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Long, luscious, voluminous curls are a beautiful look that others are often envious of. Flipping through the pages of a magazine, or shopping for your favorite lingerie, you can’t help but notice hairstyles that are anything but flat and boring. For people with naturally curly hair, consider yourselves naturally blessed. For those who have the opposite type of hair, don’t be discouraged; your styles look polished and sleek – The grass is always greener! Vamping it up to get the dazzling, seductive look – sure to turn heads – is a good look for everyone, and it’s easier to achieve than you think. What’s even better, is that you don’t have to use a curling iron to make it work for you. In fact, we highly recommend that you don’t because you can easily burn and singe your hair. Over time, this can cause a lot of damage, so we’ve brought you some alternative methods.
Preparation
Be high maintenance! It’s ok, if it’s only for your hair. You want to make sure your hair is very well taken care of, so that you can flaunt the Balance Me Beautiful look. We are all about natural health & wellness, which equates to natural beauty too. Quick Tip: Less is more. It really doesn’t take all of the extra time, and it certainly does not require extra heat tools to have a beautiful head of hair. A hair dryer is the only heat tool you should be using daily, and even that doesn’t need to be hauled out every day. A basic rule is that high heat = hair damage. So, if you are using your hair dryer because alternative methods are not a possibility for you, you absolutely must use the low setting only! Your hair will suffer, if you don’t, and it can start to become brittle and fall out, over time. So make sure that your hair care routine is first class, and you’ll be upgraded to a gorgeous, new look.
Here’s an idea of how your hair care routine should look, on days when you are going for curls. If you already have a lot of body in your hair, skip the shampoo and only use conditioner. Make sure you put a lot in, to really condition your hair, and make it more manageable. You will be better able to define your locks, once you start styling. If your hair is really slick and shiny, the poker straight kind, we recommend skipping the wash altogether, and waiting until you have “dirty hair” (i.e. hair that hasn’t been washed in a day, a.k.a. second day hair). This makes your hair way easier to work with, and prevents the curls from loosening out. When curling your hair, you should always start with wet or damp hair, to set the curls, and lock them in place.
You also need to have some trusty styling products in tow. We suggest anything alcohol free, in order to protect your hair and keep it from drying out. Read the bottle, and if alcohol is listed as one of the first three ingredients, see if you can find a better selection. There are also sulfate free products that you can buy, designed specifically for curly hair, and you may want to invest in some quality products, if you are curling your hair on the regular. There’s one rule of thumb for Curly-Qs – Always Use Hair Gel! Hair gel is like magic for securing curls, and the liquid kind is even better; It’s you secret, little trick.
Here are a couple of DIY recipes, in case you don’t have any on hand or you want to try both types first, in small quantities.
DO IT YOURSELF HAIR GEL
For hair that falls flat and straight or hair that is extra silky and shiny, you will need a thick consistency gel in order for it to hold curls. For curls that will coil tightly and stay firmly in place, try this recipe. You don’t need a lot to make it work – Just 2 ingredients and less than 5 min. to make. Here’s what you will need:
– Jell-O
– Water
– 1Tbs. Oil
Directions: Follow these directions, step by step. You are making Hair Gel, not Jell-O; remember, you are setting your hair and not the Jell-O. Empty an entire packet of Jell-O into a bowl, and add about 1/8 cup water. You might need to experiment with the water, to get the gel to your desired consistency. Mix it together. After you have what looks like hair gel, add in the oil. You can apply this to dry or damp hair, comb through with a wide tooth comb, and the gel will create texture so you are ready to style.
DO IT YOURSELF LIQUID HAIR GEL
For hair that already has texture, with natural waves or curls that need more definition, liquid hair gel is the secret beauty tip. The DIY method is easier than you think! Here’s what you’ll need:
– 1 Aloe Vera Leaf
– 1 Tbsp. of Oil
– You will need a spoon, at some point
Quick Tips: Try Sesame Seed Oil or Safflower Oil
If you don’t have any of these on hand because you haven’t read about their incredible benefits yet, you can just use regular cooking oil, or whatever.
