Sock bun curls (and other hair related things)

I was perusing Pinterest a few days ago ad came across a picture of the most beautifully curled hair.  The lady said she had used a sock to do it.  I'm not much of a hair person so I have never heard of sock buns before, and even if I had I don't think I'd know you could use a sock to curl your hair!  It sounded pretty neat (and no heat is always a plus!) so I decided to give it a try.  I'm not going step-by-step or a tutorial, I'm just showing you what it looks like once the bun is in place, and what my results were.

My hair is sort of psycho.  Some parts are pretty straight, others have a wave, and some others have curl.  I typically wash only 2 or 3 times a week (I have dry ends), condition every day, and then apply a curl enhancing leave-in conditioner, some gel, and then I "plop" my hair.  (I use a long sleeve tshirt to tie my hair up on top of my head-sounds weird but works MUCH better than a towel.)  After I'm dressed I take my hair down, diffuse it a little, and then do my bangs and I'm done for the day.  Sometimes this all seems like SO much effort!  I was hoping sock bun curls could give me a break! This is what my hair usually pretty much looks like:

I forgot to take a picture after I had just rolled my hair into the bun, but here is what it looks like after I slept on it last night:

And here are the results, what my hair looks like today:

I REALLY wish I had someone to help me take pictures!  Taking a picture, over your shoulder, in a mirror is hard work!  I have to admit I wasn't thrilled with how my hair came out today.  I don't know if maybe I got it too damp, or it was just the way I rolled it, but it was way curlier on the ends than the first time I did it.  Speaking of which, here's how it turned out yesterday:

 I know you probably don't see a big difference, but yesterday's curls were softer and not so tight.  I guess it just takes some playing around to get it right, and I will try it again at some point.  My hair is pretty long and rolling it made me want to scream all sorts of naughty words.

I'm always looking for different ways to do my daughter's hair so I tried this on her too.  First picture is her bun after sleeping on it and the 2nd is how she wore her hair to school today.

I wish I had her hair!

Have you ever tried a sock bun, or sock bun curls, before?

I am also thinking of slightly changing my hair.  It seems everyone is showing up with pink hair these days, so I gotta do something different.  I'm going to add some purple to it.  I haven't decided if I'm doing my tips, if I'm just doing a few sections, or if I'm going to try a gradient look.  I'm leaning more towards gradient, but I've never done anything like that before so I need to be sure I think I can handle it.  I need to decide fast because I plan on doing it this weekend.