The messy ponytail has been ubiquitous on the catwalks leading up to summer. It may seem like an effortless look to crack, but there's a certain know-how involved in an artfully undone up-do. We talked to Jon Pulitano of Paddington's Headcase Hair (who was responsible for a lot of those runway looks at Australian Fashion Week), about how to get it right.

Step one: Prep the hair with a thickening spray (Redken Rootful). Give your hair a light mist from roots to ends; drench the hair if you have baby fine hair. This will give your hair great texture and hold.

Step two: Section from the recession above either temple into a V section underneath your crown. How low or how high you take this section will depend on how high or low you would like your ponytail to be sitting.

Step three: After you have clipped up the top of your hair using a soft bristle brush, brush your hair back tightly into a pony tail and tie in your pony. Use some hairspray if you would like your sides nice and smooth. We used Redken 18.

Step four: Unclip the top of your hair and shake out with your hands. Spray in a texturizing spray (Redken Wool Shake) and scrunch in. Then place back and arrange. If you would like extra height at the crown area softly back comb with your soft brush or comb. After placing tie your hair off with another elastic around the ponytail you have already tied off.

Step five: To finish off if you would like to hide the elastic band take a small strip of hair from the ponytail and wrap it around tightly. Use a U Pin or bobby pin to secure or drench in hairspray *redken18 and dry off using your hairdryer. Pull up some pieces of hair ontop if you would like more height and texture. Then a light or heavy amount of hairspray to hold in place.

*If you would like your pony tail smooth then once you have completed the steps above section your ponytail off into a few pieces and iron through (using cloud 9 iron) or add more texture spray (Redken Wool Shake) to add even more texture.