Tip: Creating Waves

For as much as I love beauty products, I consider myself to be somewhat hair-styling challenged.  I did the perm, big bang thing during middle/high-school, but for the most part keep my styling routine to a minimum.  Granted, I have about 20 shampoos and conditioner at any given time in the shower, boxes of styling products, and the latest and greatest ionic tools, but if I have to spend more than 10 minutes (blow drying time included), I start to get antsy.  I've even been trying to take top stylists' advice to wash your hair as least often as possible (not working helps, but I can't get up to the recommended week), just so I don't need to deal with styling it. 

However, there are those times that call for a little something extra, and just love the look of long loose waves/curls.  My experiences with curling irons haven't been too great.  They've involved either curling my bangs in the late 80s/early 90s that involved cans of hairspray, or somehow burning my neck.  But always, always, they've involved a little crimp at the ends.  I hate that little crimp.  So I found a way to get rid of it, and it's so simple that it's genius.  Instead of opening the clamp, wrapping hair around the barrel, then closing the clamp - just don't use the clamp at all.  Some people actually use tools to remove the clamp, but it works just as well to wrap hair around the closed iron all together.  Your hair will need to be long enough to wrap around the barrel at least a couple of times while keeping a tight grip with your fingertips on the ends.  I've used this technique a bunch of times now, and have yet to burn my fingers, so don't worry too much about that.  And the best part?  Use enough hairspray or styling product, and the waves look even better a bit messed up the next day.  So no need to restyle.