Curls can be spontaneous, curls can be sexy, curls can be cool. But for some reason a lot of you girlies are still having problems creating them in your own hair, which is why we decided to give a quick guide on the ‘how to’ and ‘what to use’ on curling.

Curling with Straighteners
This is probably one of the easiest and quickest ways of curling your hair – once you know how. It’s best to use a medium barreled straightener. The new GHDs are designed with a rounder barrel for curling, but don’t run out and replace yours – the old ones work just as well! Always work with dry hair when doing this, and use a firm hold hairspray after to keep the curls looking fresh. Okay, so now we know what we’re using, you’re probably wanting to know what to do. Well, take a small section of hair, we’d say about the thickness of your thumb, but bigger or smaller is up to you – experiment, the size will change the overall look. Now, clamp the straighteners onto the hair near the roots, as you would if you were straightening, then literally just twist the straightener so that as you pull the straightener down the section of hair, after the hair as been through the irons it is curling around the outside. Just pull the straightener down the hair in this way, and let it go, and you should have a curl. If you want a tighter curl, go slower, if you want a looser, more natural curl, go faster. This all sounds very complicated, I know, but I’ve included a couple of great videos at the bottom to show you how. And honestly, if you aren’t very good when you start, just practice. It’s easier to practice on others, but any practice will do – it get’s easier, I promise!

Curling Tongs and Wands
This is an easy but time consuming way to curl hair – but with a good curling wand, your curls can last all day. A curling wand is just a slightly tapered cylinder made of the same material as the plates on hair staighteners. It heats up just like them. To curl hair with one of these, simply wrap a strand of the hair around the hot wand, wait a couple of seconds, and let go. Curled! This is easy but can take a while, especially if you wrap particularly narrow strands of hair around. However, the great thing about curling wand is the tightness of the curls is totally upto you. If you want tighter curls, just wind the hair around narrowly, if you want them more natural wind the hair aruond the barrell more spaced out. Tongs are very similar, but have a clamp, so that you can clamp the end of the hair, then roll it up from the end, meaning you are much less likely to burn yourself! This means they’re very similar to the wand, and in some ways they are more versatile – you can buy huge barrelled tongs or very narrow ones, meaning your look can b completely down to you. Again this takes practice to get them looking right, but is much easier than using straighteners – though more time consuming, and you have to buy something other than your trusty straighteners.

Bendy Rollers and Ragging
For a slightly more old-school approach to curling, bendy rollers, or even more old-school, ragging, is a great way to acheive messy, natural looking curls, with little work. Bendy rollers generally come in a heater, so that before you use them they get hot, and help mould the hair. This means you generally use this from dry hair, but if you spray it down a little it’ll help the curls last longer. To use these just choose the size of each curl (as we said before, thumb size or a little thicker is about right) and then just wrap the hair around the roller, end first, hair over hair, and then bend the roller into a knot, so that it stays there. Repeat this until all your hair is in rollers, and then spray generously with a firm hold hair hairspray and leave until it is completer cool and dry. Then just take them all out, run your fingers through, and voila! Deliciously curled hair is very little effort. Ragging is very similar to using bendy rollers, and is what girls used to use in to 1900s and before to curl their hair. First things first, find an old sheet or pillow case, and rip into strips (I’d say about 1inch wide and between 6 and 10inches long). Then wash your hair as usual and run a blob of mousse through it – Paul Mitchell’s Sculpting Foam is perfect because it dosen’t make the hair feel too stiff – and begin to wind sections of the hair around the ‘rags’ like with the bendy rollers, and then tie the rags into knots all over the head. Leave your head of rags until the hair is completely dry (feel free to sleep in them or blast them with a hairdryer) and then untie all the knots and shake out your curls. Perfect curls overnight! And if your dont have any old sheets or bendy rollers, scrunched up tin foil makes great bendy rollers – and retains heat!

Because our explaining might not have been enough, and we’re still searching for Kelly’s digital camera, we found some great youtube videos to help us explain…

If you have any questions about curling, don’t hesitate to email us or get us on facebook! Love the Kelly Anza Team