If you want to just tie it back then get some ouchless hair bands, these are hair bands that contain no metal parts so they won’t get caught in your hair and damage it. You can get these at Walmart and they should have different colors to match different hair shades. All I do is take a brush, I like the boar bristle ones and brush all your hair back, gather it up together at the back of your head however high or low you want your pony tail and then just use the hair band to tie it back. If you want a messy look you don’t even have to use gel or anything. If you want a neater more slicked look you can use water or gel for the front of your hair and brush it back so it’s slicked down.