I read an article a while ago about how to achieve waves in your hair that didn’t look super perfect, and avoided the “glamour shots” look that is so not desirable. For those of you that didn’t grow up in the subarbs around Toronto, Glamour Shots was this boutique/salon/photo shop that briefly set itself up in malls in Canada I believe during the 90’s, or sometime near there. This was when looking like a model or actress was a female fantasy, and getting done up at the photo boutique was supposed to be as close as you can get to “looking” like a Hollywood siren. Only the makeovers were very laughable. Just overdone make-up, and very tight spiral curls, and unflattering bedroom clothes that seemed to add ten pounds to your body and face. Maybe because 10 pounds is close to the amount of make-up they smeared on a client.
Anyways, getting back onto topic, for many years after the fad, I’ve adored texture and wave, and have used curling irons to occasionally fulfill my need for wavy hair drama. I resorted to using a thicker barrel curling iron, so that the waves would seem more natural. But the results were still quite done up, and larger curls sometimes meant less defined pretty waves. What I craved was that look you get with hair that is naturally wavy, like you had just gotten out of bed, and it was effortlessly full of texture and drama. Mermaid waves, as it is called. This is impossible to get with a hot iron. The only way I could get mermaid waves was to use sea salt spray (I make my own), then tie my hair into tiny little buns and wait for them to dry. The problem with this was that it took a lot of time to dry without damaging heat from a dryer. The solution was to get curls while sleeping, when no one would see me in this altered state of scrunchied strangeness. By using soft small scrunchies to hold my hair in buns, I was able to sleep after sea salting my hair, and I would wake up with gorgeous flow-y curls that were messy and natural.
How to use scrunchies for natural heatless waves:
1. Use them to hold your buns! After spraying sea salt spray evenly in you hair (check out my homemade sea salt spray recipe), twist your hair into a couple of tiny LOOSE buns. I usually do four buns for more defined curls, but you could also do one big bun…tie down your buns with your scrunchies!
2. Go to sleep and let the night do its wonders. Because of a looser bun and soft scrunchies, this curling way is actually comfortable enough to sleep in.
3. In the morning remove the scrunchies to reveal a natural curly wave, not overly done up and hot-iron looking at all! I feel this curl looks best after 2 days, when it has had time to relax. Enjoy the texture and wave, and don’t let anyone know your curls aren’t natural!
Dreamy Reveries: a journal of make-up and fashion 