Blake Lively's Beach Wave Trick Has Us Scratching Our Heads

All due respect to Serena van der Woodsen's perfectly quaffed, glossy blonde salon waves, but Blake Lively's lived-in texture makes us want to throw our curling wand out the window of our (metaphoric) Upper East Side penthouse apartment. Turns out, we'll only need to leave a good texturizing salt spray and a diffuser in its place.

What the heck are we talking about? Following last night's guest appearance on The Tonight Show, Lively stepped out onto the streets of Tribeca (her old Gossip Girl stomping grounds), with her golden blonde hair spilling over one shoulder, styled in messy, tousled waves — the epitome of the beachy vibe we strive for regularly. And for all of us currently drooling over the perfectly piece-y texture, Lively's stylist, Rod Ortega, tells us that it's easier to copy than you might assume. In fact, it's all about the bun Lively sported earlier in the day.

Lively arrived at a press event earlier that day — where she was promoting her new film, A Simple Favor — with her wet hair pulled back in a low bun, then covered by a newsboy cap. The real magic happened backstage, where Ortega took Lively's damp hair out from under the hat and doused it with Christophe Robin's rose water-infused Instant Volumizing mist. Then, he hit it with the T3 Cura Luxe blowdryer topped with the SoftCurl Diffuser attachment to build volume without disturbing her natural texture.

Once the hair was dry, Ortega tells us that he used the a barrel iron from T3 Convertible Collection to curl pieces of hair — but, "just here and there," he tells us, to keep the texture looking natural and undone. After a rough curling, Ortega twisted the hair up into (another) bun to set. After a few minutes, Lively took the bun down, did a hair flip, turning her head upside down to shake it all loose while Ortega spritzed the roots with a little bit of Dove's dry shampoo. He finished by misting the hair with the tried-and-true L’Oreal Elnett hair spray.

While the entire thing did take some styling, products, and tools, we're definitely trying this easy and practical look at home — which is nowhere near the Upper East Side in spirit or location.