One of the reasons I stopped curling my hair for so long was because I didn’t like it when it didn’t look natural. If I was going to put all that work into my hair, I wanted it to look like the curls were there all along, not just created using an iron.
I once had a friend who spent hours working on her hair, but her curls didn’t start until about three inches down. From there, they went into massive barrel curls not waves or soft twists. She looked cute but it didn’t look natural. You knew she had to spend time achieving the end result.
I want curls that go from root to tip, and I wanted to make sure I knew how to do it. Now I do, so can you!
Root to tip spiral curls have a whole lot of body as well as character, and they’re hard to get for a couple of reasons. First, I’m scared of getting the curling iron too close to my scalp (for obvious reasons). Second, my hair is long and that makes it heavy. Hair with a lot of weight naturally pulls curls out and makes it harder to keep the style at the top than at the bottom.
There are ways to get around the frustrating parts of heavy hair so you get the style you want. It will take a little bit of practice for everyone, but even more for people who have super long or naturally thick hair.
Keep in mind that it might not work the first time, and you’ll have to give it a few goes before you really get the style you’re looking for, but it’s entirely possible to get root to tip curls.
Start by separating out a piece of hair that is about 1 inch or less. You need to hold it about an inch away from your scalp as well. That’s where you will either clamp with the iron or start to wrap it around your curling wand. Also, make sure your iron is standing straight up next to your head. To get the curls you want, you have to go vertical.
With the hair held in the clamp, quickly turn the iron toward your head for less than a half turn. Stay like that for about one second, and then move down an inch or so. You’ll either have to release the clamp some or unwind the barrel of your curling wand. Keep doing that every few inches until you’ve reached the end of the strand.
If you’re worried about it falling out, twirl the curl around your finger once it’s cool. Don’t pull down though. You want it to keep its shape so it doesn’t weigh the hair down at the top of your head.
Once the iron is out of your hair entirely, push upward on the curls right at the scalp line and add a little volume to the roots. Then, you can hairspray it in place so the top has some weight and it doesn’t fall out. You don’t want to run your hands through your hair though. Doing this basically means your curls will be too heavy for your scalp to hold up, and clearly we don’t want that!
Once you get into the swing of this, you’ll have way more going for you than just heavy, weighted down curls. You’ll have yet another way to keep the bounce in your hair and the twist in your style. Oh, and the best thing of all is they go from root to tip which I think is something we’re all secretly after!