Hair Styling For Beginners

Part II: Products and Appliances

By Coreen Clark
Subscribers can also read Part one | Part two| Part three | Part four |Part five |Part six |

In this installment, we continue by examining some of the various paraphernalia out there for hairstyling. Let's jump right in!

PRODUCTS

Your typical drugstore has a bewildering assortment of products to hold your style. It's hard to know where to start, so I just picked one of the big name brands and started experimenting. Here's a general run down of most of the main types. The idea is to find the minimum level of hold that will keep the style over the required amount of time. This will vary from person to person. A lot depends on your hair type, and how radical you want the style to be from the way your hair naturally falls. Hey! You might need Crazy-Glue for some styles! Some of the items are shown in the accompanying photo.

Mousse (A) - comes out as a foam, so can be used on wet or dry hair. It gave the least hold of all but lived up to its claim of being soft to the touch. It didn't give me enough hold for most of the styles I tried and its longevity was poor. Of course, you might just find it's fine!

Spray Gel (B) - is easily applied with its built in pump. It offered medium to firm hold but, you guessed it, was not so soft feeling. This is the one I have used the most and it lasts well.

Melting Gel (not shown) - gives the most hold. It's very thick so you squeeze it out of its tube, spread it over your fingers, and work it through the hair. I'm sure you've realized that it doesn't have much softness. I've been moving more towards it, especially when I know I'll be out for at least 12 hours!

Hair Sprays (C,D,E) - come in similar varieties. Some are regular hold (E) for a final lighter set, relying on the previous styling product to do most of the work. It will let you do some final styling with it before it dries. The firm hold shown (D) provides better hold with less time for tweaking before it dries. Maximum hold (C) is really meant as a final set and doesn't let you fool around with any more styling. On the other hand, in some cases, it can be used all by itself to make a number of styles!

You'll have to find what combination of all these products works the best for you. Fortunately, most of the items are quite inexpensive. At present, I'm starting to like the melting gel with regular hold hair spray. You never want to apply too much hair spray, or you could end up with the dreaded "helmet head"! Just a light mist all over should work.

CURLERS

Curler come in many forms and sizes and basically perform two functions. Obviously, as the name implies, they can make your hair curly! Less known, perhaps, is their aspect of adding volume. What's volume you might say? It's making your mane larger, more "puffed out", to make it appear that it occupies a bigger volume of space! This is accomplished by trying to get the hair to stand perpendicular to the scalp, at least at the end closest to the root. Curlers do this by the size of their radius. Ideally, the hair will rise straight up to where it meets the curler, then curve around it.

The bigger the curler, the higher it rises before it curves, and the more volume you'll get. It's a trade off. Small curlers, say of less than 1" diameter, create more and tighter curls, but less volume, and bigger curlers are just the opposite. With the huge "jumbo" curler available today, up to 3 to 4" in diameter, you'll get ultimate volume, but the curl will be reduced to a "wave" effect that is quite pleasant!

Depending on how many, and what size you buy, curlers could be the most economical route to follow. There are many kinds available and just about any kind will work. It's just a question of how easy they are to put in and take out, and drying time. The cheapest are the old style that "Ma" used to wear and are still available… you know, the ones that are a wire spring covered with plastic netting and a round "brush" up the middle. The brush part sticks through the netting to grab the hair. They come with plastic pins but I had a terrible time trying to make them stay put! Next cheapest are the plastic rollers, some of which come with plastic snap on covers that really hold things in place, but take longer to dry. With both the kinds mentioned here, I found I had to be careful that I didn't melt them if using a hair dryer to speed things up!

Much better are the newer Velcro curlers. They come in all the sizes, including the new jumbo size for "today's" styles. Their best feature is the ease in which the roll up can be started… just stick the end of the hair to the Velcro and go! Once rolled, they may even stay put on their own. I found I liked the added security of using flat spring clips like salons use. I found I was forever bashing into door frames, etc. forgetting that I now had a "bigger" head! They took the heat just fine, but their draw back is that it's mildly harder to get them out. Because the hair sticks to them, you must be very gentle as you unwind them, pulling the hair off as you go. A very small amount of the curl gets lost due to this.

When putting in a curler you normally don't want to use a section of hair much wider than the curler. In order to get the best volumizing effect, you don't want to use a section that is too deep or else the hairs furthest from the curler will be lying down, instead of standing up! Take the section of hair and pull it so it stands straight up from the head… this is where the body contorting comes in! Comb the section straight. Depending on the styling technique, you might apply a styling product at this point. Try to get the very end of the hairs to wrap first by placing a finger across the whole roller. If you don't do it well enough, these ends will actually get folded the opposite way, producing a kink. Keep the curler tight and roll it right up to the scalp and pin or clip.

APPLIANCES

Regular curlers do work great but generally make it longer for the hair to dry. In my situation this has not been a problem because it takes me two hours to do my makeup! If this is not your case you may want to look at some of the electric appliances available. Refer to the photo for some examples.

Curling irons (A) - have been around for a long time and still work fine. The biggest change over the years has been the size of the barrel and the resulting curl. The one on the left is older with a smaller barrel while the one on the right is the newer larger size. Due to the heat, it's easy to make sumptuous curls with them, but you must do them one at a time keeping your arm above your head. I found it too time consuming and physically tiring. I still carry one for fixing the odd curl, or for livening up a style that has started to fall.

Electric Heated Curlers (not shown) - most women swear by these (me too!). They have all the advantages of regular curlers along with the best features of the curling iron. Your hands are free once they are in, and they can work quickly. Some girls start taking the first roller out right after the last has been put in! The longer the curlers are left in, the more pronounced the curl. The draw back... price! The cheapest are the hard plastic type and have bumps to help roll the hair. Using product along with these won't effect them. On the high end are the rollers with a felt-like gripping surface, which helps get the roll-up started, as well as being gentler on the hair.

Combi-stylers (B) - are hair dryers with various attachments for styling. The one shown here is low wattage; 300W, which is better for styling as it damages the hair less due to heat. The draw back is it can take quite long to get the hair initially dry. It comes with a brush attachment for styling. It has the same draw backs as the curling irons but you can dry and style in one operation. The rigid and sparse bristles allow space for the hair to plump up creating a volumizing effect. It could be your "all in one" styling appliance but I found I needed it in combination with regular curlers. More volume! More volume! I found the "curling iron" attachment that came with it was useless for me.

Power hair dryers (C) - come in different wattages; 1500W, 1600W and 2000W are common. They will dry the hair quickly... too quickly if you're not careful! Heat damages hair, but helps set the styling product. It is best to use one with different heat settings, starting with full power at a distance, for the minimum time possible. When the hair gets to being damp, switch to the lower setting for styling. Some have a cool setting which locks in the volume once dry. Newer on the market are the "volumizing" hair dryers like the one shown. It has an attachment with long fingers that direct the drying action right to the base of the hair where the volume is created. You want to use it against the direction your hair naturally lies, with or with out styling product. At present, melting gel and a volumizing dryer, followed with electric curlers, is the ticket for me!


Now that we have the prerequisites out of the way, we're ready to start styling! Next time, we'll show you the step by steps in creating some basic hair styles!


Check out Coreen's web page! Boost my hit count, and tell me what you think!


Back to Transgender Forum's home page