The Ultimate Beauty Guide

For straight-haired girls, getting a perfectly tumbled curl look is often a labor of love. It may technically take less time than for those with thick hair, but if you don’t get the hold process right, you’re weeping tears of failed hair misery half an hour later when all your good work drops before your eyes. As any stylist will tell you, though, there are ways around this — and with just a few small tweaks to your routine, it is possible to get perfect, flowing waves on your own. Read and repeat:

1. Build volume from the start. Straight-haired types should be doing this anyway, but it’s especially important to build in body from the get-go when you’re aiming for a curled effect. Having volume at the root area helps to achieve a perfectly tumbled effect. Volume-building shampoo and conditioner helps to form your style.

2. Start on unwashed hair. Most straighties will tell you that trying to curl on freshly washed hair is useless. You’ll need to add in much more curling cream or mousse than required, which weighs the hair down. If you’re curling for a night look, wash in the morning and don’t curl until you are getting ready for the evening, or if you’re aiming for an all-day wave effect, rollers are your answer.

3. Go old school. Hair rollers aren’t just some ’90s flashback — there’s still a really important place for them in the modern girl’s hair kit. For the reasons above, sleeping in rollers overnight guarantees a wearable, all-day hold in the morning. They’re also the solution if you’re aiming for that old Hollywood, big glamour wave look.

4. Always go the tonge. The flat-iron gives a magnificent curl effect, but unless you are have salon-perfect curling skills, you’ll get a much longer lasting style using a 1 ½-inch curling iron in small sections for more precise, tighter curls. Spritz each section with hairspray before you straight and afterwards to ensure maximum hold.

5. Learn to clip like a pro. A good stylist will work his or her way around your head by curling small sections and pinning each up with clips so that each completely cools while still in formation. If your hair can handle it, another round of hairspray while all sections are cooling in clips will help hold.

6. Get a trim. If your hair is completely refusing to curl or looking like a big barrel of frizz around your mid lengths to ends, your split ends could be the culprit. Hair that is regularly trimmed and healthy takes much better to a curl.