There's been a few threads lately about how to get the glamourous look of sexy, sophisticated curls without the need for a perm or naturally curly hair.
We have a few options luckily which can help
- Ghd's
- Curling tongs
- Rollers
- Scrunching
- The 'Ragdoll' look
Ghd's
A girl's best friend. Honestly some of us can't live without them! To achieve curls, use the following example:
- Wash your hair normally, excluding conditioner
- Blow dry it out with some styling mousse
- Section your hair out
- Spray on some good heat protection spray
- Place the straightener vertical to your head as close to the scalp as possible
- Rotate it 180 degrees away from your head in one smooth movement
- The slower the action, the tighter the curl. - The faster the action, the looser the curl.
- Finish with hairspray
- If the curl doesn't work, let it cool down before trying again
This will achieve the glamourous styling of curls, which can last from experience and friends hair up to 2-3 days depending on your hair type and how well they've been put in.
Curling tongs
Curling tongs have been around for ages! Great little accessory for the girl on her night out. Personally I use a set of Nicky Clarke's curling tongs but any old pair will do.
- Wash hair normally, excluding conditioner
- Blow dry it out with some styling mousse
- Section hair out
- Spray on some heat protection spray
- Wind your hair up into the curling tongs
- Leave for up to a minute
- Blast with hairspray
- Unravel the curl
- If the curl doesn't work, let it cool down before trying again
Great thing about curling tongs is that they give you the diversity of not breaking your wrist whilst creating your curls and indeed it gives you more freedom with your sections and width of your curls.
Example of how to start curling your hair with curling tongs:
The End result:
Sorry about the quality of the pictures, taken with my rubbish webcam.
Rollers
Rollers were an old favourite of mine a few years back especially with dancing etc we had to have curly hair. The rollers I'm concerned with really here is a set called 'bendy rollers'
- Wash your hair normally, exclude conditioner
- put in a tiny bit of mousse evenly through the hair
- Section off your hair neatly
- Wind the roller like you would with curling tongs
- Now bend the roller as if you were tying it to keep it in
- Go to sleep
- Wake up the next morning and remove and seperate the curls
I found a wonderful little invention called 'Beach blonde ocean waves' that you spray on which gives the curls a lovely shimmer and beach look after you seperate them out. Brilliant if you want to go to the beach and just chill out. I'll talk more about this product later.
Scrunching
The fast approach to curls. You really do need to have a natural wave in your hair unfortunately for this to work.
- Wash your hair normally, excluding conditioner
- Towel dry
- Scrunch with mousse or curl creating and defining product like the beach blonde one I mentioned
- Work the mousse from the root down
- Leave to dry naturally or use a diffuser. Do not use a hairdryer without a diffuser attached to speed up the process. it will not work!
Scrunching is good for a night out when you've been only told an hour previously to get ready! Plus it's a good look for the beach. You can substitute mousse for that Beach Blonde stuff, works for any hair colour gorgeous smell of coconuts brilliant look for the beach and summer.
The 'Ragdoll' look
Not many are familiar with this type of curling technique. It involves using rags to tie into the hair to achieve a tight curl.
- Wash hair normally, exclusing conditioner
- Apply very little mousse through the hair as a setting agent
- Tear up some rags make at least 30 if you have long hair and keep extra in case you need more
- Section the hair
- Put your hair into the middle of the rag and fold it over, keeping it taut
- Curl the strand around the rag
- When you reach the scalp tie the ends of the rag loosely so you can reuse them but still tight enough to keep the curl in place
- Go sleep
- Seperate in the morning
The bigger the sections the bigger the curl will be. Be advised that this will create a very tight curl and would need a few days to fall out as it were to create a more softer ringlet shape. This like rollers is less straining on the hair as no extreme heat will be inflicted on the hair.
Recommended appliances
I've been asked to add this part into the guide.
If your hair is rather thick you
will need to invest in a set of GHD's
GHD's
If you've got fine to medium hair, alternatively you can use a straightener that heats up to at least 180 degrees, as GHD's actually heat up fully to 200+ degrees, therefore less damage is done to the hair.
I personally use Nicky Clarke's Salon Standard hairdressing kit available at Argos (However, it is a box set RRP £59.99) and my straighteners heat up to approx 200 degrees.
Straighteners
Nicky Clarke Kinder 4 Hair Straightener - £39.99 down to £19.99 (Taken from
http://www.argos.co.uk)
Babyliss 2075U STR Hair stylers - £39.99 (Taken from
http://www.currys.co.uk)
REMINGTON S2012 Hair stylers - £34.99 (Taken from
http://www.currys.co.uk)
Curling Tongs
Remington Pro Digital Tong - £29.99 (Taken from
http://www.argos.co.uk)
Nicky Clarke Pro-Ceramic Digital Curling Tong - £17.99 (Taken from
http://www.argos.co.uk)
Tresemme HP469607 Hair stylers - £24.99 (Taken from
http://www.currys.co.uk) This one would be more suited for people who've never used curling tongs before as it practically is a guide in itself to show how to produce curls with tongs.
If you want to find cheaper alternatives to the above prices, check out Ebay, or indeed a shopping comparison site like Kelcoo.
Happy Curling
Last edited by Xx Tomásíona - Mháire xX : 29-07-2008 at 23:44.
Discussion of aspects of health related to beauty, and fashion.
Useful Resources:
The guide of DIY curling techniques!
Do I keep the tongs still and wind the hair around with my hand? Or clip the end of my hair in the little clippy bit and twist the irons till they reach the root? I'm so stoopid...
