Curling irons have become a staple in many women’s beauty tools arsenal. If you have one at home, you know just how convenient it can be in helping you look better put together, especially when you’re in a rush and just need a bit of styling to pull your look together. 

The idea behind curling irons is pretty simple: take a section of your hair, wrap it around the curling wand, and wait for it to do its magic. After that, you’re supposed to have gorgeous, bouncy curls. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Getting the perfect curl requires patience, precision, and a bit of familiarity with the curling iron unit of your choice. 

How do you get the perfect curl using a curling iron? Here are some tips that might be able to help you out. 

Tips to Get The Perfect Curls 

Size matters

There’s a common misconception that bigger curls give off more beachy waves. However, using a curling iron with a wand that’s too big can make the task more challenging than it is rewarding. If you have short hair, the best curling iron would be one with a smaller barrel, ideally one with a 1” barrel or smaller like this Hot Tools curling iron. Longer hair calls for a bigger barrel like the Chi Lava 1 ½” Curling Iron. This rule also applies to creating tight and loose curls: the best one to use for tight curls is a curling iron with a small barrel and the best hair tool for waves is a big-barreled curling iron.

Wrapping direction

This is perhaps one of the things that a lot of people fail to pay attention to. Wrapping towards your face tends to frame it in a not-so-pleasant way. Unless your goal is to hide your face with voluminous curls, wrap away from the face. Doing so leads to more natural looking curls and it opens up the face to make you look more radiant. 

Set the heat accordingly

Choose a curling iron that has multiple heat settings like the Babyliss Nano-titanium curling iron which has 5 heat settings that you can adjust according to your hair type and needs. Finer hair curls faster and under lower heat settings. Textured hair needs more hair to be curled. Don’t leave the hair wrapped around your curling iron for too long lest you burn it and damage it. 

Curl hair only when it’s dry

Curling or styling your hair with heat while it’s wet will damage and weaken it so make sure your hair is totally dry before you start using your curling iron on it. Dry hair holds curls much better, too. 

Use a good hairstyle setting product

Make your curls last longer by locking the look in with a good product such as hair spray. Choose something light like the TIGI Bed Head Flexi Head Hairspray