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I tried the heatless hair curler TikTok's raving about

By Lauren Attard|10 months ago

If, like me, you spend your evenings scrolling through TikTok then there's no doubt that at some point you've stumbled across people trying out the viral heatless curls.

Content creators and Instagram models wrap their hair around a silk headband, leave it for a few hours or overnight and return to magically reveal mermaid-like waves. And they make it look so damn easy.

I wanted to know if I could achieve the same glamorous look sans the use of my hair straightener or curling wand so I ordered a heatless hair curler from Amazon.

On sale for $14.40

Forget fancy packaging, it arrived in simple plastic wrapping and with step-by-step instructions, with pictures for reference (the visual learner in me was overjoyed). Inside was one satin-wrapped foam curling rod, two satin scrunchies and a claw clip to lock everything in place.

Here are some of the variables of this experiment before we get into the process. I have naturally frizzy and wavy hair, it's thick and it's long.

If you have a different hair type, you could get different results, so keep that in mind.

While the package instructions are very clear and easy to follow I also picked up a few extra tips from the world wide web.

Inspired by TikTok user aquiredstyle. (9Product Reviews)

The curls were certainly there but they were giving Cindy Lou rather than Cindy Crawford.

How to use the Amazon Heatless Curler

The process itself is super easy.

On slightly damp hair, place the foam rod on top of your head like a headband and secure it in place with the claw clip. Then, starting from the top of your head, take sections of your hair and wrap it around the foam rod, adding little by little as you go. When you get to the end, secure your hair with a scrunchie and do the same to the other side.

You can leave it in for an hour or so, but for maximum bounce I decided to sleep in it overnight. Knowing I have frizzy hair I wrapped my head up in a silk scarf and hit the hay. It's definitely not the most comfortable thing to sleep in, but you'll find a sweet spot and eventually fall asleep.

By morning time I was pleasantly surprised to find that the foam rod hadn't budged nor had any hair fallen out of place – that was the silk scarf working its magic.

I was ready to take out the foam rod and have my own Insta model moment, but things didn't quite work out that way, at first. The curls were certainly there but they were giving Cindy Lou rather than Cindy Crawford.

My hair was still slightly damp in a few spots and there was definitely an indentation around the crown of my head where the rod sat.

Like all curls, these required a bit of combing and finessing. And I did use my ghd to fix the front pieces of my hair and get it to a point where I would go out in public. On my first attempt the waves fell out after an hour or two, but using hairspray helps them hold longer.

The end result: Before brushing versus after brushing. (9Product Reviews)

The verdict

I suspect the heatless curler would work better on thin, less frizzy and longer hair types. But the foam rod is much more forgiving on the hair than a curling wand and far more comfortable than traditional hair rollers.

Would I use this to style my hair for an event? Not without mastering it first. A few more trial and errors and I could nail the technique, and use it to give my hair a midweek break from heat tools.

If you want to try it out for yourself, now is the perfect time, as it's currently 35 per cent off on Amazon, on sale for just $14.40.