Foam Rollers Tutorial (plus cleaning)

Ok, One of my favorite things to do with my hair is to make it AS CURLY AS IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. I have straight/wavy...ish hair naturally, so curling it up is a fun switch for me. However, I also have a LOT of hair, which means standing with my arm in the air with a curling iron/wand is not my idea of a good time. I have some hot rollers too, but I only use those if I didn't think to use my trusty foam rollers first. They're the good old fashioned kind, and they get my hair curly like nothing else. This is not going to turn out like prom hair or barrel curls or anything though, I opt for crazy curls.

Ok, to start with, you need a set of curlers. If your hair is anything like mine, a set of 8 is NOT going to be enough. I have a set of 48 curlers in various sizes by Conair, which I got at walgreens for $10. They come in four sizes.

Pink is the largest, then green, purple, and blue is the smallest. I'm going to be using mostly purple and green today. The thing is, not all of my hair will fit into the set of one color, so I use a smaller size on the top, with the next size up on the lower half of my head.

to insert the curlers, start with barely damp hair, I waited about an hour and a half after my shower. Brush your hair, and place the curler under a 2-inch section of hair, rolling it under and away from your part like in the picture above, this will make the curls look slightly more uniform and natural.

Purple on top, then green, and I ran out of green so I used pink at the very bottom.

Then sleep on  it! It may feel uncomfortable at first but you'll get used to it. If it helps, you can wear a large beanie or scarf on your head to sleep on so that they won't get pulled out while you're sleeping.

In the morning, I pull all the rollers out one by one, starting with the ones at the bottom (pink-green-purple) and shake my head really hard....I whip my hair back and forth so to speak. I also separate some of the more stubborn curls with my fingers. I don't use any product, so it flattens out a little bit, but you can put in hairspray or mousse or whatever you want to keep it just as bouncy as when you first take the rollers out all day.

Finally, I add a headband to tie it all together. This is one of my favorite looks. If I get tired of it by the end of the day I can whip it up into the worlds most fabulous messy bun. (which I will probably show you later.) Hope you enjoy getting your hair as curly as possible.

Finally, if you've used your curlers more than a few times like I have, you may notice they aren't as springy as they used to be, they might also have some residual hairspray or just oil from your hair in them. Turns out they're very easy to clean! I put them all together in this delicates bag and put them in the washer on delicate cold, then I hung up the bag whole and they turned out perfectly. In fact, I did that just before using them for this tutorial. Clean hair products keep your hair healthy!

Ciao! Have a happy fourth of July!

Update, here's the messy bun I mentioned. It's great to have curls in a bun cause of all the volume!