How to get more body from a blow dry

How does your stylist create so much more volume…

To understand this you need to first understand what a ‘blow dry’ is and does.

There is two ways in which we manipulate the shape of hair. Heat or the drying process and further more a combination of the two to maximise the effect.

Heat styling…

Is by far the quickest and easiest way to manipulate your look. Using hot tongues, wands, straightening irons, rollers etc. You can have a new look in a short amount of time.

Tips

What ever is heated should then be cooled, when you heat hair up it becomes soft and flexible allowing you to change shapes. Though playing with and dressing your hair whilst its still warm will reduce the effect greatly, not always a bad thing but worth noting.

Allow time for your hair to cool properly by structuring your getting ready time. Do your heat work as your first task and dress your hair as your final task before your ready to leave. The longer the better.

To achieve stronger looks still, exaggerate the cooling by pinning your work up after each section. Though results form this can be very intense and isn’t for everyone.

Pro’s

Time saving, this is why your stylist may often opt for heat styling if you haven’t booked specifically. But also it is where our most up to date looks live. Body and wave are there but not over blown, giving more lived in careless textures that are more common in todays wanted styles

Con’s

Durability. Of course with hair there is always exceptions to the rules as there are some magical hair types around. But for the most of us heat styling begins to leave from the moment it’s done. Fine for small portions of your day but not much more. And for some unlucky hair types not even that.

To battle this is to embrace it. Pin your hair up in areas to give your hair interest when the rest has dropped. Or manipulate occasionally throughout the day in the toilet mirror and flipping your hair from side to side, twiddling you fingers, excepting that each toilet visit you’ll have to get creative.

Extra tips

Thorough washing… Oily hair doesn’t heat styling well and last a short amount of time. If your planning on being fancier with todays blow dry use the best shampoo you have and spend longer scrubbing away. The cleaner the better. Better still you could use a deep clarifying shampoo, we like “Davines, Solu” to completely rid of build up

Heat styling sprays can firm up your results and take responsibility of your hair alone. We like “Davines, No gas spray”

 

Wet too dry

Now this can be a bit trickier and more time consuming but comes with its benefits. Styling hair from curly to wet temporarily changes the shape of your hair from the core to the surface so the full strand is acting in the same manner. Unlike heat styling which is predominantly surface styling at the core is fighting back, hence styles dropping quicker.

Tips

Without getting to nerdy, these techniques are shaping the inner hair bonds which are separated when wet which with fuse them into a new shape once the the hair is dry. The more tension and less movement the stronger the results.

By far the strongest result is wet set rollers, rarely used now as they take time and practise and also give that iconic vintage look that isn’t for us all. But they result is the most extreme and long lasting (like days!) given the lack of movement and the tightness. To achieve this the hair is wrapped and pinned on wet set rollers, on wet hair, as neat and tight as possible. Often with a setting lotion. Then the hair is left to dry or covered with a hairnet and a hood dryer applied.

The quickest and easiest is simply drying your hair upside down. We’ve all tried it but its the same principle. Your bonds are being set in a different position to the norm giving you extra long lasting body on the root. To achieve better results use a root boost (we like Davines, Volu) and make sure your roots are totally 100% dry and cool before lifting your head back up

The Blow dry

In between is of course the ‘blow dry’. Which can take practice and plenty of tips from your hairdresser. But to touch on a few points….

  • Know where your starting wetness level is. Different hair types need more or less water in them to start some need to be wet and some almost on the cusp of dry before gabbing the brush. Experiment with a few or easier still ask your hairdresser

  • Find the right product for you want to achieve it may take a bit of trial and improvement or ask your stylist what they would use and try that first

  • Use as many clips as it takes. Your hairdresser may only use one or none at all but doing your own is far more fingers and thumbs so make your life as easy as possible.

  • Go brush shopping and use more than one size if needed. If you’ve had the same bent to bits brush since your teenage years it may be time to treat yourself. We would struggle to use that one too. With many haircuts there can be different lengths in different areas. You may want something smaller for your fringe and underneath and something bigger elsewhere. What ever makes it easier. the size should be small enough to get control but big enough not to tangle

Pros

Your hair will last as long as your hair hair type potential will allow. You can go as big and loud as you like and be brutal with dressing out to match your finished result to your requirements.

Cons

Its fussy business. And often not worth the effort for a busy lifestyle. It can take years for hairdressers to learn good wet to dry techniques so if you try and fail, don’t feel to bad. Just ask a hairdresser to do it for you.

extra tips:

Try using a mixture of the two. An easy root lift technique with drying your hair upside down. Then grab your favourite heat styler for the rest.

Conclusion

There is some things techniques that unless hair becomes on hobby level to you it may not be worth the effort. But simple discipline’s like making sure your hair is super clean, then fully dry and cooled will make a big improvement to your normal routine.