Thursday, May 30, 2013

hair talk {how to add volume}

Have you ever heard of the "Utah poof"? It has quite the reputation... but I must admit that I'm a fan of the poof! I can go out in public in my husbands sweats, I can go without make up, but I can't make it out the door without my poof! So I'm going to show you how to "rat" your hair to add volume to the roots, while avoiding the dreaded "Utah poof" at the same time :)
I'm going to show you how to go from this....
.... to this! Not bad, eh? You can't even tell there's a "rats nest" under there ;)

Side note: please ignore my amazing paint skills, I'm hopeless when it comes to computer skills. In other words, I got no skills. And ignore the cheesy faces I pull. I mean really...


1- Pick your comb. Personally, I use a simple rat tail comb. But there are some pretty amazing ratting combs out there. My favorite to use in the salon is the waalaa comb.
2- Take a small section of the hair, maybe 1/2 inch wide (you don't want it too thick so that the comb can glide through and grab all the hairs), and pull it straight up. You do want to leave a little bit of slack so that the comb can pull hairs down as you "rat". 
3- Place the comb a couple inches above the root and pull the comb down in a curved motion (kind of like the shape of a crescent moon) all the way to the root. The closer you can keep the "rats nest" to the root, the better! You want the volume at the top of your head, just at the root, not on the side like it's coming out of your ears :) Repeat movement a few times.
4- Spray roots with your favorite hair spray. Note- you can spray before back combing (another word for ratting) but I prefer to just spray after. I don't like my hair too stiff or sticky. I believe there are products that are worth spending money on, but hairspray is not one of them. I just use the strongest hold of the Dove brand. I will share the products I believe you should spend your money on in another post :)
5- Flip first back-combed section over and grab a second section (the same size) just below it. Repeat steps 2-4. Flip section back to normal but don't comb it out. You want the hairspray to dry before combing out.
6- Repeat steps 2-5 on the other side of your hair. I don't back comb the back of my hair. I think it's a waste of time because I don't see it, and it can look really messy.
7- Wait a few more seconds (depending on the type of hairspray you use, and how quickly it dries) and laugh at how awesome your hair looks (or be scared. This part always scares my clients, ha!) Note: I wish you all could have seen Eric's reaction the first time he saw me do this to my hair. He was mortified but couldn't help "daring" me to go out in public like this :)
8- Take a brush or a pick (I prefer a brush) and gently brush over the very top layer of your hair. You want to smooth the poof, not brush out all of the back combing. Sometimes the poof doesn't look right so I have to re do a section or two. Then I spray a light film of hairspray over the finished product!

 Voila! Just in case you forgot that I posted this above :)

If this was hard to understand and you are interested, let me know and I will make a vlog. After I find someone who can teach me how to make one... ha ha!

21 comments:

J and A said...

I love your hair! Beautiful. Must try this poof. :)

Amy said...

I feel like making a rat's nest in my hair is so bad for it (it happens to me almost daily with my crazy curly hair anyway)...I wish I could do it, but my hair is so thin and fine that I feel like it could be damaging. Do you have a suggestions?

Denise said...

What I wanna know is how you get those big luscious curls!

Kristen said...

Just gonna throw this out there...I think you look prettier without the poof! I agree with Denise though, I want to know about those curls! Your hair is beautiful!

Sybil said...

wow!!! your hair is gorgeous!! i found myself smiling throughout this tutorial with your happy smiley face! :D

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Amanda said...

Is it creepy for me to say I understood all of it but you just make a vlog so I can here your voice? :) hahaha

Shelley said...

A friend of mine during our girls weekend did my hair like this and showed me how to do it. I worry it's damaging to my hair and my hair is so fine that if my hair moves a certain way you can see the mess underneath...eh. I like your hair without the poof a lot too!

alex said...

I love how your hair looks! You are really pretty!

heydanixo said...

Goregous! Love the hair(:

The Olive Tree Blog said...

ok. i am gonna try this. i have a lot of hair. a lot. it stays puffy for 10 mins and then gets weighted down lol. thanks for the tip!

ajs {of MN} said...

Thanksssss I so love your hair!! I need to find me one of those ratting combs!

Sara SHOEmaker said...

you have such great hair!! I try back-combing every day but my hair is so thin it goes flat within an hour.... any tips for thin hair volume?


The House of Shoes

eray said...

you have such beautiful hair!

Unknown said...

I love your hair! I've enjoyed looking at your blog. Check out SunShine PenPals and join the fun! We'd love to have you!
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Jelli said...

This looks great! My hair is 100% flat city every single day, so I should definitely try this. Any other volume-boosting tips you've got that require no blow dryer (don't have one)? Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Now following along.

Laura Railing said...

I totally needed this tutorial.. THANK YOU!! My hair is so fine and doesn't like to hold anything. Now I know how to make it cooperate. Yours looks amazing either way!

Anonymous said...

I can never get the rats nest to stay in place. lol. ;) I think I need more hair spray.

Dinah Gacon said...

Love this girl, and I would love to do a guest post hair tutorial with you sometime :) How fun!!!

xo Dinah @ Sunshine super glam

FWIL Sentimental Blog Content said...

thanks for giving a girl like me some hope for the future! My hair thanks you!

Anonymous said...

I know this is a really old post, but I had to look again at what products you use... I had heard good things about Oribe Dry Texturing Hair Spray. Combined Spray + Dry Shampoo. Since you are a hairstylist I figured you have heard of a lot of these products. I was curious if you had or had tried it?

xoxo

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