Directions: Break open the Aloe Vera Leaf and scoop out the inside. Oh look – There’s hair gel in this thing! Using your spoon, make sure you scrape all of the gel out of the sides of the peel. Add in your Tbsp. of oil. You can either whisk it all together, or you can use a blender, to make it thinner. Basically, the more texture you have in your hair, the thinner the consistency of your gel. Textured hair is easier to work with, so it requires less hold.
That’s it!
Apply about 1 quarter sized amount to the palm of your hand, and rub your hands together. Then, smooth it over wet hair, and run it through with a wide tooth comb. The Aloe Vera Gel will also serve as a detangler. Then, you’re ready to style your hair.
Here are some ideas to inspire you to lift your look, right from the pages of a magazine. Simply apply your hair gel, and you are ready to get started.
View our complete list of 20 Tips for Curly Tricks. For now, check out the following 7 ideas:
How to Curl Your Hair Without Using a Curling Iron
- Overnight Bunny – Here’s the easiest way to do it. At night before bed, pull your hair up into a bun. All you need to do is pull your hair back with your hands into a high ponytail. Then, grab the end of your hair and start twisting. Coil the hair into a bun, and secure with bobbi-pins. In the morning, release it – Easy and Fun!
- Diffuser – Set your hair dryer to the lowest setting, and coil your hair into a diffuser. Don’t move around too much – Just let it set. Once out of the diffuser, you will need to smooth over the hair’s surface with your hands, to remove any crunchiness from the hair products. We recommend pulling it back into a bunny while you apply your make-up. When your hair is completely dry and smoothed over, release it, toss it around like a Rock-Star Head-Banger (it’s your own, private show), and you will be left with healthy, sleek, ladylike hair. Get well defined, waves or curls. You can tame it a bit afterwards, by holding it back, away from your face with a hairband. Then, remove the airband, and just walk out calmly like the concert in the bathroom never happened.
- Toss Curls – Toss curls are a blast from the past – TBT Curls (Throw Back Toss Curls)! You probably won’t find much talk of these on the internet, but if you don’t know what they are, you can probably ask around and hear some great stories. You’ll probably find some fun photos too, while you’re at it! These old school curls aren’t going out of fashion because when you release them, your hair will be full of life. The curls are easy to get, but a bit harder to secure. To make the curls, take a strand of hair and wrap it around your fingers, then slide it off your fingers and fasten the curl to the top of your head using bobbi-pins. The edge of the curl should be facing upward, like a complete, concentric circle, sitting perfectly in place. Go through your hair, section by section, until all of its pinned up. Sleep on it. When you wake up, remove the bobbi-pins, and then toss the curls. – Beautiful!
- Rag Rolls – You can use facecloths instead of rags, Rag-Doll. Roll them up lengthwise, until the towel resembles a thick hair roller. Then, just take sections of your hair and wrap it around the towel, length-wise. Secure the hair to the towels with bobbi-pins or hair clips, and let it set. You should use a hair dryer if you want it done, right away, or you can try sleeping in these ones because they are designed to be soft and comfy. When your hair is dry, take out the clips and let your hair fall naturally in long, spiral, ringlet curls – Beauty-Fall!
- Secure the Crown – For a really youthful, fun, girly-girl look, do the twist! A really great way to get this style and concentrate the curls in specific areas, is to set your hair in a crown twist. This will leave you with a layer of curls on the top of your hair, a volumized section in the center, and more beautiful curls in the ends. When it falls, you will have face-framing curls, and perfect, natural looking ends, rather than all over curls. Think, long, cascading hair with lots of body.
Directions:
Option 1
Above your ear, on the side of your head – the side you choose will depend on your handedness, and it’s up to you where you start. If you want to get complicated, you can French braid your hair into a crown, drawing hair in from only the outside section of the braid. For example, draw strands in from the forehead, in the top section. Draw strands in from the temples, at the sides. Draw strands in from the nape of the neck at the bottom. You will still have some hair that is left untouched, in the center of your crown. This technique gives you ultra-body, but there’s a much simpler method if you have less time, and want the look without the frustration of getting it right.
Option 2
Above your ear, same directions as above, make 1 simple braid with the section that you’ve taken. Secure the braid with an elastic band. Now, you are going to take that braid and weave in the rest of the hair, all the way around your head. Get your crown out, Beauty Queen!
