It usually starts with noticing a supremely confident woman (IRL or on Instagram”> rocking an amazing wavy bob haircut. Then you start idly Pinning photos of short hair to your inspiration board, and holding your hair up to imagine what you’d look like. These are all signs you’ve caught the haircut bug.
Over the course of 1 week, no less than 5 of my friends have cut their long hair into short bobs. I don’t know what’s in the air, but if you’ve caught it too then you might be exhibiting the above symptoms.
“I hadn’t gotten a cut in about six months and I felt like my waves were getting weighed down by the length and weight of my hair,” our Video Producer Grace explained. “The longest I had ever had my hair was a long bob, and I figured since summer is on the way it would be fun to see if I could pull off a shorter cut than I’d ever had!”
She scheduled an appointment with her curly hair stylist, Brooke Michie of Lyric Salon in Austin, and the nerves set in.
Of course Grace had nothing to worry about, her cut is fierce, just watch to see what happened.
Not only is Brooke an expert at cutting hair, but she’s also an excellent teacher to her clients, “Every time I see Brooke I learn a new styling technique or product trick,” Grace says. When I joined her at the salon on the day of her cut, I realized Grace was right. I learned many new styling techniques – apparently I’ve been doing it all wrong. I’m styling in the wrong part of my house, I’m using the wrong product, and I’ve never even heard of glazing.
First, turn down your water pressure
“I like to encourage people with looser textures or finer hair to turn the water pressure down on the shower head at the end of their shower,” The strong stream of water can often disrupt the curl pattern when you have wavy or fine hair. Allowing a light stream of water to flow over your curls helps them to clump.
Styling starts in the shower
According to Brooke, styling starts in your shower, “I recommend that people actually coddle the hair as they’re rinsing. Then squeeze it, release it, and move to the next side.” These steps can go a long way in encouraging your loose curls or waves to form.
Apply product in the shower
Once you’ve coddled (gentler than a scrunch”>, it’s time to apply your leave-in or styler, yes right there in the shower. “Whatever your step one is, whether it’s a spray, a glycerin-based product, whatever your favorite styler is, there are so many ways to do it depending on what your goals are, just make sure you apply it before you get out of the shower.”
Don’t scrunch, glaze
“Glazing is taking enough product to essentially coat the palms of your hands only, a light coating, and then gently swipe it over the surface area of very wet hair without applying pressure – no squeezing, scrunching, or praying hands.” That gives you a good initial distribution of product, especially for frizz-prone people. Then you can apply styler to the hair – whatever your favorite is – and scrunch it. Brooke prefers this method because “When you apply your product to wet hair then you have more control over the outcome.”
Bring back the hairspray
I stopped using hairspray years ago, but Brooke changed my view on the product when she chose to use hairspray on Grace’s waves. “Spray hairspray from about a foot away from the hair, lightly coating the hair. DevaCurl Flexible-Hold Hairspray is a flexible hairspray, water-soluble and workable, it doesn’t stink” Brooke said of her hairspray of choice. She likes it because it gives light, touchable hold on day 1, and can be refreshed with just water on day 2 and 3. “I love refreshing with straight up water in a mist bottle. If you don’t have that, just wash your hands, and glaze your hair with water. Touch it like a harp. Give it a scrunch and it’s good to go again.”
Grace’s gorgeous cut is giving me the urge to go from long to short again!
Let us know in the comments – have you caught the wavy bob bug?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more videos from us.
Read next: Can you pull off a short curly haircut?
