Your straight hair is one hack away from becoming something special.
Pin-straight hair is great until you spot someone with that tousled and textured wave situation, and suddenly yours feels boring. Thankfully, you don’t need a different hair type, a perm, or a two-hour salon appointment to change that. A little sea salt spray, the right product combo, and a technique (or two) are all that stand between your flat strands and a great wave.
We’ve pulled together 5 straight-to-wavy hair hacks that work on even the most stubborn straight hair. Some take five minutes, some may take a little longer, but all of them are worth the try. Pick your style and enjoy the look!
The key to making this work is starting with wet hair, so keep that in mind before you jump in. You’ll also want your hair long enough to cover your forehead, since the front sections are what sell the look.
Apply some curling clay while your hair is still wet, distributing it through evenly. Let it air dry or speed things up with a blow dryer. Once dry, spritz sea salt spray over the top and use your fingers to spin the front locks into loose, messy curls.
The clay gives your hair structure and hold, while the salt spray adds that natural, undone texture that straight hair usually fights against. It’s a good starting point if you’re figuring out your hair type and how it responds to different products.
Wet your hair first, then divide it into several equal sections. Twist each one tightly and hold the tip so the strand seals its shape as it dries. You can let them air dry or use a blow dryer on low heat while keeping the ends in place.
Once dry, work a small amount of hair clay or pomade through the twists to set the shape. When you release and gently separate them with your fingers, you get a soft wave pattern that looks like you’ve done a lot more work than you have. It’s a solid option if you’ve been struggling with flat and unresponsive hair and want a low-effort way around it.
Flat hair that refuses to hold any shape? This one was built for that. Wet your hair, then apply sea salt spray and hair clay together. Scrunch the whole thing while it’s still wet, working the products in evenly.
Blow dry with a diffuser attachment on a medium setting, then switch to cool air at the end to lock the shape in place. The diffuser does the heavy lifting by lifting the hair at the roots and encouraging it to form waves rather than drying flat.
The finished result is thick, textured, and has real movement to it. If you’ve ever looked at men with naturally curly hair and wondered how to get close to that texture on straight strands, this technique gets you there.
This one is quicker than it sounds, and the results are surprisingly clean. Start with wet hair and work sea salt spray through it. Grab a thin round brush and twirl the ends section by section to get that flippy, curved finish at the tips.
Switch to a diffuser and scrunch your hair upward as you dry it. The combination of the round brush shaping and the diffuser’s lifting effect creates wavy lines that run through the length of your hair, especially around the front and sides.
t works really well if you’re going for a more polished wave rather than a messy one. Pair it with a side part and you’ve got a complete look.
Borrowed your partner’s curling wand with the thin barrel? Put it to use. Apply heat protectant and a light styling spray before you touch any heat. Set the wand to a lower temperature, because you’re going for natural-looking waves, not tight curls, and high heat on straight hair can damage the texture you’re trying to build.
Curl the top sections away from your face, hold for a few seconds, then release. Once you’ve worked through the whole top, finish with sea salt spray and brush the curls out with your fingers before scrunching gently. What you’re left with is a surfer-style wave that looks like it happened naturally. For more formal men’s hairstyle options, use a touch of air gel and brush your waves all the way back.
Leave flat hairstyles in the past with these easy tricks. Try whichever one suits your hair and your morning schedule. And if you want to see how a wavy style would actually look on you before committing to anything, the TheRightHairstyles virtual try-on tool and the HairHunt app (iOS, Android) are great places to experiment.
