Using step-by-step instructions, every girl can easily and quickly make lush and stylish afro curls for long or short hair at home. Afro curls are rapidly becoming fashionable, which enable girls to look not only feminine, but also natural. Today, not all girls can boast of naturally lush hair, because most often deliberately careless curls are used for styling, giving the image lightness.
However, in order to get the desired afro curls, it is not necessary to spend the whole day in the beauty salon, because everything can be done quickly and easily at home. The most important thing is to choose the best curling option for yourself, as well as use styling products.
Afro curls: features
The main distinguishing feature of this type of styling is the uniform and small curls that start from the roots and go all the way to the tips. Such curls give the hairstyle the maximum volume.
It is important that afro curls look not only modern, but also fit perfectly into the created image, so they should be as natural and soft as possible. It is better to refuse to use varnish for fixing, instead of taking foam, which gives the strands additional volume.
Today there are several different methods of curling, while they give different effects. To create afro curls, it is advisable to have a cascading haircut, due to which such styling will look much more interesting, and strands of different lengths provide uniform and natural volume.
Depending on the type of hair, the styling method will also be chosen:
- Straight and coarse hair is very difficult to style, while working with curling irons or curling corrugation, you need to individually select the temperature and exposure time of the stylers, which will help to get the desired effect.
- Straight and obedient hair does not cause any difficulties during styling, the main thing is to properly prepare the strands for the upcoming procedure. First, wash your hair with a special shampoo designed for curly hair, and then apply a similar conditioner. It is also recommended to use styling products for crisp curls. If the option with curlers is used, in this case you need to take them as small as possible in order to separately curl each strand of hair. In the case of using a curling iron or forceps, you can set the temperature around 180-200 degrees.
- Curly or wavy natural hair is the easiest to style. In this case, creating afro curls will not be difficult, and the effect will last at least a day. Curls can be different, so the owners of this type of hair are very surprised how such a hairstyle can change their image. This is a real reincarnation that will not go unnoticed.
Options for creating afro curls at home
Today, different types of curls can be called afro curls. Independently at home, you can make curls with spirals or zigzags, thanks to the use of styling products, add extra volume to the hairstyle, etc.
Curling iron corrugation
Externally, the corrugation curling iron is similar to the familiar hair straightening iron, but in this case its surface is ribbed. Such a curling iron allows you to create a fairly large number of different styling options - from light zigzags to thick voluminous curls.
Using a corrugation curling iron, you can make a hairstyle that is as similar as possible to afro curls. To do this, you should use the following tips:
- First you need to wash your hair well, apply a special conditioner designed for crisp and structured curls.
- Before proceeding directly with styling, hair must be thoroughly dried with a hairdryer. It is important to remember that hot styling on wet or damp hair can do a lot of damage to the structure of the strands.
- A special protective agent intended for hot styling must be applied to the hair.
- The hair is divided into several parts, making it comfortable to work with. The thickness of the strands is determined depending on the thickness of the hair. It is recommended to divide the entire volume into three approximately equal parts - right, left, front.
- The strand of hair to be processed is carefully combed. To do this, it is better to use a comb with rare teeth.
- A small strand is taken in front - the curl should not be too large, and narrow enough to fully fit under the curling iron. Thanks to this, the curls will turn out to be uniform.
- The curl is pressed tightly at the roots with a curling iron - all movements should be smooth and neat so as not to get burned. Then you need to slowly move along the entire length of the hair, alternately pressing each part of the strand with a curling iron.
- This procedure must be done sequentially with each strand. The curling process can take quite a long time, depending on the thickness and length of your hair. To obtain the desired volume of afro curls, it is recommended to treat the hair with fine and small strands.
- After the styling is completed, the effect obtained may differ slightly from the classic afro curls. This is due to the fact that curls after curling are almost identical and have the same proportion, and the corners of the zigzag will be slightly pointed, which looks unnatural.
