Common mistake might be why you can’t get your hair to hold curls

I am obsessed with big, bouncy reality-star hair.

However, my hair is as straight as it gets. As in – I have never had to straighten my hair – every. It dries dead straight from wet. No wave, no kink – nothing. And so when it comes to getting my lovely, swishy waves, I got to add them in manually – like so many of us. The problem? Within minutes of curling my hair, every curl has slid back out – and I am left with poker-straight, not-a-curl-to-be-seen hair again. And that is despite adding a generous amount of hairspray to those curls immediately. Sigh. However, I recently back across a hair hack that might just explain why I can never get my hair to hold a curl – and I bet so many of us have been making the same mistake. A hairstylist I spoke to earlier this month told me that the number one faux pax people make when curling their hair is starting from the bottom and going up. Why is this so bad, I hear you ask? You always do it this way? Well, my stylist friend explained, if you curl from the bottom to the top, the bottom of your hair is getting most of the heat. And what this means, is that your curls are the tightest at the bottom, which then weighs down the hair closest to the scalp – and makes the curls fall faster. Yikes. So guilty.

Having done some more digging into this theory, it seems my friend was on to something.

According to The Everygirl, this technique also comes in handy if you’re using a curling wand that tapers at the bottom.

Why? Because if the bottom of the barrel is thinner than the top, your ends are getting a tighter curl than the hair at the root.

And while this creates a beautiful wave, it also tends to fall faster than a curling iron that is all the same size.

Oh – and another great trick to remember if you are going to be curling your hair either at home or at your local salon? Don't have hair that is too clean.

"Curls work best on second or even third-day hair. If you need to be clean, you can add dry shampoo to your hair before you curl to give it some texture and volume."