High-maintenance Hair on a Diet
Before you kick your (fashionable) shoes at me, let me first say I personally wouldn’t call curly hair high-maintenance. Sometimes, however, the routines that go with styling it can be. As the weather slowly tiptoes towards warmth, I find myself getting lazier and lazier and while for me that means pulling my hair back in a ponytail, ponytails aren’t an option for everyone.
I rarely believe a stylist when he or she tells me I can make my hair look as good at home as it does when I leave the salon. Believe me, though, that these two styling options for curly hair are super-easy ways to get gorgeous hair, whether straight or curly is your fancy.
To style Laura’s hair curly, I worked about a nickel-size of P2 Potion ($26.95, philippelusi.com) into damp hair. This product is great for curly hair because it smoothes the hair enough to control the frizz and flyaways, but does not stiffen hair like gel or mousse. (Shellacked hair has its place, but that place is not in my chair.) Afterwards, I parted her hair and sectioned it into four quadrants. I then loosely piled the hair in the quadrants on top of her head and clipped them, as shown. After clipping hair in place, you can either air dry or use a blow-dryer with a diffuser to get the hair about 90% dry. Unpin the hair, and lightly tousle it. After drying Laura’s hair completely, I used a pea-size of Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum (salons nationwide) to add a bit of shine to the hair.
While Laura’s hair is stunning, as most curly hair tends to be, I get that there are die-hard straighteners out there. There are so many products and gadgets that seem to cater to straightening hair, but probably the easiest and least expensive I’ve used, I learned about in beauty school. The ConairPro Yellowbird ($34.95, folica.com) has 1875 watts. There are definitely dryers out there with more power, but this dryer gets it done with the comb attachment that comes with it. Even the kinkiest, curliest hair I’ve come across has bowed down to this dryer in less than a half-hour. The comb attachment takes a bit to get used to, but it is fantastic for getting hair straight. Already love the dryer you are using? Most brands have separate attachments, or there are generic attachments that can be purchased to fit your dryer. Keep in mind – blow-drying your hair like this is not about body, but if pin-straight hair is what you are after, this is it!
~~~ Erinread Erin's bio