To give the finished styling a natural look and a little careless chic, you just need to comb the strands with a comb. The result is a neat hairstyle that looks as close as possible to natural Afro curls. Foam can be used to fix the styling, thanks to which it will last longer and gain additional volume.
Pros and cons of using a corrugated curling iron
Of course, the ripple effect has slight differences from traditional afro curls, but this option is most often used to create small curls. This type of curling iron has both positive and negative sides.
Advantages of using a corrugated curling iron:
- ease of use - there is no need to constantly wind each curl on the tongs, because the curling iron provides perfect and uniform curls;
- styling can be done very quickly, especially when processing short hair;
- the hairstyle is guaranteed to acquire additional volume, especially if, after treatment with a curling iron, you make an additional bouffant at the hair roots;
- the result obtained will last long enough and the next morning an interesting effect will also remain on the hair.
The main disadvantages of using a corrugated curling iron are:
- curls are obtained in the form of zigzags, rather sharp bends appear and do not look very natural, but this effect can be smoothed out a little if, after styling, comb the hair or wrinkle it with your hands, applying a styling agent;
- this is a hot type of styling, so certain harm is done to the hair - damage to the structure occurs and the corrugation curling iron can only be used on completely dry strands, after applying a special thermal protective agent;
- such styling is prohibited on a daily basis, especially if the hair is thin, weak and severely damaged.
Curling tongs
Curling tongs are one of the most popular ways to get the curls you want. To create afro curls, it is recommended to use tongs as small as possible, so that the curls will acquire the correct shape.
It is very simple to use tongs, but this process also has some peculiarities and subtleties:
- First you need to wash your hair using a shampoo designed for curly hair. Then the strands are thoroughly dried with a hairdryer and a special protective agent designed for hot styling is applied.
- Curls need to be combed well and divided into several approximately equal parts, which greatly facilitates the process of curling.
- A not too large curl is taken from the front and clamped with the ends of the forceps. It is important to make sure that the end of the hair is completely captured by the tongs, otherwise, instead of a beautiful curl, it will turn out to be straight and the curls will look messy.
- After the end of the strand is fixed, the curl is wrapped in one layer around the tongs. Now you need to adhere to several rules - the surface of the strand must completely touch the tongs and you cannot wind the hair in two layers, otherwise the temperature for the top layer will not be enough and this area will not curl. You need to bring the tongs up to the roots of the hair, thanks to which the styling acquires the required volume.
- Then these steps are performed sequentially until all the hair is curled. It is important to wrap a not too thick strand around the tongs every time. Curl your hair in one direction and stick to the same length of curls.
- Using a curling iron allows you to choose from a variety of curls - from sharp spirals to soft waves. The result depends on how many turns are made around the forceps. To create afro curls, it is recommended to do as many turns as possible, due to which the curls become elastic and voluminous.
- After finishing styling, the hairstyle is fixed with a curly hair product. Taking into account what the result should be, neat and clear curls or deliberately careless curls, you can additionally use combs or lightly fluff your hair with your fingers.
Pros and cons of using forceps
The most popular option for creating curls of any size and shape is to use a curling iron. But this method, like any other, has both its advantages and some disadvantages.
Pros of using tongs to create afro curls:
- tongs allow you to get an effect that is as close as possible to natural afro curls;
- to create small strands, you need to use tongs of the minimum diameter, and the end result will look as if the hair is naturally curly;
- this option is one of the simplest and fastest, of course, for this you need to make sure that the curls are the same;
- after the end of the curling, there is no need to use any additional steps to get the curls you want.
Cons of using the curling tong to create afro curls:
- it is not always possible to maintain the same length and direction of the curl;
- the effect obtained may be far from ideal;
- hot tongs should only be used if special protective measures are taken to minimize the negative effects on the hair.
Observing the simple recommendations and tips described above, you can easily and quickly enough yourself at home to make beautiful, stylish and most natural afro curls.
For more information on how to make afro curls yourself at home, see here:
