A Tip For Better Updos

Is your hair too fine or soft for an updo or even for a dressy style? Have you tried styling it yourself without success? You brush your hair into an elastic band or form it into a curl, but no matter how much work you put into it, it sags and droops and falls apart. It’s frustrating to spend time and effort styling your hair only to have it look worse than when you began.

Many styling failures, whether in updos or other constructed styles (styles that don’t just fall in to place by themselves), are not so much from lack of ability as from lack of preparation. Time spent preparing the hair before you begin styling may mean the difference between frustration and success.

How’s your grip? The unlikely culprit of your frustration may be that your hair is too ‘clean.” The problem is that clean, soft, sleek hair does not have something that is called ‘grip.’ Grip is the texture that it takes for hair to stay in bobby pins, elastic bands or even in your hands as you work with it.

Hair needs to have some ‘grip’ to make it manageable. Dirty hair has that kind of grip. That means hair that hasn’t been washed in preparation for the styling event. It means ‘day old’ hair. I understand that dirty hair may not be acceptable to you. You may want a head-to-toe clean feeling, for your special event, that only a great shampoo gives. If you must shampoo, don’t worry, ’grip’ can be put back into your hair. Putting the ‘grip’ back in is as easy as applying styling mousse, styling gel or texture crème. Apply it to damp hair and be sure to use an ample amount. For example, a ball of mousse that is about the size of a baseball works well. Make sure that the amount of your choice of styling product is enough to cover each strand from the roots to the ends. Then, dry it in with a blow dryer. This builds body back into the hair.

For more ‘grip’ in dry hair, lightly spray each section with flexible hold hair spray before forming into place. After placing the elastic band or bobby pins, you may also anchor them into place by spraying the base with hairspray. Similarly, when teasing or back – combing your hair for volume, spray your work with hairspray before smoothing hair over the top.

We all love soft, ultra-clean hair. It is a great look for the nature girl look of the 70’s but it doesn’t work for today’s constructed hair styles. For the best result work on your ‘grip.”