Big, Bouncy Waves Tutorial

While shampoo commercials and Asian soap operas standardize the look of poker-straight hair as beautiful hair making salons richer as girls avail of rebonding and hair straightening procedures, in last night's Hairspray show, I went the other way and lived with what my hair is naturally when air-dried - big, bouncy, and wavy - although a bit better than how you're all used to it.


me with Gabe Mercado, one of the actors, after the show

The hair is best on girls with naturally wavy hair with layers, as the layers can also add shape. It's also good if the hair is not rebonded or relaxed or chemically straightened. I used medium-sized rollers on this one but if I want more volume, I use large velcro rollers on the tops.

I started with washed hair (conditioner can be skipped especially if you're scared of conditioner could weigh your hair down, like I did). I blow-dried my hair until it's about 90% dry. For more volume, you could add a bit of mousse and continued blow-drying lifting my hair to produce more volume and shaping the hair with my fingers. After spraying my hair with a bit of curl-defining spray (or you could leave the hair a bit "damp" with the mousse), I set my hair in velcro rollers (thermal rollers are good too) and blow-dried my set hair to heat the rollers. As I waited for my hair to cool, I did my makeup.

When my hair has completely cooled, I removed the rollers. My hair is a bit toussled now, so to hold the style, this is when I applied mousse for hold and scrunched the ends for more curls. for definition, I used styling clay on the ends and on my bangs and lightly smoothed my hair to avoid messy strands. A spritz of hairspray (how fun!) and a shake of the head and I'm done. Velcro rollers add just body and define waves instead of curling the hair. The look is really soft waves without looking too 80's.