Volume with Hair

To begin the new term we revisited the blow-dry but with the added of focus of creating the perfect lift. Throughout the hair workshops we will be encouraged to use a real life model rather than a dolls head as it will enable us to have experience with the difficulties and strengths of real hair.

There is a health and safety issue with using a hair dryer; When drying your models hair you must be careful not to apply the heat directly to the scalp for too long as it will burn them. Always assess the hair before you begin so you can see which is the appropriate heat.

• Begin by combing the hair through with a pintail comb until it is tangle free.
• If the hair is particularly thick you want to apply some root spray as it will give the hair a little extra lift.
• Then you want to part the hair, side or middle depending on your style. 
• You want to start at the bottom of the hair and work your way towards the crown. So using your section clips you can adjust the amount of hair you are pulling down as you go.
• Before you style the hair with the blowdryer you want to just blast it with hot air to illuminate the excess hair otherwise it will make the lift process a lot more difficult.
• Once the hair is damp you can begin.
• So starting from the bottom you want to use your rounded vent brush to scoop under the hair and apply heat to the top and underneath the section of hair.
• If you need to at any time move the hair just pop your hairdryer under the piece of hair and then you can move the brush to whatever position you need to. Try to avoid using your hands or fingers to adjust the hair as it can affect the outcome.
• Then you work your way down the strand of hair applying the hairdryer directly to the hair and constantly turning your brush. This gives you a lovely rounded effect to the hair.
• When you reach the end of the strand of hair make sure you keep turning the brush as much as possible and go right to the ends to give the ends of the hair a nice finish.
• You want to continue this process till you reach the crown, remember that everytime you dry a new piece of hair, don't brush it onto the dry hair as it will ruin all your hard work.
• Once you reach the crown you want to split the hair depending on the parting and dry the hair working towards the parting.
• It will take a little while the first few times you try it because you are just getting used to it.
• Once you think you are finished you can apply hairspray or a fixer to give it a nice hold. But try not to run your fingers through it as it can make the lift fall.

I tried this process in class but didn't get very far as my model had very thick hair and I didn't have the chance to complete the whole head. I then repeated the process on my dolls head and found a difference. The dolls head obviously could with stand whatever heat but I found that I couldn't get the finish I wanted, plus the end of the hair could have been blowdryed more as they looked a bit messy.
If I were to do the blowdry again I would use a model with long hair because it is more of a challenge. I feel drying short hair is a lot easier especially if they have layers. Also I would section the hair off a lot better because I tried to do too much hair at a time.