Beehive- Tutorial Review

So, I wanted to do something hair related today, after talking about all the hair things I want to try.  But when I went to bed last night I thought I was going to a barn to work today, so I didn't set my hair in curls.  And that would, of course, make it difficult to check out the pin curl patterns.  Which leaves us with

The Beehive. 

I like updos, it keeps everything back out of my face and off my neck, so this seemed like a good vintage hairdo that fits my style nicely. For the record, I have fairly fine hair that's a little below my shoulders when it's down.  It has a little bit of wave when it's dry, but it's fairly straight.  Also, fairly flat, but that's another story. 

Oh look, you can see the itsy bitsy tutorial in front of me!

I'm following the tutorial at Skirting the Issue for the 'Easy Updo Version'.  I like easy!  So, step one, split hair and make a pony tale. 

In retrospect, this needed to be a solid two inches higher on my head.  Up right below the part would likely have been perfect.  You'll see at the end, but it looks like mine sits a little low.  And the coverage from the front part is a little weaker than I'd like.  I'm hoping if the poof you make in step two is closer to the part it'll cover better.  But on that note:

Sorry about the bad selfie,
this was take 4 I think...

 Step Two: A Poof.  Directions say to "Backcomb the living shit out of that pony tale"  She suggested dividing it into sections to work with.  I used three, but if you have thick(er) hair you might want more.  I don't back comb a lot, so when she said make a big scary mess I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.  To say the least, it is a little distressing making a birdsnest out of your hair.  (I'm still a little nervous about combing it out later...) I also had some trouble back combing the ends, which I think would tidy the poof up.  As it was, I pinned the ends up under so I had a little loop and then pinned both sides don to open it up into a fan. 

Step Three: cover and tidy.  The instructions suggested back combing the front section, but that didn't work very well for me.  So, I brushed it smooth and tried again. And it still didn't work very well.  Option number three was to split it in two and crossed them.  One side wrapping down and across and the other side going the other way.  I'm sure that's a little hard to understand, if you need clarification, drop me a comment and I'll make a diagram.

I think with the changes I mentioned back at step one, I'll be pretty happy with it actually.  I might experiment with a tiny bit of back combing in step three to give my hair a tiny bit of volume at the front, but over all, pretty satisfied.    What do you guys think?

Hmm... my mirror looks really dirty...