Hair advice by me

Hello everyone! I am happy to say that everything has finally calmed down from my new job and move. My life is no longer filled with boxes and packing and cleaning. Yay! 

This also means that Little Black Dress posts are up and running again. Double yay! 

For this post, I am covering something I do not normally consider myself an expert in. However, as I stood in front of my mirror yesterday curling my hair, all of the girls I knew who couldn’t figure out how to curl their beautiful heads of hair were brought to mind.

Now to the post...

First of all, let me start by saying I used to never be able to curl my hair either. In my high school days, I would spend an hour in front of the mirror getting every strand of hair perfectly loopy only to have it all fall within an hour of leaving the house. 

In my first few years of college I tried trick after trick after trick. If it’s on Pinterest, chances are I had tried it before it got there.

The frustration that resulted turned to melancholy and indifference. I told myself I just couldn’t curl my hair and I needed to accept that. 

However, I didn’t.  I can now curl my hair in about 20 minutes (give or take how slow I am that day). The curls stay all day and sometimes until the next morning! 

Throughout all of my experimenting, I found that none of those “I promise this will work” posts I found online really helped at all. So my goal here is to give you some hopefully helpful advice if you have the curly-hair longing. 

How I curl my hair:

-          Wash hair the night before it is curled

-          Put product in

-          Leave hair in messy bun all night

-          The next morning: take hair down

-          Messy blow dry

-          Curl each strand for a limited amount of time

-          Spray from end up

-          Shake head when all finished and apply one light to medium coat of hairspray to entire head

How I got here:

      1) You have to experiment with lots of “tricks” and figure out how to combine them.

For my hair to curl, I ended up combining 3 different tricks I had tried alone beforehand.  Don’t get discouraged when one advice article doesn’t work for you. If there was a part of the piece that seemed to go well or is something you want to try again, go for it. 

2) Every girl has different hair.

We all have different hair. Learn what you have on your head and the techniques that could go best with it. My hair needs to be “dirty” or have a good amount of some sort of product for it to hold curls.  

3) Be open to starting the curling process the night before the day you want to have curly hair. 

For a long time I scoffed at starting my hair the night before. It is extremely ironic because that was the first thing that actually helped my hair. I am not saying do all the work or anything, but my hair works best when I shower the night before, put product in and then leave my hair in a messy bun all night.

4) Curling products are not always the best.

I bought a lot of curling products, thinking “This one will finally work!” Big surprise. It didn’t. What is important with product is that your hair has something in it to help it hold shape and retain structure. The 24-hour bodyfoaming mousse works best for my hair. 

If you want to try doing it from shower to finish the morning you are curling, try something like Got 2b waving spray. It has salt in it, which creates a good texture to hold curls even when your hair has just been cleaned.

 5) Don’t over-hairspray. 

I used to coat my hair in a ridiculous amount of hairspray to keep curls from falling. Not only was this ineffective, but my hair felt like wire and looked flat.

The best method I found is to spray one spray from the bottom of the curl up (in the middle space created) and then shake your entire head once at the end of curling (for a natural look). After that, spray a light to medium coat over your whole head.

6) Count. 

Don’t leave one curl in for a super long time. This isn’t always the best thing. What I have found produces the best curls is to count to 10 or 15 Mississippi and then let the strand out. 

7) Once you start, it gets easier!

Like I said, it used to take me an hour to curl my hair. When I found a technique that worked it took me about 40 minutes. Now it only takes me 20. Your hair becomes more accustomed to the style and more readily forms curls the longer you do it.