As we all know, lobs–or long bobs–are all the rage right now. With celebrities and supermodels setting the standard to ditch the long hair and opt for a shorter, edgier look, you may find yourself caught up in the hype (like me!) and decide to make the cut. But what happens after you leave the hair salon and don’t have the hands of your trusty, experienced hairstylist to style that new hair?
When I spontaneously decided to cut my hair from almost waist length to above the shoulder, I was ecstatic! My hair had beautiful texture and volume, with undone waves throughout. It looked perfectly imperfect, and I knew I had made the right decision. When I got home and finally washed my hair, however, I realized that I had had long hair for so long, I had no idea how to style my new short hair and revive that beautiful style I had left the salon with.
STEP 1. PROTECT YOUR HAIR
This is something we preach here at beahairs since we’re all about beautiful, long, healthy hair. While heat styling your hair isn’t always necessary and there are many ways to get heatless waves, this particular style will require you to use heat on your hair. Spray heat protectant liberally throughout your hair, avoiding the roots, as they could get greasy.
STEP 2. GRAB A HAIR STRAIGHTENER
The reason why I use a hair straightener for this short hairstyle is that I find that I can control the shape of the waves. A curling wand creates curls that are too round, and I like the beachy undone look for my lob. Also, because each piece of hair is so short, it is quite difficult to wrap the hair around the wand without burning yourself! I use a heat setting of 350F as not only do I have a lot of hair, but my hair strands are quite thick. If your hair is on the finer side, you can opt for a lower heat setting.
STEP 3. CURL A 1 INCH SECTION OF HAIR, LEAVING THE END OUT
The key to creating those textured, volumized waves that gives a lob its character are those imperfect waves. Working in small sections of about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches, clamp the hair at the root, twist the straightener away from your face and pull slowly. I like to leave a little bit of the end out, otherwise the curl will be too round. Leaving the end of the section out will also keep a bit of your length. Also, working with smaller sections will lead to more texture and volume once the style is done. If you prefer softer waves, you can style the hair in bigger sections.
STEP 4. CURL THE NEXT SECTION OF HAIR IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION
Repeat step 3, but this time, twist the straightener toward your face. By alternating the direction that you curl your hair, this will give your lob that texturized, imperfect, volumized look. If you were to curl all the hair the same way, the style would look just a little too perfect, and that’s not the look we’re after!
STEP 5. CONTINUE THIS TECHNIQUE THROUGHOUT YOUR HAIR UNTIL YOU REACH THE VERY TOP
Once you have curled all your hair and only have a section of hair left at the top, curl all the pieces away from your face. I find that this keeps the hair from falling into my face.
STEP 6. FLIP YOUR HAIR OVER, AND TEXTURIZE
At this point, you may feel that your hair isn’t quite big enough or the curls look just a little too perfect. The trick to those volumized waves is to flip your hair over and run your fingers through your hair to break up the curls. Then, spray texturizing spray all over and scrunch the hair messily.
STEP 7. FLIP YOUR HAIR BACK UP AND VOILA!
Flip your hair back up, scrunch and bit more, and that’s it! Your hair should be nice and volumized, with undone, beachy waves throughout.
I just love styling my hair this way as it only takes a few steps to get that cool, texturized look in my lob. So, if you’ve been contemplating cutting your hair and joining the ranks of us short haired girls, I say go for it and be sure to use this tutorial when styling your hair.