Is your hairstyle feeling the blues? Matthew Preece, celebrity hairstylist at the Fred Segal salon in Santa Monica, California, offers tips on instantly energizing your hairstyle this season. Matthew says that now is the time to add some highlights and layers to your hair in preparation for the summer. He does not recommend cutting your hair too short, so you can put it up once the weather warms up. Matthew says that everyone wants long hair in Los Angeles. Matthew shows you how to achieve a salon-quality blowout in your own home.
How To Get the Perfect Blowout
- Choose a Powerful Hair Dryer Matthew suggests keeping your dryer at the highest setting to close the hair cuticle faster (making it smoother and shinier). Matthew uses Parlux dryers in his salon, but Barbar dryers are lighter and more convenient for home use.
- Begin With Wet HairMatthew recommends blotting the hair with a towel, then blow-dry each section with a round brush. It’s the only way you can get a smooth, perfect blowout.
- Pick Smaller Sections Instead of wrapping large hair sections around your brush, Matthew recommends picking up smaller hair sections to dry the hair faster.
- Align Your Nozzle For more shine and smoothness, Matthew suggests pressing your nozzle directly onto your hair shaft instead of holding your blow dryer inches from your head.
- Spend more time on the endsPaint your ends with a brush and dryer. Instead of going from the tip to the root, brush the ends several times.
- Add volume. After drying your hair, blast your roots with the dryer from below and fluff your hair using your fingers. This will give your blowout more lift and movement. Matthew warns that some professional and home stylists do this on wet hair before they use the styling brush. This will only cause more frizz which you cannot smooth later.
- Check to Make Sure Your Hair Is DryHair may look dry, but it’s essential to touch the hair to ensure that you have removed all moisture. You will have frizz within 30 minutes if it’s still not dry.
- Set with HairsprayTo lock volume and waves in (essential if you want an L.A. blowout), spray a little hairspray on your hair. Keep the can six inches from your head to avoid sticky or stiff spots.