There's a way to keep curls from falling off the moment you walk out the door, and - spoiler alert - it's not hairspray. Hairdresser Adir Abergel tells us how to prevent the curls from spiraling.
1. Stop Conditioning. Or at least, go very, very, very light.
Most women condition their deep curly wig too much and the hair is too slippery to hold a curl, "says Abergel. This is the best way to get a more natural looking wig.
2 Prepare with mousse. If you think you are using too much mousse, you are applying the right amount. Take a mound the size of a baseball (or two if your wig is long) and saturate wet or dry hair from roots to ends. (Abergel loves John Frieda's luxurious, thick mousse.) The mousse contains alcohol, as does hairspray. Alcohol helps to remove as much moisture as possible, improving hair hold and curl.
3 Prepare more. Once your hair is 100% dry, take sections of one or two inches and spray them with hairspray (we like L'Oréal Paris Elnett's satin lacquer), working from the bottom up, before wrapping them around the iron.
4 Smart curl. Those would want or have a thin human hair wig should set the iron to 300 degrees. Coarse and thick hair can be up to 350. Regardless of the size of the iron (one inch is a pro favorite; we love the Amika 5P interchangeable curling iron), apply tension when you roll your hair, pulling the iron away from your face so that it feels tight, to distribute the heat evenly.
5 Clip. Here is the most important part: after curling your hair for five seconds, release the clip, slide the iron, and hold the roll against your head with a duck-billed metal clip. Wait at least five minutes and 15 minutes if you have time. Whatever you do, don't touch the curl and don't shake it when it's hot or you'll lose it, says Abergel.
6 Shake it. Once the hair has cooled down, remove the clip, let the head hang back and release the curls with your fingers. Leave the hair a little curlier than you prefer. No matter how you style it, the curls will drop slightly, so it's better to have the curls a little tighter than you normally would and let them loosen with gravity on the way to the event.
7 Finish with... You thought we were going to say hairspray, didn't you? No. Abergel uses a texturizing spray (like the Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray). Hair spray polymers tend to be too heavy for a finished curl and create weight by dropping them. Mind. Blown.
New York Times bestselling author Ayesha Fox writes sweet, fun, action-packed mysteries. Her characters are clever and fearless, but in real life, Ayesha is afraid of basements, bees, and going upstairs when it is dark behind her. Let’s face it. Ayesha wouldn’t last five minutes in one of his books.
Ayesha is best known for his Southern Ghost Hunter mysteries and for his Accidental Demon Slayer books.