Curls for Girls – Part 5 – Hot Curls!

Remington SuperSmooth Instant Heat Curling Iron from Drugstore.com

Whew. I really did not mean to go on this long about curls, but it IS a big topic. I hope you are still hanging with me. We have now washed our hair with curling shampoo, and found the perfect gel/mousse to support our style without being too heavy or too light. Before you put that product in your hair, I want you to wrap your hair up in a towel for a few minutes (or longer if your hair is coarse and thick). Get the bulk of the heavy water out of it. You want it damp, but not soaking wet. Put the gel/mousse/whatever in it from your scalp to the ends. Now, you have more choices to make, and again, the more time you take, the better looking and longer lasting your curls.

A lot of people can do amazing things simply by scrunching their hair using their hands and a blow dryer. I have already detailed this process here. The more often you scrunch it, the more curl you will get (assuming you are not blowing it out straight in between). If you are planning on curling your hair with a curling iron, start by using this scrunching technique, and scrunch away until your hair is almost completely dry. Don’t ever dry your hair with a dryer until it is dry as a bone, it is bad for your hair, and it will wind up looking frizzy and will be crunchy feeling. Yuck.

When you are finished drying it, toss your head over and give it a light spray all over with a workable (”styling”) spray. Again, I love Paul Mitchell’s Soft Sculpting Spray. You might want to use clips to clip your hair out of the way while you are working. Starting at the nape of your neck, in smaller sections (about one inch square) for tighter curl, roll the hair up in the iron until it is next to your scalp. Don’t burn yourself, please! You will get a much better curl out of a newer curling iron that is nice and hot. Hold each section in the iron for 10-30 seconds, depending on how hot/old your iron is. Let go of the hair without unrolling it. This is key. Just open the clip and pull the iron away from the curl. Do not touch the curl. Move on to the next section, all over your head from the nape of the neck around to the top and front.

If you are using hot rollers or steam rollers, the technique is much the same. Use small sections, roll them up tightly, and do not move the rollers until your hair and the rollers are completely cool (this can take an hour with hot rollers). Remember to do your best not to stretch out the curl when unrolling them.

Do not touch these curls for at least 10 minutes after they have come out of the iron or the hot rollers.

If you are using regular or velcro rollers and want to let your hair dry naturally, put them in with exactly the same care as your hot rollers–small sections, tightly rolled–and make sure that the majority of the moisture is out of your hair when you start. I really think that this way gives you the very longest lasting curl (not necessarily the tightest though), but it can take a very long time, especially if you have thick, coarse hair. When I am doing my hair this way, every 30 minutes or so, I stroll into the bathroom, and give it a “hot shot” from the blow dryer. Really heat the curls up, and then go away for a while. If, when you are finished, you find that there is any dampness AT ALL in your hair, wait longer. Your hair must be completely and totally dry if curling it this way. As an example, if I want to do my hair like that, I will roll it up in the morning, and not take it down until late afternoon. And don’t pull the curls when you take the rollers out.

I think I can end this with the next article, which will be on finishing. I hope this has given you some ideas that you may not have tried before to get good, long lasting curls in your hair!