The best way to get stubbornly straight hair to curl

[TheBooMonster]

I want curly hair, lovely flow bouncy curly hair, but my hair is impervious to curling irons, it is stubborn and it is straight. It took curling tongs, heated rollers and a whole can of spray to get my hair to be styled and curly on my wedding day and by the end of the day it was mostly straight.

What's the best way to make my hair curl in wide loose curls, I don't want a tight perm, something lovely and light, how do I make it happen?

A wig?

Here's what I do the night before for hair like you describe:

Get it 75% dry
Twirl it into about 6-8 twists (I clamp each twist in my mouth as I do them, but there's probably a more glamorous way!)
Roll the twists all together on top of your head
Secure it with a clip
And... Sleep!

When you wake up, you just need to take the clip out and run your fingers through the twists. You'll end up with loose curls.

filly I shall give that a go tomorrow night and report back. do you spray it in the morning to hold it?

I just gave up in the end, mine starts to drop the minute I walk out of the salon.

I focus on keeping it clean & really shiny instead.

Leave your hair unwashed for at least a day before you start. My hair is mainly straight with a bit of a kink but it is seemingly imposible to curl - as pp said, it starts dropping as soon as I leave the salon! I stand a better chance of curliness if my hair is not squeaky clean to begin with.

DD has waist-length, poker straight hair and wanted flowing curls for a dress up day at school. I did that rag curl thing. Her hair was amazing the next day! If you've a bit of time it really works

I use straighteners to curl my dead-straight-very-thick hair. It's the only non-chemical way for me to get the wavy curls you describe. I had it done at the hairdresser's once and have attempted it a few times myself. The curls stay for several days until the next wash, my hair doesn't even need hairspray to hold the curls in.

Was going to say - have you tried ghds for curls? (or other straighteners). They stay a good while in my hair and if you practice and check out Youtube, you can get different effects - tight ringlets, loose waves etc.

I have the same issue OP. Have tried the straightener way and it still drops.

Perm may be the only way?

Or try this:
www.lovemaegan.com/2011/09/no-heat-sjp-big-curls-w-twisted-buns-also-known-as-bantu-knots.html

Leave your hair to dry naturally. Leave it alone for a day. The next day curl it with ghds. Set it with hairspray, but you need to experiment with the right one and the right amount because you can make it too 'wet' which can un do all your hard work. It'll last 1 or 2 days (but by that time you'll have to wash it again anyway so it won't really matter that they've fallen out).

I usually over curl mine IYSWIM, so that day 1 of being curly is really curly and day 2 ends up as loose curls.

Have same problem. If I spray liberally with hairspray before curling (ghds or tongs work best) it holds for a night out. The hairdresser managed to get pretty long lasting curls for my wedding day by using heated rollers and lots of products but I also had my hair chipped into along the edge to take some weight out as it's too heavy otherwise and curls just drop out.

I've done it this week. I have hair that is generally straight with a bit of a kink. I washed my hair, dried it with heatt protection spray and a bit of serum. When dried I scrunched a bit of mousse through it. I curled using a curling wand, as I just can't do it with GHDs. Very very small sections, spray each bit with hairspray as you are doing it. As it's finished, spray with extra firm hair spray- I can recommend Urban Fudge coconut ice hairspray. Your hair will literally not move, and it smells absolutely gorgeous.

Excuse the rough picture, but this is my hair today. It was done on Friday night, so has been slept on twice, and not touched up since yesterday morning.

I have had shampoo and set, curls fell out a few hours later
Perms, didn't really work
Curling tongs, bendy things overnight. Falls out as soon as I'm vertical.

I've given up.

Wig?

so far the best thing i have found is the babyliss secret curl

i used to use curing wands/tongs/rollers etc which looked great to begin with then the curls would fall, even with super strength hairspray
with the secret curl they last for a good few days with normal hairspray
but i also will use i think its the foxy curls gel stuff by tigi as well

So the twisted bun thing turned my hair into a ball of frizz which was rather interesting and made me look 15, wasn't at all sad to see it had pretty much all dropped out by the end of the day!