From Bone-Straight to Ringleted Curls

I have struggled my whole life to curl my hair, no product and no utensil would ever hold the curl and not to mention I am completely 'hair challenged'. I have almost straight hair- straight enough that a quick run through with a straightener will give me the board straight look. A look that I have rocked for the last 20 somethin' years! After my last straightener died I decided to look into a Chi Flat iron, I had heard about curling with a straightener but I figured if I couldn't successfully curl my hair with a curling iron I couldn't do it with a flat iron.... WRONG TOTALLY WRONG!!!.

I am proud to say with the help of Pinterest and of course my favorite beauty blogs I have 'mastered' my own hair curling. Now I don't have to wait until my next hair appointment to have a bombshell blowout with curls included... I can do it myself and so can you. I have tried two techniques that are very similar and work wonders on stubbornly straight hair. I truly believe this can be done by anyone!!

1. First separate my hair into sections.
2. Starting with the section that is going horizontally from ear to ear (everything below that line); grab a chunk of hair (I use different size pieces of hair to get a more natural look) 
3. Begin to straighten from the root down towards the end (I am right handed so I hold the straightener with my thumb on top, ready to flip it). 
4. When you get to the place where you want the curl to begin, flip the flat iron 180 degrees or to where your fingers are now toward the ceiling (Your hair will be coming out of the top of the straightener). Make sure to guide your hair into the straightener (I hold onto the end with my free hand)
5. Now, slowly glide the straightener down the piece of hair (the slower you go- the tighter the curl).  

** If this does not give you the curl tightness that you want, (sometimes down here in the deep south the humidity is so bad I have to really make sure that my hair sits in that ringlet position hence technique number two). So try this:

1. Separate hair into sections 
2. Starting with that same section as listed above grab a section of hair and begin to straighten down the piece of hair.
3. When you get to the place that you want to start the curl, flip the flat iron over 360 degrees (Hair is now going to fall towards the ground like normal only it is wrapped around the straightener once...make sure you are guiding the hair to the other side of the straightener) and glide down the hair.
4. When you get to the bottom, don't let the strands of hair go all the way through, and re-curl up your section of hair to the base and hold for a few seconds. 
5. I then let the ringlet fall out (this technique always gives me Shirley Temple curls that are great for pulling out to loose curls)

This is using technique two and then running my hands through it to loosen the curls.

Posted in: Beauty, curly hair, hair, straight-to-curly