can use a hairspray or gel if you layer them over a nourishing product first. Deal?

To lock in the style and get it to last all day long, spraying over a light misting of hairspray or touching up any harder to tame bits with a little gel is advised. But use sparingly, no one likes a helmet head! We love the Kerasilk Multi-Purpose Hairspray as it is super lightweight and gentle on the hair, the Oribe Superfine Hairspray as it contains hair-loving ingredients like aloe vera and nettle leaf and the Philip B Gravity Defying Gel.