Beachy Frizz

My hair is just getting to a good length where I am starting to collect pins with different hair tutorials and styles. I've been working on growing it out since August of 2012 (the last short cut):

Me on the right with my gorgeous friend Rae on her wedding day. 

Eventually I'd love to get back to this length where I can test out all manner of hair pins:

For now though I'm in that awkward in between length where it's too long for the short hair styles and too short for the long hair styles. It's hard not to just chop it all off. Must stay strong!

So in the meantime I'll have to show you other's hair pin tests (I'm sure when I get mine a little longer you'll see some epic Pinstrosities from my attempts).

For today's post I have a curly submission for you. This is one we've seen on the blog before (hence...Throwback Thursday).

The Original Pin

http://www.lovemaegan.com/2009/06/hair-tos-big-curls-with-tiny-buns.html

Beautiful beachy waves. Looks simple.

In our previous post, we showed results from three different submitters who tried this pin. Here are the results of their pin tests:

Today's submitter, Heather, sent us this story:

"Well, I have wavy hair. But I wanted beautiful beachy waves.  So I took to Pinterest for some tips. I found this tutorial and thought it was foolproof.  Well, turns out I was wrong…

I started with wet hair and sectioned it, twisted it, twisted it and twisted until it twisted back onto itself.  Then I used bobby pins to hold it in place.  And continued over my entire head.  I didn’t have time to sleep on it so I let it air dry.  I used a blow dryer on low and put a towel over my head to diffuse the air and keep it from getting frizzy.  When they felt dry I took the pins out.  See exhibit A…"

The Pinstrosity: Exhibit A

"My husband said, 'Wow. Brush it out.'  Well, I used my fingers like it said, and enter Exhibit B…"

The Pinstrosity; Exhibit B

"So NOT beachy waves.  Oh, did I mention I finished this 10 minutes before I had to go somewhere?  Needless to say I pulled it back.  It was too poofy to put in one pony so I had to put it into two, like I was trying to revive my 16-year-old-self… awesome.  Any advice?  Feel free to share as you will to prevent this disaster from happening to anyone else!"

As I'm no hair expert, I don't have any tips to offer. But we do have Emilee's know how! Here are some tips she has given from some of our various hair pins:

The hard truth, like we have said before, is not everyone's hair will do everything, and it definitely won't do it perfect the first time or otherwise.

Doing wet twisted curls with your finger and pins isn't always going to give you the same end results. Here is why. Variation. Every time you do it you may be pulling harder, pinning looser, taking smaller chunks, taking bigger chunks, inconsistency is the issue a lot of times. That is the other issue with Pinterest, did any of these pictures come with directions ON them? NO. Now if you are lucky enough to have had a link to go with your picture, and smart enough to follow that link, watch the tutorial video, and then follow those directions, you might have had a fighting chance. However if your hair is different than the tutor's, then you run into more trouble. Let's be real here also, nobody's hair is exactly the same...I have had clients whose hair does not work with heat, others who do not work without heat, others who had to wash it every single day  in order for it to do anything, and others who washed it once a week or it looked like a wig on chicken. Everyone's hair is different. 

Now that I have the hair pow wow over with, I CAN give you some tips to help out.

• Some pins you need wet hair, others need dry, look at the picture, does the original pin picture have nice tight twists on top of their head or do you see "fuzzies" sticking up everywhere? If you see an abundance of "fuzzies", there is a good chance the pinners hair is DRY. If it looks slick and clean is is most likely wet.
• Using a leave in conditioner will generally help with tame the"fuzzies" for when you take your hair out, but humidity is a WHOLE 'nother ballgame. 
• Leave it in over night. Most of these pins require you to sleep on them. Those of you who have thick hair, your hair will most likely NOT be dry in the morning. Like I said in a previous hair post, you  MUST blow dry it. Use the blow dryer gently on low heat low speed...gently. Too vigorously and you will look like you put your hand in a socket. No bueno. 
• Those of you with fine limp hair, this is tricky. You don't have a ton of hair and it generally doesn't have a lot of volume. I would put a silver dollar size of mousse in your roots before twisting it up, this should help add some volume. Also when you take it out tousle your roots with your fingertips while your head is flipped upside down, but don't shake like a dog. Too much will ruin the effect. Definitely use hairspray. 
• Section sizes, it's hard to tell you what size to take because everyone's hair thickness is different, but I would say thick haired people use 1" by 1" squares all over if you want good defined smaller curls. For bigger more wave like curls take bigger sections, but I wouldn't suggest anything bigger than 3" by 3" or you will have a problem with it not drying in time. 
• Another thing to think on: if you are sleeping on your do perhaps use a hair net or cap over it to add some security. Some of us aren't still sleepers. Food for thought.
• DON'T brush it out. Use your fingers to separate it. If you are desperate use a pick. Again, go GENTLY.
• In general you will almost never see a hair style like the styles on Pinterest that hasn't been touched up with some sort of curling iron/straightener/wig. It is just the way of the game. Just like photo shop and magazines they think no will notice and that everyone will think that's just how they look. The jig is up, America knows. A great tutorial can be found here: http://www.lovemaegan.com/2011/09/revisiting-no-heat-big-curls-w-twisted.html

The moral of the story is this: don't get discouraged. Make sure you have directions or someone who has done this before to maybe help you out, and figure out your hair; it's your hair, own it! Everyone's hair is different, and with that it will behave differently, so remember to take that into account. Don't be ashamed to do a two minute touch up. I'm not, and I am a hairdresser. -Emilee

Thanks to Emilee for her tips through these past two years! I hope they've helped some of you! For more Hair Style Pinstrosities or to go through and find more hair tips from Emilee, check out the rest of our Hairy Pins.