How To Get Cool Girl Waves In 5 Minutes Flat — Without A Curling Wand

I'm slightly ashamed to admit that, after years on the beauty beat and watching countless hairstylists give tutorials, I've only just figured out how to master my perfect wave. But it's true, and what's ironic is that my "perfect wave" isn't perfect at all. It's actually quite the opposite: messy, textured, not fully formed. My ideal hairstyle is one Hollywood A-listers have been sporting for years — a messy head of hair that bends naturally and never looks too polished — but until I learned to let go of my curling wand, I could never, ever achieve it.

Everyone told me curling wands were the secret to getting these waves, but every time I tried, the curls just didn't sit right — they were always too round, too voluminous, too polished. It wasn't until I sat myself in hairstylist and founder of Spoke & Weal Jon Reyman's chair that I finally figured it out.

After giving me the cut of a lifetime, Reyman went in to curl my hair, but instead of pulling out a curling iron, he whipped out a straightener. I cringed. I knew of one way to curl with a flat iron — clamping down, flipping the barrel upside down, and running it down your hair almost like you would curl a ribbon. The effect can look like Shirley Temple.

Reyman didn't use that technique, though. Instead, he ran the straightener down the length of my hair in forward and backward motions, creating slight bends down the mid-lengths of my hair. The result was a head full of soft waves that had just the right amount of texture and volume. I immediately asked him to teach me his method. And guess what? I don't even own a curling iron now. Check out the technique in action in the video above.