STYLELearn How to Get and Maintain the Curly Hair Look of Your Dreams
In How to Lose a Guy In Ten Days, there’s a scene where a Kate Hudson with curly, wild tresses quits her Composure job and jumps in a taxi for an interview in Washington D.C. While she didn’t feel like writing How-Tos any longer, I hope she at least managed to write one about creating that terrific mane of tendrils.
After seeing what Spring 2014 holds for our hair (lots of texture and refreshing, easy-breezy styles) I was excited to master my relaxed wave. But you want to know the problem? Keeping that wave in tact without it falling flat on my commute to work—having a good hair day for about an hour doesn’t count.
I caught up with L'Oréal Professionnel Artist, Drew Schaefering and got up to speed on the science behind curling a master curl with an iron and how to get that shape to stick on naturally straight hair. With these tidbits of info and tricks, you’ll be rocking waves like Beyonce and SJP, (two ladies with hair he admires) too.
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If you don’t have curly hair, you’ll have to put in some work.
"Hair that is straight needs a bit of work to get it to be curly. The makeup of the hair fiber simply does not support a curl the same way curly hair doesn't just fall straight. The hair needs to be temporarily reconstructed through heating tools or chemically."
How-To Prep:
"In order to prep hair for curling, I like to use L'Oréal Professionnel Or Graphic, which is a moldable gel. Apply it from roots to ends on wet hair and comb through. Using a blow dryer and ceramic brush will give you a lighter softer curl, where the brush acts as a milder curling iron. After blowing hair out, spray hair with L'Oreal Professionnels Infinium 3 section-by-section and curl with an iron."
Set your hair while you’re curling it.
“Curls fall out usually because of either a lack of support or physical changes. Try using a stronger spray on the hair before ironing.”
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How-To:
"I never work without L'Oréal Professionnel Infinium working spray. I spray each section evenly before ironing. When the iron is on the hair, the product locks the curl in and saturates the hair with the right amount of hold. If the curl is falling out because it is too fine, try the L'Oréal Professionnel Infinium 4 hold. If you are looking for a product to hold curl whether you are ironing or not, I always have two different products on hand—L'Oréal Professionnel Or Graphic and L'Oréal Professionnel Curl Satin. The gel has the hold I love without the stiffness we dread, while the mousse has a very nourishing quality for thicker hair types to not look dry."
Learn how to hold your iron the right way.
"I work with my clients on holding the iron so that when they take the curl out of the iron, they do as little disruption to it as possible—usually this means holding it vertically from the top."
After you curl your hair, clip up those tendrils.
"When hair is heated at a high heat, it can take on new shapes. So if the hair is still warm from being curled and just left hanging, the tight coils of that curl can drag down, resulting in a looser wave instead of a tight curl. Clipping the hair up allows the hair to completely cool in the shape of the curl design, giving it the strongest curl possible."
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If your curls last, create some styles to further the look.
Spray entire head lightly with L'Oréal Profesonnel Fresh Dust to re-liven the curls. Then, use L'Oréal Professionnel True Grip texturizing powder by holding the bottle upright and squeezing or ‘smoking’ the product into the hair. Pull hair loosely into a high ponytail, wrap ponytail into a bun shape, and pull apart the top to create a sexy, imperfect look that says more ‘chic’ than ‘second day.’
Will you try any of these tips? Tweet @OKMagazine and leave a comment below.
