Let’s Roll

LET’S ROLL!

According to the December issue of Vogue, the Hair Roller is back in all its glory. With a few new techniques up its sleeve. Here’s the way to achieve a “set” in a snap.

1. To avoid a too-set look, choose the large-size rollers. The wider the roller, the looser the look.
2. Use a treatment product, section hair, and pull it out at a 90º angle from your head, wrapping ends around the roller, and rolling into position.
3. Cover hair with a net. Yes, a hairnet!
4. Sit under a bubble or helmet dryer. Or look for a bonnet you can attach to the nozzle of a blow-dryer.
5. Dry for 10 minutes only.
6. Allow a “cool-down” period. Extremely important to allow “the molecular expansion of heating to reverse, for a longer-lasting set.” Whatever.
7. Remove the rollers, shake your head, and you’ll have springy, soft curls.

Vogue says there is nothing “stiff or mumsy” about this “set.” I’m about to see.

Here’s what I did, ignoring some of the advice. I gave my hair a restorative treatment first (Ojon), then shampooed. I didn’t apply a smidgen of heat, just set the very wet hair around very big rollers. Many of them. I didn’t use a gel, a mouse, or a styling lotion. I don’t have a helmet dryer or a hood here, so I wooshed my hand-held dryer around my head, keeping it moving forward and back, upward and down for about 10 minutes. Surprisingly, it dried. After allowing 20 minutes (probably too long) for a cool-down, out came the rollers.

Whoa, there, big fella! I had more curls, more bounce, than humanly possible. Now that my hair is shorter, the weight wasn’t pulling the curls down. And, obviously, the rollers I used on the crown hair were too small. Because things were a little toooooo poufy up there. But I shook my head. I finger-combed through it. I applied a little drop of Ojon Leave-in Glossing Cream to it because I suspected electricity would soon take over. Then I brushed it. And – magic. I liked it! Soft, silky, bouncy and full, my hair had LIFE!

The curls weren’t locked into a “helmet-head” look, some went this way and that, some curved softly under. And the “set” feels like it might stick around for a few days. Because it’s got oomph.

And you know what? The whole thing was much faster than if I had blown it dry, then tried to style it with a round brush, then stuck in a few rollers, and then got – not much.

Try it. You might like it.