One of my *most* frequently asked questions is how I get volume in my hair. And even though I’ve done hair tutorials in the past, I want to be better about directing y’all to those posts and finding new ways to share my tips for volume. I also want to break things down even further for y’all so achieving volume becomes less and less intimidating. There are several things I do to get volume in my hair but I think the *most* effective thing I do is round-brushing my hair. That being said, I want to talk specifically about my tips for how I do it in an IGTV video.
This video (and post) is for those of you that have been too intimidated to try and want to learn the absolute basics of how to actually do it. I totally get that it can be overwhelming – trust me I was there once! But I’m telling you, with a little practice and technique, you 100% can do it!
Y’all can see the IGTV for the full tutorial (especially if you’re more of a visual person), but I also wanted to outline my tips in a blog post as well.
Tip 1: Let Your Hair Dry 80% + Dry in Sections
You can start with your hear really wet, but it will be a much better experience if you get some of the moisture out first! If I’m in a rush, I’ll towel dry well and then rough dry my hair (without a brush) before sectioning and starting to round brush.
You can put the product in right away or wait; it doesn’t matter as long as it’s still somewhat damp. I personally put my product in right away. I don’t really have a favorite product at the moment and I’ve actually been using a few different ones lately.
Tip 2: Which Hands Hold What? Hold The Blow Dryer With Your Dominant Hand
I’m sure there are more ways to do this, but I wanted to share exactly what I do and what works for me. I’d love to hear if this is what you do or if this works for you!
I hold the blow dryer in my dominant hand and the round brush in my non-dominant hand. When I was writing this, I was like wait that can’t be right because my left hand (non-dominant) has terrible dexterity. But I went back to the bathroom to see if that’s actually how I did it, and it is! So don’t worry, you’ll figure it out.
You’re going to need to use your dominant hand for holding the blow dryer because you need better hand-eye coordination there. I tried to do it the other way, and it was a mess! The “blow-dryer hand” sort of leads the way and is the hand you’ll use to grab new pieces of hair (while still holding the dryer – we’ll get there in tip 4) as you continue to blow dry your hair.
Tip 3: Treat Your Round Brush Like a Brush, Not a Curling Iron
Something I’ve heard a lot from y’all is that you get frustrated with the round brush because your hair gets tangled in it. And I totally hear this! But I want to shift the way you think about the round brush – I think this might help keep this from happening, especially for those of you that have longer hair.
Instead of thinking of the round brush as something you wrap your hair *around*, think of it more as simply a brush that’s round (lol this sounds so silly to type out but stay with me). So instead of wrapping your hair all the way around it, try this. Take a strand and lay the middle of it along one side of the brush (so that it sort of grips it) and then pull outwards (towards your ends) as if you’re just brushing your hair. This is what you’re going to be doing mostly.
And then I want you to try this…After you do that a few times and get the hang of it, start spinning your fingers around the handle of the brush as you approach the end of your hair. I call this technique the “Roly Poly”. The purpose of doing the “Roly Poly” is so that you can continue to round brush one strand of hair without it falling off the brush – so you can continue to brush and blow-dry the same piece over and over.
Tip 4: Grab New Hair With Your “Blow Dryer Hand”
At first, it can be tricky to figure out what to do with your hands when round brushing your hair. I have a technique I used called the “Middle Finger Grab & Re-Grab” that helps in the process.
The Middle Fing Grab & Re-Grab – So like I told you above, I hold the blowdryer with my dominant hand. When I need to “re-grab” a strand of hair to run it under the blow dryer again, I’ll use my middle finger (from the hand holding the blowdryer) to pick up the hair and then RE-wrap it around the round brush. Working through each individual strand to get the desired result. This is great for anyone who has cowlicks like I do!
*
After watching the video, let me know if you have any further questions and I’d be happy to break anything else down for y’all! I hope this helps!
In the video, I’m using the Olivia Garden 2 1/8 in. round brush with my Dyson hair dryer. I wrote a blog post on why I love the Dyson and think it’s worth the investment here!
