How to curl your hair using a hair straightener

When it comes to curling hair, the drying and styling process combined takes the majority of men and women between 11-30 minutes¹. While the initial effort might add time, “to truly lock in a great style, it’s important to invest in your prep. Lasting style is all about what you do before you do the do”, says TT Hart, Dyson GB Lead Stylist. To keep your curls and waves from dropping, add a generous amount of volumizing spray or mousse to damp or towel dried hair before blow-drying using a hair dryer with a Gentle air attachment.

Heat is the key ingredient for styling hair, so it’s important to identify your hair type and set the temperature of your hair straightener accordingly, explains Celebrity Stylist, Larry King. “As stylists, we work with lots of different clients with many different hair types, and the temperature of the plates is really important to create that perfect style.”

A hair straightener that offers multiple, precise heat settings will allow you to tailor the temperature to not just your hair type, but the desired style too. For thick, coarse hair with a natural curl, set the temperature to 210˚C – the highest setting of the Dyson Corrale™ hair straightener. If you have Type 1 hair, which is typically finer or flatter, a lower temperature of 185˚C should suffice for curling. Whatever heat setting you opt for, intelligent heat control as found in the Dyson Corrale™, regulates temperature 100 times per second to ensure your selected temperature isn’t exceeded.

Following Dyson’s Global Haircare Survey, most participants did not describe loose curls as an easy style to create². Whether your biggest obstacle is manoeuvring the straightener to create nicely defined curls or being able to style those hard-to-reach places like the back of the hair, a hair straightener with cordless versatility can really enable that free movement.

Celebrity Stylist, Kellon Deryk agrees, insisting that “not being tethered to a wall while on set is a life saver” and the optional cord-free mode is just one of the many reasons he uses the Dyson Corrale™. Cordless versatility is not just important to stylists who aren’t typically the ones attempting to create challenging styles on their own at home. According to the 2020 Corrale US Owner Study, the cordless design was the second most popular reason for purchase among Dyson Corrale™ owners³.

No matter what size curls or waves you’re hoping to create, working with smaller sections of hair at a time is only going to make the job more manageable. “Many are guilty of not sectioning the hair before styling in an effort to save time. However, this can be inefficient and also compromise the end style,” reveals Dyson Global Styling Ambassador, Guo Zijing.

Throughout the curling process, experiment with section size to see what works best for your hair type and helps create the look you’re trying to achieve. For thick, coarse or curly hair, try taking smaller sections, and for finer hair, try larger sections. In any case, the smaller the section, the tighter the curls will be.

Sectioning hair is also important for creating texture. To create a more natural and textured look with varied curls, Larry King suggests alternating the direction of curls between sections. Rotate the straightener towards your face on the sections between the front of the face and ear, and then in the opposite direction for the back sections of the hair.

It’s no secret that regular use of heated styling technology leaves your hair more susceptible to heat damage. “I stake my reputation on caring for my client’s hair”, says Celebrity Stylist, Jen Atkins who uses the Dyson Corrale™ to create the same style at lower temperatures, resulting in less damage⁴.

Where hair straighteners are concerned, three in five British women with thick hair admit to leaving their straightener in much longer than they should to get the look they desire⁵. Unlike conventional flat iron straighteners with solid plates, a hair straightener with flexing plates that shape to gather hair reduces the need to do multiple passes on the same section of hair. The Dyson Corrale™ was engineered with manganese copper alloy plates that apply even heat and tension to hair strands in every pass, offering more control for enhanced styling while protecting against hair breakage⁴.