The pixie crop has been an early contender for the look of the year, with Emma Stone Emma Corrin, Brie Larson and more setting the pace, but if you’ve got longer locks, going for va-vavoom volume is a good bet.
Singer Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘the bigger, the better’ do is said to have influenced younger women to reach for the rollers, but the trend is coming back for everyone according to those in the know.
“Blow-drying the hair with a large round ceramic barrel brush will give you volume and smoothness,” says top UK stylist Tom Smith, “while tools such as the Dyson Airwrap, utilising the round brush attachment, will also give a similar look in an easier-to-achieve manner”.
Blasting hair upwards with the dryer to lift at the roots, having sprayed in a volumising product like Hair by Sam McKnight Cool Girl Superlift Volumising Spray or Color Wow Raise the Root Thicken and Lift Spray, will also give a great lasting foundation to your look. Then running a wide barrel curling iron through the rest of your length and letting it cool before brushing out will create a soft glam wave.
Top editorial stylist Michael Beel of Salute Hair and Day Spa agrees.
“For creating beautiful volume, start with damp hair and tip your head upside down and blast dry at the roots with a dryer until it’s 70-80% dry to get that maximum root lift,” he says.
Then, with your head back up the right way, when you’re blow-drying, he advises using a move hairdressers call ‘overdirecting’ the hair.
“This is when hair is directed away from the position it naturally falls in in the opposite direction with a brush and hot hair. When hair falls back into its natural place, it’s got lift to it.”
Try these: ghd Duet Blowdry 2-In-1 Hair Dryer Brush; Shark SmoothStyle Heated Comb Straightener + Smoother; Kitsch Satin Heatless Curling Set; K18 AstroLift Reparative Volume Spray; Hair by Sam McKnight Cool Girl Superlift Volumising Spray; Living Proof Full Volume & Root Spray
Stylist Sam McKnight says the look doesn’t have to demand a lot of effort or skill, of the return to desiring a bigger and bouncier shape to hair. “Just rolling your hair up in jumbo bendy rollers [at night] will give it way more volume come morning.”
Indeed, the volume seen on runways is not about helmet-hair bouffants, but a softer, smoother and more touchable finish.
If you find bendy rollers uncomfortable to sleep in or you haven’t tried creating ‘heatless curls,’ the newer kits you can buy everywhere from Kmart to MECCA offer an easy way to get volume on longer hair without having to be dexterous with a curling iron.
The approach requires the wrapping of your hair around a long stuffed satin tube bento over the top of your head, before securing the ends. Wait a few hours or overnight, before unfurling and in theory shake out a head full of beyond-perfect waves. In reality it takes a bit of getting the hang of wrapping – how-to videos are useful! – and you’ll need to spritz with hairspray to keep the curl, but it is a good way to avoid excess heat styling.
Blow-dry brushes are another options and make the job of achieving a smooth, bouncy blow out easier than ever before. Shark SmoothStyle Heated Comb Straightener + Smoother is a winner that ties the job of drying wet hair and styling into one easy to use tool, as is ghd’s
Duet Blowdry 2-In-1 Hair Dryer Brush.
New product formulation is also bringing increasing styling options for those seeking to create lift and shape in their style.
There has been a lot of buzz around K18’s new AstroLift Reparative Volume Spray and its ability to transform even very fine, or short hair. It’s made including the famed K18 peptides in the formula which means it aims to help repair and fortify fragile, aging and breakage-prone hair. Able to be used on damp or dry hair, it doesn’t make hair feel crispy or crunchy and leaves hair looking and feeling thicker and fuller.
Living Proof’s Full Volume & Root Spray is another lightweight spray that contains peptides and heat protection properties.
