Hair: A Photo Tutorial

I have received a few requests for some hair help so I have decided to post a little tutorial to explain how I set my hair. I hope that what I have outlined here is relatively clear and coherent and that those who wish to try this set for themselves find it possible. 

Please ignore my lack of makeup throughout this tutorial.

Lately, I have been using foam rollers to do my wet set and then setting with pin curls later when my curls need to be rejuvenated. I find that foam rollers create a tight and long lasting curl that will keep their shape as long as I need them to. For these sets I use Lottabody setting lotion, Luster's Pink hair lotion, which can be found at any Sally store and three sizes of foam rollers, yellow, pink and green, which I picked up at my local drug store.

I begin with combing and parting my wet hair. I generally part pretty far to one side or the other and comb the hair back instead of straight down from the part. Hopefully the pictures demonstrate how I comb as it is important for pushing the wave into my hair.  

Next I take a bit of undiluted setting lotion and smooth it over my combed out hair. I do not use large amounts of setting lotion as I find that my hair sets and holds pretty well on its own.

Next I put a wave into my hair by placing my hand on the back of my head and pushing towards my forehead. The wave stays on it own as my hair has become accustomed to having a wave pushed into it. I have been told by a hair dresser that different people have different wave directions naturally set into their hair and that pushing in this direction may not work for everyone. 

My hair is very thick so before rolling my hair up in curlers I need to let it dry a bit as it will not do so while wrapped up on the curlers. To speed things along I sit under the dryer.

I've established a semi reliable setting pattern that generally maintains my wave. I begin with the smallest rollers I have, the yellow ones, and set the front of my head. On the side with less hair, the side to the left of my part in this case, I roll the hair around the curler as shown in the photograph on the left. When it comes to the hair to the right of my part I roll the hair as shown in the photograph in the middle. I set the first and front most row of curlers like this and after that I roll the rest of the curlers like the photograph on the left. 

Above is a slide show of the curler set and what

 the hair looks like after the curlers are removed. 

This hopefully gives a good idea as to what size curler 

I use and where I use them. The size of the roller increases 

towards the back of my head because I am looking for 

a shorter in the front, longer in the back look when

 everything is brushed out. This also should give a good 

idea as to what sort of curls the foam rollers make and what 

they look like before they are brushed out. 

I admit, this was indeed a messy set, I did not realize 

that until I took this photograph. I would prefer that all

 the curlers were horizontal and in a more orderly way. 

These photographs were taken after having slept on the

 curlers. After removing the curlers I sometimes find that 

the hair is still damp so I will sit under the dryer again for

 a bit until everything is dry, otherwise I find the curl falls

 or frizzes. 

After I've brushed to my satisfaction I use a bit of Luster's Pink hair lotion to calm the frizz and add shine. This product is a life saver, I love it. Not only does it make my hair look better but it is a protectant and moisturizer. 

These are the results of this set, admittedly I've had much better results in the past with my foam rollers. I find that each set I do is an adventure and I do believe that this set would have benefitted from a tidier setting pattern. This set did keep well and yielded a beautiful soft wave on the third day.

In the future I hope to post a tutorial on my pin curl method as the results are a bit different and I've learned a lot about setting this way in the couple years I have been doing it.