Once the hair was wrapped, our manikin was misted once more to moisten the curls and placed under a
bonnet dryer for 45 minutes on the “high” setting. Because the manikin’s hair is so long and thick, we needed to extend the drying time
to an hour, but we lowered the heat to “low”. Once the hair was dry, and before removing the manikin from under the dryer, we switched the setting to cool and left her for a final ten minutes.
The cooling step in heat setting (whether under a hair dryer for a wet set or when using hot
rollers or curling iron) is very important. Since both heat and water will break down the side bonds of the hair, you need to make sure
not only that your hair is fully dry, but also that it is completely cooled before you remove your rollers. Those of you who have used
hot rollers know this, probably because you’ve made the mistake of removing the hot rollers too soon at some point and watched the curl fall right out of your hair.
Once the hair was cool and dry, we removed the rollers and combed out the curls starting with our
fingers first and then with a wide-tooth comb to soften them. After softening the curls we switched to a vented brush to further break-up
the styling product and give the hair a softer look. Finally, we changed to a styling brush for a smooth, soft-looking finish.
A light application of anti-frizz serum allowed us to smooth down any fly-away strands in the
hairstyle and give the desired amount of definition to the curls we just added. The finished look, as you can see, is a head full of
voluminous waves and curls with a healthy shine and lots of body.
