Hair Lesson 8- Adding texture!

25.11.14, hair lesson, tutor, Emma Croombs

Putting texture in the hair

Hot sticks how to:

Take sections of hair about an inch deep, spray with setting lotion, take hot stick and place against hair about a quarter of the way up from the root, wrap hair round the hot stick, use your pintail comb to make sure ends are tucked neatly around the hot sticks, so you don't get hook ends, and wrap down to the root, twist the hot stick and secure.

Repeat till your head, or selected section is complete. 

Section the hair depending on the style you want to create.

Hot sticks can be used to give a very tight curl, you must wait until hot stick is completely cool before removing.

If you back comb the curl you can get great volume, to redress the ends by wrapping around you finger.

Its best to do the dressing out section by section that way the curl is set for longer, also by dressing section by section you'll get better texture and volume as a whole at the end.

Barrel waver:

Section hair, take down section by section, make sure section isn't wider than the barrel waver.

Starting at the roots, spray section with setting spray, place hair in the barrel waver, hold until hair is heated through, then work your way down the hair length until complete unless your just doing the roots.

This can be used to put volume and texture into the roots, or looks really nice done down the full length of the hair then brushed through for a deep wave.

Paddle crimper's:

Section off the hair, take section same width as the crimper, spray with setting lotion, then place hair in between crimper, clamp down, and hold until hair is heated through. Continue down the length of hair until complete. Brush through to get bigger volume. 

Rick-racking:

Using a geisha pin (largest) take a small section of hair, slide the pin up to root of hair, wrap the hair around the pin in figure of 8, keep the hair pulled tight and make sure it is at the top, then take a straightener and put heat through by clamping onto hair grip.Once cooled remove and you will be left will a very tight wave, you could leave it as it it but for extra oomph back comb. Use setting lotion to ensure a solid set.

Plaits: 

Plaiting the hair then going over with a hair straightener, obviously puts heat through the plait which creates a good long lasting wave in the hair, you must let the hair cool completely before undoing the plait. The size of the plait depends on the size of the wave. This is a great way of  creating volume and texture into the hair quickly.

Lesson on the board in class 

Example of hot sticks from teacher Emma Croombs

Example of voluminous hair using heat from teacher Emma Croombs

Examples of crimper's from teacher Emma Croombs

Examples of all different kinds of heat techniques. The middle at the top is an example of the rick-racking technique. From our teacher Emma Croombs

Small plait I did

Applying heat to plait with straightener

Result of plait under heat

Paddle crimper's technique on my dolly head

The start of rick racking technique, place section of hair through geisha clip at the root of hair.

Hair after its been heated, still on geisha clip 

After geisha clip has been removed

My dressed out style, modern 80's

Side profile

Other side I hate the bald patch you can see on my dolly head!

Side & back angle

Back view


Overview and evaluation of lesson:

So after we were told about what the lesson's objective was, I decided to try one of each technique(besides the hot sticks and the beach wavers as I've used them both alot!) just to see which I liked the most.

I thought the plait was quite disappointing as it didn't leave as much of an impact compared to the rest, although I think if the plait was finer than the one I did it would have been better, and I can see the appeal of it if your on a job where time is not a luxury and you need a quick solution to get texture into the hair!

As for the rick racking I can imagine it taking aaages to do a whole head! So the time it takes would definitely be something to consider. The end result was unlike anything I'd seen before, so it was great to do, I think it would look amazing for a high fashion avant garde look!

My last technique I did was using the crimper's, and I just loved the effect they gave. Although due to the amount of product that has been on my dolly head since I started the crimps were really crispy so I just brush them through to smooth and make look less artificial, which worked really well it gave it so much volume! I also used my postiche brush to back comb some sections and I pretty much had an afro on my hands!

So I was feeling the hair and thinking of ways in which I could dress it out, and I got thinking that crimping is mainly related to the 80's as are Mohawk's so I thought why not merge the two and create a high fashion, more current, high fashion version! So that's what I did.....

How I created my look:

I began by sectioning the hair into 3, one strip right in the centre of the forehead going all the way back and down to the nape of the neck- this will be your Mohawk. I clipped this to the head just to keep out of the way, whilst I dressed the other sections. The other 2 sections are just the left over hair on either side of the middle section.
So start with whichever one of the side sections you want to, use postiche brush to scrape hair a bit at a time so its easier to handle, you want to make sure its tight and flat to the head- if I was doing this on a real person I would use product to make sure it's slick to the head, once section has reached the middle section, secure using a grip, there will be hair left over from the ends which will now be part of the middle section which is great as the more hair you have the bigger the Mohawk will be!


As you continue to slick sides, cross the grips over that you use to secure to ensure that no hair can fall loose!

Repeat with other side until sides are all slick and secure to the head, to recreate the classic shaved sides.

Now for the big middle section! Using a tail or pintail comb, split the big sections into 5 smaller horizontal sections.

Start with the front section, back comb a bit using postiche if you need- I didn't! Pull section back, twist and push hair forward creating a quiff, secure with 2 grips crossing over one another. The ends will join into the second section.

With the next section take the whole section and hold up vertically, wrap around your fingers almost like a pin curl but alot chunkier! Wrap it until its 'sitting on the base of the head' Use a grip through the middle to secure. Then place your finger through the circle and bring the hair over the previous grips you placed on the clips and secure another grip so their covered up, from the inside of the circle. Then taking a side each of the circle with both hands pull out and down to head, so it looks like a ball on the head, secure with grips, make sure grips are hidden.

Repeat until all 5 sections are complete, finished with hairspray to set.

I was so happy with my final creation, I thought I followed the brief well, I put texture into the hair using heat, and dressed it out, I was also really happy with how quick I was I crimped the entire head in 15 minutes, and once I had my vision, I dressed it out in about 45 minutes, which I was really happy with considering I have never created this style before and obviously didn't have a 'how to' guide! I would love to try this on a real person as I could use products to get a sleeker, sharper finish. I think this would look great on a catwalk or an editorial campaign, as its definitely a head turning hair design! The one thing I wasn't happy with was the little bald patch on my dolly head which you can see in the photos, I would definitely work on covering that up if I was to do it again! Also I would work on making the spheres more circular as they aren't all exactly the same, which does irritate me a bit, it would look a lot cleaner if they were all identical!

I am pretty proud of what I created I thought I achieved a good amount of volume and height, if I wanted to make it bigger and even crazier I would definitely use crepe hair inside the spheres to make them even bigger, it would also fill in any gaps!

Looking forward to the next lesson now, I love just being given a brief and being able to come up with our own ideas!

Until next time.....