One thing I knew when I cut my hair is that I wanted it to have lots of volume. I’ve actually had short hair for most of my life, so I know very well that when it is a shorter length, it has a tendency to fall rather flat with hairs going in every direction, if I allowed it to have it’s way. I’ve had quite a few questions about how to achieve this volume (not going to lie though, it does NOT always look like this), so I thought I’d share that with you all.
1. Rag rolls! I’ve already shared a tutorial on how to rag your hair, so you can refer to that post, but there is a small difference. Since my hair is a bit graduated (ie, slightly shorter at the back), I can no longer roll up the hair at the back of my head (wish ya’ll could have seen me struggling). Instead, I have been doing about 4-6 rags (two-three on each side) at the front only.
2. I had to come up with a way to get the back pieces curly, so I figured pseudo-pin curls made the most sense. I roll 4 sections into little buns at the back of my head, fastening them in place with bobby pins. I have never been good at pin curls, mostly because I don’t do them enough, so it’s a bit of a mess when I do it. But since having intact curls is not the aim here, the messiness actually works better for this look. Don’t got nimble, dainty fingers? You’ll be okay!
3. After my hair is all pinned and rolled, I use this technique with a scarf so that everything stays in place while I’m sleeping. I highly suggest wearing a scarf on your head if ever you are sleeping with rags, rollers or pins in your hair; it keeps everything in place, and stops the hair from being all weird and frizzy when you wake up.
4. In the morning I take out my pins and rags, and then brush everything out so you get this bag, wavy, puff head. I will also add that the Wet Brush is amazing, which is honestly something I never thought I would say about a hair brush. Like the name ensues, you can use it to brush your hair while wet, but I also find it doesn’t break my hair or pull it, which was a major problem for me with all hair brushes.
5. Your hair might seem a bit too crazy and big right after taking everything out and brushing it, but it will start to weigh down shortly. I usually guide it do so (because I’m impatient) by running my fingers through it and smoothing it down with my hands. Sometimes the pieces at the back are a bit strange, so I’ll use my curling iron to get them moving in the right direction.
And that’s that! Pretty similar to how I use to curl my hair, but looks much different. This style should also hold for at least 2 days (maybe even 3, who knows!?). On the second day I use my curling iron just a wee bit to fix anything weird happening, but the volume is still there, which is all I really care about.
*see more beauty posts here