Another day another morning that finds you staring into the mirror trying to decide what to do with that hair of yours today, huh?
Oh and it seems you’re as short of time as you are of inspiration.
I know. What’s new?
While some might accuse you of making a ponytail your BFF most days today you’re feeling like something different.
Spotting your curling iron you’re thinking you’d love it if there was an easy way to curl your hair fast. If only you had signed up for beauty school instead of getting an engineering degree.
Well, this might just be your lucky day.
The technique shared here, complete with a video demonstration, will save you a ton of time while still leaving you looking like you slaved over your bathroom sink for hours.
No more faking the bouncy curls or flowing waves of your dreams. It’s time to get the real deal.
Let’s see exactly how to go from a high ponytail to bouncy curls in 10 minutes or less that make it easy to have hair that stands out from the crowd.
As unbelievably bouncy curls can be achieved in just seven easy steps. Yeah they can!
5 MINUTE CURLS – The Video
Step 1) Make a high ponytail on the top of your head – the higher the better.
Step 2) Divide and Conquer
Split the hair in half and clip one half out of the way for now.
Step 3) Start curling small sections of the hair.
Take the one half that’s unclipped and grab a one inch sections of hair. Curl that with your curling iron of choice.
Keep in mind those with thicker hair will obviously want to use smaller sections. If you have finer hair you can get away using bigger chunks. Some practice may be required to figure out what technique produces the best curls for you.
Pro Tip: For a headful of hair curled to perfection start winding your hair around the wand as close to the pony tail elastic as you can. Or if textured beachy waves are more the look you’re going for wrap your hair from the middle down instead leaving maybe the last inch unwrapped.
Three Hot Styling Think Abouts
While the video suggests leaving the hair on the curler for 15-20 seconds I feel how long depends on your hair. Thicker hair might withstand longer times. Those with thinner or color treated strands might want to limit the heat exposure to eight to 10 seconds at most.
Then we all know the higher the temperature the better your tresses will set. But use common sense here. It’s a common curling iron mistake to use too much heat or to hold your hair on the hot iron waaay tooooo long.
Keep in mind too that the more hair in any section you curl the looser the curls will be. If you want tighter ringlets work with smaller sections. Obviously you may have to play around with the amount of hair you curl at once until you can produce perfect curls every time.
Same thing applies to the barrel size of your curling iron. The bigger the barrel the looser the curls.
Step 4) Clipped Cool Down
This is the game changing trick to long last curls. If you get nothing else out of this get this.
Slip the hair off the iron. Keep the curl coiled up as you hold it in place and clip it up with a metal clip. Or you can use bobby pins if that’s what you have handy.
Repeat the process with more one inch sections until all the hair in the first half is curled and pinned in place.
This hack works. Here’s why.
First the heat causes the shape of your strands to change.
Then clipping them in place gives the cuticles a chance to cool and close while coiled up which sets the curl.
This small step gives you long lasting curls that don’t fall apart shortly after the clips are removed.
Admittedly this all important cool down is what takes the most time here. If you’re rushed for time use your blow dryer set on cool to speed the process along.
Okay so where were we? Oh yeah. Turn your attention to the second half of your hair in the ponytail and repeat the process.
Don’t obsess over neatness. You can curl the strands in different directions if you wish or not. The point is to curl the hair.
Step 5) Hair Spray
Once all the hair is curled and clipped spritz with hair spray. Then give the hair spray time to dry.
Step 6) Take out the metal clips.
Remove the clips then slide the elastic off the pony tail. This reveal is the most exciting part as your gorgeous curls come to light.
Step 7) Shake out the curls
Rake the curls with your fingers to break them up as much or as little as you want.
If any hair on the top of your head or elsewhere could use some added oomph grab it and hit it with the curling iron one more time.
So there you go. The seven steps from start to finish.
Okay now that’s you’ve seen the process up close let’s talk about three other considerations not mentioned that maybe should have been.
Know the Prep Routine to Follow
You may find this technique works best with second day. Or perhaps freshly laundered locks will take to this better in your case.
If you decide to lather up first it might be smart to consider the benefits of volumizing shampoo and conditioner.
Some find skipping the conditioner altogether produces more polished curls.
Just washed or not, if your strands may need body boosting, In that case you want to work in some dry shampoo for natural looking volume around the crown. As you know that and the added texture can bring second day hair back to life.
Either way you’ll want to run a brush through you locks before you pull the ponytail up to eliminate any lurking knots or tangles.
In case you’ve forgotten, as mentioned in the video, you never want to forget to spray on the thermal heat protectant.
But I’m really hoping you don’t need me to remind you that heat can not only dry out your mane and leave it looking frazzled, it can also cut short the hoped for longevity of any hue you paid good money for at the salon.
Know Your Game-Changing Styling Products
Now sometimes there’s more to prep than just deciding whether to shampoo and condition or not.
Sometimes we have to tease the best out of our hair curling time by using select styling products on locks that may be reluctant to hold a curl.
Let me suggest three to consider when trying to help your curls!
One would be a bit of volumizing mousse with a hint of strong hold somewhere on the label. Applied to your roots this one will give you hair with a fuller look.
The next product hack may be a bit counter intuitive. Still you may find that saving the hair spray until the very end doesn’t produce the expected hold. What you get instead is your curly style may simply fall flat and who wants that?
So why not prep with a mist of hairspray (emphasis on mist) before unleashing the curling iron? Believe it or not according to seventeen.com, the hairspray will set your curls better after the heat has been applied.
Just give it a sec or two or three to dry after misting so you don’t have to listen to any annoying sizzle when the heat hits your strands.
Finally something else you may wish to investigate is curling cream. Steph over at hairandmakeupbysteph.com freely admits that …
“Technically this product is for people with naturally curly hair, but it works great on stick straight hair or hair that never holds a curl.”
Interesting.
Not to mention curling cream can help reign in curly hair that wants to run all wild and crazy. While adding frizz squashing texture that doesn’t leave your curls feeling all crunchy.
Know Your Curling Iron
Curling irons can be had in all shapes and sizes. No news there. Yet using the right sized barrel for your hair length is the secret to creating a head full of sexy, natural looking, voluminous curls faster.
That’s because different sized curling irons will produce different results. Select the barrel size by the look you are going for.
To that end this barrel sizing tip offered by totalbeauty.com might help:
“If you want to create loose curls or beachy waves, pick an iron that is one-to-two inches in diameter. If you want smaller, tighter ringlets, go for a three- quarters inch to one-inch thick iron.”
The other reason for sizing the curling iron right is it can make all the difference in how long this takes. If you go too big for the length of your hair it’s going to be that much harder (read: slower) to do.
Besides, if the curls come out tighter than you like quickly brushing through them will help loosen them up.
Anymore irons also come with a variety of surfaces beyond bare metal like ceramic or tourmaline.
Ceramic ones diffuse the heat across your strands better while tourmaline releases negative ions that help control frizz.
With tips and tricks like these you will be able to save tons of time doing your hair on days when a ponytail just won’t do. You’re welcome.
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