Go around the braid, section by section, and feed in strands from the outside edge of the braid – just like you did in step 1. However, you are going to take the feed-strand and pull it from the outside edge, underneath the braid, and in through an open space in the braid. Then pull the strand out through the opening in the braid, and drape it back over-top of the braid – Like sewing. You are just weaving it, all the way through, until the new strand ends. After the first pull through, pull through another section of your hair the same way, in through the inner side of the braid now, and find open spaces in the braid to pull the hair through. It doesn’t matter where you place the strand, however, the closer the weaves in the sections of the braid, the tighter the curls. Just go around section, by section, until you have all of your hair up, and you’ve secured the crown.
Leave it in overnight, and take it all out in the morning. You will have really, nicely sectioned hair, with beautiful waves and curls, concentrated at the ends, when you are done.
6. Beach Waves – Get your hands on some Velcro Rollers. A blast from the past, 90s-style! These things are still in use, because they were good styling tools that worked! Get them here – we suggest going for the 30-40mm set, if you are looking to get long, casual, beach waves. If your hair is very straight, go for the smaller ones. If your hair is long, passed your elbows when it falls naturally, go for the 50 or 60mm set. To style, section your hair into about 2 inch-wide strands. Take a comb, and run it through the hair, pulling your hair outward from the top of your head, out in front of your face. Grabbing the end of the strand, align the Velcro Roller with the end of the strand, and wrap the ends over the top of the roller – then, roll. Roll the Velcro Roller away from your forehead, toward the back of your head, and secure it with the provided clamps. For the sides of your hair, you can either roll the curls back, or roll them toward your temples, away from the part of your hair. P.S. We recommend a side part, for extra volume on top. When your hair is completely dry, release the curls. Don’t ever brush out your curls, just finger style them. You can hold them in all day with some hairspray, to follow.
7. French Twist – A French twist is one of the hardest up-dos to perfect, but we have some simplified instructions for you, to make it easier. Start with damp hair, not wet hair. For this one, you should use real gel, not liquid gel. Pull all of your hair from the top of your head, to about the midpoint of your ears into a side pony tail. You can use bobbi-pins to secure it to the side. Let’s say we are pulling it to the right side, but for left-handed people, you can just reverse the directions to make it easier for you – You should pull the ponytail toward the side of your dominant hand (i.e. whichever hand you write with). If you did this correctly, you will have hair underneath this section, remaining down, and untouched – just leave it. Holding the end of the side ponytail, start to coil the hair, from the bottom, back toward the center of your head (so left if you’re a righty. Lefties: go from left to right). Keep playing around with it, to make it look like a fashionable twist – it should be a straight, centered column, smoothly rolled into a well-blended twist. Got that? Now secure it with bobbi-pins. You can hide them right underneath the twist, going in from the side, so nothing shows. It’s kind of a ‘Ta-da/How’d you do that?’ look, if you have it just right.
Now, with the remaining sections, add them gradually into your twist. Secure the already woven French twist at the bottom with a coated elastic band to hold. It’s just a ponytail. Then take strand in from the left side of the remaining, untouched hair, and coil it around that ponytail. Keep it all in one place (i.e. don’t continue down the hair shaft). The hair gets coiled up, back over itself. Keep adding in, from the left side, wrapping around in a counter-clockwise direction (from underneath, to over top, and around again). Easy Note: right to left, under over until all of your hair is wrapped up.
Important: Each section is wrapped just below the previous coil. You move down the ponytail, section by section, wrap by wrap. To clarify, wraps stay in one place, sections move down.
Ok, so you worked hard and your hair is so impressive that you better leave this one in for a day, and take yourself out or something. You look nice. The next day, unravel the whole thing, and you can turn heads for a second day too, you Natural Beauty, You.
These ideas are great, unique ways to get your hair curling in no time flat. If you keep styling like this, your hair will also get healthier, in the long run. No heat hairstyles are a really good choice.
Coming Up: More great tips, Curls for Short Hair and Curls for Guys
-Let us know how you’re doing with these looks.
Published by Jennica B.
