Hair Styling For Beginners

Part V: Swept Volume For Longer Hair

By Coreen Clark
( © 1997 )

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


Swept Hair P(how)
R(end)
At last, my hair is starting to get long! By "long", I mean anything past the shoulders. At its longest point in the back, my hair is about 4" below the shoulders, but does tapper up to the bangs which are shortest. The bangs are about shoulder length. For those who are impatient like I was, I figured it out... using the general average of 6"(153mm) of hair growth per year, it works out to about 1/8"(3mm) a week, or approximately 1/64"(0.5mm) per day! Always remember though, that whenever you do curl your hair, no matter what the starting length, it will appear shorter than if it were left straight.

An interesting note about long hair is that the hair ends can literally be years older than the root! Extra care in hair maintenance must be used, be it in milder shampoos, or using a gentle touch when washing or combing and brushing. You will probably find that you'll need to start using intensive or oil treatments to prevent split ends, and eliminate any snagging when combing, especially if you style a lot. Regular trimming will also prevent split ends and keep your mane looking full.

For this style, we will use a gel styling product, a volumizing hair dryer, and electric hot rollers. Different techniques could be used if, for instance, you are able to get away with a lighter hold product. A regular dryer or combi dryer could be substituted as the dryer, and a regular, large barrelled curling iron (curling tongs) would produce the same results as the hot rollers, but at the expense of time and arm fatigue!.

Sweep Cheeks!

Gel A close look at this style P(shown above) will show that all the hair is basically rolled back, and away from the hairline (where the hair and face meet) In realitity, the methods are very similar to the short hair "Curly Cute" covered in Part III. The main differences are the hair is dried first, and the curlers on the sides are rolled holding them vertically rather than horizontally. The rolling can take a bit to get used to, but like always, it will get easier with practice!

After washing and conditioning, or at least wetting the hair, gel is applied by squeezing small blobs onto the hand and working them through the hair with the fingers. Go in sections at a time and don't try to do all the hair at once with one big blob! If anything, error on the side of "not enough" rather than "too much". Comb the gel through with a wide toothed comb.

Volume
Dry Use the hair dryer, without the volumizing attachment first, to give the hair an initial drying. Start with high speed and temperature but always keep the dryer at least 8"(20mm) away from your hair to prevent damaging it. Bend your head over so your hair hangs forward, and keep the dryer orientated so that it always is pointing down the hair shaft. Not only will this maximize the volume effect, but will also help the hair shine by keeping the hair's cuticle (scaly layer) smoothed down.

When the hair is half dry, switch to low speed and heat, and snap on the volumizing attachment. The exact state of dryness at which to make this change can be hard to judge or get the same everytime! It can account for why you get different results each time, if you were only using this appliance for your style. In our case, we will be adding a third step of hot rollers, so it isn't as critical.

The fingers of the volumizer attachment spread the heat out over a larger area, and focus it to the roots. Getting the roots dry first ensures the hair stands up as much as possible for maximum volume! With the head still forward work in rows starting at the base of the neck and work side to side. Rotate the fingers in the hair about a ¼ turn to wrap the root around them, then lift them straight out. Work the rows to the front of the head, repeating until your hair is dry.

Things can get a little frizzy after this, so you can finish off by combing the fingers through the length of the hair to smooth and shine it. Always go against the "grain" or the way your hair naturally falls, or you will loose the volume just created. Let the hair cool before flipping your head back up.


Front Side

With the 1¼" hot rollers warmed up before hand, we start by rolling sections all around the hairline in front. Start at the top of the forehead, then go down each side towards the ears, rolling each towards the back of the head. This takes five rollers for me. You may have noticed I have one roller on top that is rolled to the side rather than back. This is just a little personal variation I found helped me. I needed to break up the pattern slightly... all back was too much for my face shape, and a bit of a side part usually looks better on me, no matter what the style. The point is, feel free to experiment and adapt things to your own personal needs!

Once the front hairline is complete, start the next, and following rows directly behind the last, rolling in the same manner. When you get to the back of the head you may be running out of hair that is left to roll! Not to worry... just continue similarly with what you have. You could end up with only a couple of curlers going down the center of the back of the head at this point.

The curlers need only stay in a few minutes, but I like to wait until I've finished my makeup. Not only do they keep the hair out of my face while I work, they have completely cooled by the time my makeup is finished. This means I don't have to hold each curl to let it cool once unrolled, before unrolling the next.

When all the curlers are out, bend your head forward again and brush through wtih a skeleton brush. These brushes bend if they encounter a snag. Don't force the brush through it, but remove it by brushing from the bottom of the hair below snag, back up to where it was. Before tipping my head back again, I like to spritz with a little hairspray for "ultimate" volume!

After that, it's the usual tweeking and poofing, followed by a final mist of hairspray, before you're ready to hit the town and turn a few heads! Next time we'll offer some variations to the three hair length styles we've covered so far, and cover some miscellaneous items not yet touched upon. See you then!

Pb (to finished style)


Visit Coreen's web page (Updated June 1/97) or send an email!


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