Curling Techniques

odays Lesson we learnt about the basic hair structure. We learnt that the cuticle is the outside area we can see. It is made up of overlapping scaled that protect the hair. The cuticle scaled lift when chemicals are added, in order to allow the penetration of the chemicals into the layer underneath.

The cuticle layer reflects what we see. When the cuticle is damaged, it looks rough and dull and when the hair is healthy and in good shape, it looks shiny and reflects the light. It is what we see.

Moving on to the cortex which is the middle section of the hair. It is the main body of the hair which gives it it's strength and elasticity. The natural hair colour is determined in the cortex. It is also where artificial colouring takes place. Also, it is where temporary change in the hair happens. For example when you blow dry or curl your hair.

Finally the inner and central layer of the hair which is called the Medulla. Very little is known about the medulla. Sometimes this layer is even absent in some types of hair. It appears to be present more often than not in thicker hair.

We then went on to creating an old school flicked out blow dry. Kanika showed us the technique to use to do this correctly. By using your brush above and blow-dryer under and flicking it upwards towards the end. I achieved this quite fine. However as my dolly has quite long her, it was sometimes turning into a slight curl. I managed to fix this by going back to sections and flicking them again. Here is a picture of my completed attempt :

We then had some time to add in a few curls using different wands or straighteners. Emma showed us how to create curls going forwards using a straightener. We were then able to create some ourselves. Since I am quite confident creating curls with a straightener, I decided to try out a thin curling wand as I have never used one. I managed to create nice tight curls. Not my cup of tea as personally I prefer thicker and looser curls, however I am happy that I tried it out. Here is a picture :

We then had a few minutes left and Emma showed us how to use hot rollers to create lift and curl with varied root movement and direction. She showed us how to apply them in sections and told us that changing the roller size enables you to achiever tighter or looser curls. I then tried a couple on my dolly. We did not have much time left in our lesson therefore I only got to apply 4 rollers. However, I got the hang on how to apply them. I struggles slightly with pinning them down and therefore next time I am going to practice that again. Here is a photo of what I managed to do :

To conclude, In this lesson we got to learn different simple styling and curling techniques. I will be practicing these on friends and family in order to improve and be more confident.