Imagine spending the time and effort to curl your hair, probably for a party or some other event, only to find out when you are done that it’s an outright disaster. Maybe the curls are frizzy, or some pieces stick out, or the curl only just lasts a few minutes. That’d be absolutely infuriating. To prevent these from happening, here are some things you should avoid when using curling irons.
1. Failure to prepare your hair
A good curl is a product of a prepared hair. After all, the hair is what’s going to be curled. So, everything starts with setting the hair in the right condition for the curling iron. To do this, you should first apply a heat protection product to the hair to prevent damage from the curling iron’s heat. After using the heat-protecting agent, you should completely blow-dry the hair. The essence of blow-drying the hair is to close the hair cuticles, hold the curls in place, and prevent the damage that moisture brings when the heat of the curling iron is applied. For hairs that cannot holds curls, misting the hair with a little hairspray is recommended before using the curling iron.
2. Curling in the wrong direction
There is a right and wrong way of curling your hair. The way you curl your hair will be determined by the way you part your hair before curling, but whichever way you choose, you should curl the hair away from your face. On the right side of your face, you should wind the hair down and around the curling iron wand in a clockwise manner. On the left side of our face, do the same thing with the wand in an anti-clockwise manner.
3. Twirling the curling iron instead of twirling your hair
If you’re twirling the iron instead of your hair, you will end up with a barrel curl or flip curl instead of the curly wave you desire. The proper way is to hold the curling iron in such a way that the hot barrel faces the floor, then wrap your hair around it by starting from the root to the tip. That way, your curls will last longer and you get more volume at your hair roots. Before you start winding your hair around the barrel, do not twist the hair at all because doing that will prevent even distribution of heat through the hair.
4. Using a large-sized curling iron
It is generally believed that you need all the different sizes of curling irons to get the different range of loose or tight curls. However, that’s not really the case. One size of curling iron (especially a one-inch barrel size) is sufficient to get whatever curling wave you desire. The trick is this; the looser the curling wave you want, the larger the section of hair you should take.
5. Curling too much hair at once
Larger hair sections give you looser curling waves but taking too much hair at once for curling is counterproductive. What happens if you do so is that the heat from the curling iron will not be evenly distributed through the hair leading to short-lived curls. So, ensure you wrap just the right amount of hair around the curling iron barrel to achieve the most natural look you desire.
6. Buying just any curling iron
To achieve the best curls, it is important to get the quality curling iron that works on every type of hair. Buying just any curling iron that’s on sale or on clearance is not advisable. You should get curling irons with ceramic barrels and marcel irons because spring hinge irons can cause unwanted creases in the hair curl. Marcel irons are also good substitutes for wand-like irons that do not have clips because you can hold it by the ends while you wind your hair around the iron.
7. Holding your hair in the iron for too long
Curling irons can be as hot as 230 degrees centigrade, more than twice the boiling of water, meaning it can damage your hair when exposed to it for too long. You should regulate the heat level of the iron based on the texture (thickness, coarseness etc.) of your hair and only leave your hair wrapped around the curling iron for a few seconds.
8. Touching your hair as soon as you’re done curling
Just because you’re done curling the hair doesn’t mean you can touch it right away. Allow the curl to set properly by giving the hair a couple of minutes to cool down. Failure to do that may make the curls droop or cause unwanted frizz.