Four ways to build airy storybook curls.
The new wave of TikTok princess blowouts borrows heavily from illustrated fairy tales – rounded volume at the crown, cascading swirls through the lengths, and swishy movement. Here’s how four different styling techniques bring those storybook curls off the page.
@liraguzisalon
In one of her most liked tutorials, creator @sophieeanneeeee demonstrates a heat method for creating a billowy princess blowout. This routine works for freshly-washed hair. Gently brush your hair, starting at the ends and gradually moving up to the roots to avoid breakage. Use a brush designed specifically for wet hair.
Apply a hair mousse for hold and volume, but go light-handed, as too much product will make your hair look greasy. A smoothing cream as the next step will keep your blowout sleek. Seal the cocktail with a heat protectant and blow-dry your hair.
Next, spread a dab of hair oil from mid-length to the ends and prepare your flat iron, rollers, pins, and clips. Start with the bangs, curl them inward, and use the largest roller for the bangs to cool down and set. Curl your hair section by section, moving away from the face toward the back. Make sure your flat iron is facing downward as you slide it through the section of hair, and use smaller rollers for face-framing sections.
For bouncy curls, finger-coil your lock after curling and fix it with a hair clip. The underneath sections may only need ends curled. When you’re done curling, spritz with some hair spray and leave it to cool for at least half an hour. Alternatively, you can sleep in it and unravel the curls in the morning.
This style by @dakkojhcvtq is quick and beginner-friendly. You will need clean socks for curling; the thicker your hair or the tighter you want your curls to be, the more socks you’ll need. Apply some mousse, brush your hair, and smooth the ends with hair oil. Section your hair and clip the upper sections away.
This creator puts the end of the sock in her mouth to hold it while wrapping hair around it. And though it might look a bit odd, this creates the necessary tension in the sock and gives more control over curling. When she’s done wrapping, she cups the future curl with the other end of the sock. Note that you don’t have to curl your hair tightly to the very scalp for natural volume distribution.
The top sections get curled from end to root, and the ends of the socks are tied into knots. This style is easier to sleep in, because there are no metal clips and the hair is not tightly knotted at the roots. It’s a heatless curl technique that leaves plenty of room for error and still rewards you with great results the next day.
Creator @harlpap starts with a messy bun on a non-wash day and turns it into a full moment of princess-core fantasy. To recreate this style, prep your hair by dampening the ends and applying some mousse and hair oil. Don’t go overboard with moisture – if your hair is too wet, it won’t fully dry overnight.
Section your hair and wrap it around a sock from ends to roots in a rolling motion. Secure each section by cupping the sock opening around it. To avoid kinks, brush out each section before wrapping to make sure it’s smooth, and roll it as uniformly as possible.
In the morning, release each curl and shake your hair up and down. If your hair looks too poofy at this stage, brush it out and coat the ends with hair oil. “I let gravity take care of the rest throughout the day,” says Harley.
“This blowout makes me feel like a princess,” confesses @sophiestray. She starts with wet hair and applies mousse for volume. After detangling, she rough-dries her hair upside down, applies a heat-shaping spray, and continues blow-drying until her hair is about 80% dry.
Then, she parts her hair and uses Dyson Airwrap Multistyler to curl each section for about 15 seconds. Once the curl forms, the tool slides out easily, and the curl gets pinned to cool. She works her way up to the top, keeping the airflow away from her face, and sets the style with some hairspray. Sophie prefers her curls brushed out, but the curls look dreamy even when you skip this step.
If storybook princess curls ever gave you royal envy, now you can recreate them in real life. Need them to last longer? Check out hacks on how to make your blowout last longer.
Image via @cmw.elite.hair.
