Open Question: Curly Hair Help
February 20th, 2007 @ 3:45 pm by Open Question
Hi,
I am planning to go “DIY” for my hair. I have similar hair to Minnie Driver’s (when it’s curly), but shorter. I’d like to have big, natural curls on my wedding day and pull it back in a loose “bun” of some sort, without having the top too flat (my face is oval). I would love some advice on how to achieve this. I have no idea how to use hot rollers or what product would work best in achieving a combination of sizes of loose curls. I bought some hot rollers to give it a try, but I looked like Shirley Temple - and not in a good way! My attempt at using different size curling irons was a disaster! I’m getting married on Maui, so I’m not sure if I can straighten my hair in the tropical temperature in case I need to do this to achieve smoother looking curls.
Based on a long history of unfortunate haircuts & styles, I know now that it takes someone who specializes (not just knows how to work with) in curly hair. I’d really prefer to do it myself to avoid any wedding-day disasters. There are a limited number of stylists available that I have seen deal with my type of hair. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Ana
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6 Responses to “Open Question: Curly Hair Help”
Oh curly hair here too!! What I’ve done to make “manageable curls” has been to blow out my hair and then wrap the hair around the barrell of a curling iron and hold. (not clamped in, just wrapped…hard to explain…more like wrapping it around a finger but from the base of your head, then wrapped up.) Once you let it off the curling iron, tug the curl down for the look you want (don’t touch it for super tight, one tug for big curl, two for softer, etc) HTH.
I have curly hair and didn’t want to straighten and then recurl. Basically I put some of my regular product in my hair and let it dry. Then the stylist put it up into a loose bun with lots of pins, twirling each section with some product as she pinned it up so it would have a nice, loose curl. For the parts that were hanging down around my face and in back she used a curling iron to give the curl some shape. It might be hard to do by yourself, I had about 50 pins in my hair to allow it to be up in a bun but still have volume around my face.
I’ve got curly hair. It’s more like jewish curly than african-american curly, I know their are different “tempermants” of curly hair. Curly hair means it will hold a curl really well. When I want to do my hair up, I use hot rollers. I start after I get out of the shower putting it back into a tight pony tail so that the top will dry straight (my roots will stay nappy otherwise, and it looks funny). After a couple hours of drying, I take it down and gently blow dry if until it’s just a little damp. Then hot rollers, and I use the biggest ones I can find (like an inch, inch and a half across). This will help avoid the shirly temple look. After you’ve hot rolled your hair, DON’T BRUSH IT. I don’t think I need to tell a curly haired person the dangers of brushing their hair.
Sometimes if my hair was too damp when i started, when I take the hot rollers out, a couple curls will be frizzy. I just re-hot roll them.
After this you need to run your fingers through to seperate the curls (get rid of the shirly temple curls), but don’t brush.
Then you can do a couple things:
Leave it down
Put it in a ponytail and pin the curls around
Flop pieces on your head and pin until it looks good.
It’s quite a long process… I only go through this for a dressing-up occasion. I did my own hair for 4 years of sorority formals, and I think my hair always looked a lot better than friends who had theirs done professionally.
I’m a hairsytlist, so maybe i can help.
Since you are wanting to pull your hair back in a loose bun, can you go with your natural curls rather than trying to re-curl? Look into getting some curly hair product that will make your curls nice ans springy and defined - not frizzy.
Then take the hair at the crown of your head (the points over the arches of your brows to the back of your head) and spray those pieces and tease them from behind - this will give you the volume you mentioned. Leave some hair in the front un-teased so you can cover up the ratty mess.
Pin back the sides of your hair with bobby pins so they’ll be flat against your head - this will also help get the right shape.
then sweep everything back in a low ponytail, take chunks of it, loop the chunks into loose loops, and pin in place.
this isn’t easy to pull off on your own, but it can be done!
There are some photos of this style on my website at http://www.photovamp.com if that helps any. Good luck!
I have curly hair, too, and have been to Hawaii several times. The humidity is a disaster for our type of hair! I highly recommend Ouidad’s climate control gel (www.ouidad.com) and use lots of it before any other products that you use…and I do recommend using a LOT of product while you are there.
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I have really curly hair too, and I know exactly what you’re going through. In fact, I want a similar ‘do for my own wedding but can’t find a comptent stylist. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is very DIY-able. Will you have a chance to have several trials with Maui stylists? If not, and if you really don’t want to wear your natural curls, first flat-iron your hair (I really like the MaxiGlide despite the cheesy name), and then use a large-barrel curling iron to put curls back in. Spray with hairspray as you go. Good luck!