You can’t go wrong with curls. But not all of us are blessed with natural ringlets, like such celebs as Andie MacDowell, Tracee Ellis Ross, or Taylor Swift. A hot tool can help spiral your tresses, but this is a task sometimes easier said than done. Curls may wind up looking uneven, and there is also a chance they won’t hold—a total bummer if you’re dreaming of perfect holiday hair. But master hairdresser and ghd stylist Lora Angelica has fixes for the top five mistakes people make when curling their hair
Not prepping the hair
Jumping out of the shower, drying your hair, and going straight into curling? That might not be a good idea, according to the expert. “Proper preparation is the be-all and end-all for curls,” says Angelica. “Avoid products that weigh your hair down. Instead use a light conditioning spray and a heat protector, like Curly Ever After from ghd, which has magnesium and corn starch to help the curl stabilize and reduce flyaways.”
Curling sections that are too large
Once hair is prepped and blow-dried, consider your sectioning technique. Angelica advises working with small segments. The larger your sections, the more likely your hair will come out with uneven curls or ones that don’t hold. “The heat can’t reach all of the hair when you wrap a large section around a curler, so it’s not possible to shape it evenly,” she explains.
Skipping the cool down
You know that feeling of your hair being so hot when you take the curling iron out that you almost burn yourself? Apart from the fact that you should never style your hair at temperatures above 185 degrees, because applying such high heat risks permanent damage, you should also not let the hot curl hang out right away. “After styling, it’s important to let your hair cool down completely,” Angelica says. “Don’t touch your hair for a while. For more durability, you can clip the curl in place with a creaseless clip until it has cooled down.”
Touching your hair too much
Angelica’s previous tip has a coda: After manipulating hair into the style you’d like it, just stop! “Don’t touch your hair too much, as this reduces the tension in the hair and the curls disappear more quickly.”
Using the wrong tool for the style
Want beach waves? It may sound strange, but you should actually be using a straightener, Angelica says. For disco hair like Diana Ross, she says a small curling iron with a diameter of around 1.5 inches is a good choice. “For classic, voluminous styles with a blow-dry effect, I prefer to use a curling iron with a large diameter. It’s very easy, just wrap a strand of hair around the curling iron, hold the hair for five to seven seconds depending on the hair texture—and done!”
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