PREVIOUS ARTICLE
On my birthday, I got a blow-out at a salon, and my hair was voluminous and silky and glamorous. I felt so good all day! But when I try it at home, it’s flat and messy. So, I asked my hair-stylist friend Reagan to reveal the secrets to doing a perfect blow out at home…
You’ll need:
* Round brush (I like this one by Ibiza).
* A good hair dryer with a nozzle. A good hair dryer is the best product you can have. If you’re going to invest in any hair tool, I’d invest in a good blow dryer more than anything else.
* 3 products: argan oil, mousse and volumizing spray.
* Rubber bands or clips or whatever else you’d like to hold your hair up.
Reagan’s steps to a perfect blow out:
Photos 1-5: After showering, towel dry your hair to get all the extra water out; then put in your products. For a voluminous blow-dry, put in mousse (I like SachaJuan medium hold mousse) throughout your hair, roots to end. Then apply a volumizing spray (I like Oribe Maximista thickening hair spray) at the roots and a little argan oil at the ends for heat protection. For the argan oil, put it from the chin down.
Photo 6: Once your products are applied, rough dry your hair with a hair dryer. Rough drying means that you use your hands and no brush. (There’s no point in trying to create shape while you’re hair is sopping wet. Hair takes shape from damp to dry, NOT wet to damp—so you don’t want to waste your time and effort at this point, and it can take away a lot of volume if you overwork the hair.) Rough dry it almost entirely, like 80%. Focus on the roots and blow dry upwards, since you want volume and don’t want the hair to be slicked to your head.
Photo 7: Next, divide your hair into clean sections. You don’t want them to be too big or messy; they shouldn’t be wider than the width of the brush or taller than the depth of the brush. Put everything into a high bun, except for the back section.
Photos 8-9: Start with the back section of your head, using a really good hair dryer with a nozzle. TENSION is the most important thing to get a really smooth blow-dry. Starting with the roots, wrap your hair around the brush once entirely. The first time I wrap the hair around the brush, I don’t go all the way to the ends—I start with the roots, then mid shaft, and then the ends. (So, say I have a piece of hair sectioned off and that’s what I’m working on, I make sure that the roots are dried first with the brush, and then I make sure that the mid shaft is dry, and then I make sure the ends are dry.) When pulling the brush through my hair, I’m always doing it in an upwards motion—that way, you get curl and volume. If you’re pulling it straight down, you’re losing volume and curl.
Photo 10: Then I basically work my way all around the head in tiers—the bottom and then the next row and the next row above that.
Photos 11-12: Once I get to the crown, I’m left with the crown area and the front, like U-shape. Now you’re really focusing on volume—you want the top section to have the most volume, so be sure to dry it in an upwards motion.
Photo 13: Once everything is dry, roll each of the top sections back up in the brush and blast with cool air until it’s completely cooled off. Twist your hair in the brush very gently without pulling too much to give it a little curl.
Photo 14. If you don’t have bangs, blow dry everything upwards and back; and then after your hair is completely dry, you can create your part wherever you want. If you part your hair first, when you’re hair is still wet, you’ll lose a lot of volume and be forced to wear it in that part. NOTE: If you do have bangs, you want to section those off before you even rough dry. If you dry those upwards, they’re going to look crazy. Just comb them downward and blow dry those first.
Aren’t the final results beautiful? I’d LOVE to have hair like this every day. Thank you so much, Reagan!
P.S. 15 more hair tutorials, including a mermaid braid and three twisted buns…
(Photos by Alpha Smoot for Cup of Jo. Styling and modeling by Reagan Baker of Hairdresser on Fire. She’s wearing Sephora Cream Lip Stain #3 and Essie Hip Anema)
58 COMMENTS