How I Style My Wavy Lob

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One of the questions I get most often is how I style my hair. While I don’t consider myself a hair stylist expert by any means, let’s just say I’ve had my fair share of moments behind a chair. To be honest, I’m always kind of surprised when people ask me for hair advice, because I don’t feel like I do anything particularly groundbreaking or special, but I think the biggest key to a good hair day is patience… especially when you’re doing your own hair yourself.

In collaboration with AOL Lifestyle Collective for their 2016 Summer Beauty Awards, I’ve pulled a couple of my favorite hair products to re-create the wavy lob that I wear pretty much all the time.

The Perfect Conditioner

When it comes to hair conditioner, I’m somewhat of an addict — I use HUGE gobs of it in my hair at a time, and I run through bottles at an alarmingly fast rate! This is mostly because curly black hair (and extensions!) need more hydration than other hair textures, but also because I find that my hair carries styles a lot better when it’s fully moisturized… otherwise it just looks a crazy, frizzy mess.

I love the Amika Triple Rx Hair Mask because unlike most other conditioners, this one is full of natural ingredients and is a lot more intensive, so I get to use less product while getting double the hydrating effect. After washing my hair, I saturate my hair in conditioner for like 15 minutes, and rinse it all out with cold water.

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Heat Protection for Healthy Hair

Super important step that way too many people leave out of their hair care process — before any heat touches my hair, I make sure to use a protectant to seal in hydration and minimize damage from blow dryers, hair straighteners and curling wands. This Argan Oil Thermal Protector Spray is perfect, and it smells really, really good!

After a full blow dry comes my least favorite part in the process… even though it’s the most essential — hair curling! I use a clip-free curling wand to avoid getting weird kinks in my hair from curling the wrong way, and I just think clip-free wands generally do a better job at curling than ones with clips do.

For the best volume I alternate curl directions, until I get to the front where my hair frames my face — make sure to curl AWAY from your face, otherwise you’ll end up with a bunch of weird, limp poodle curls… and we don’t want that!

My Final Secret Touch

After the curls cool and I brush them out, normally I’d be done and ready to go… but I recently added one final step to the process to get perfectly beachy waves, instead of veering a little too close to “Old Hollywood” territory. I heat up my straightening iron and run it through the bottom 3-4 inches of my hair to straighten out the tips! It makes all the difference, TRUST ME.

Et voila, here’s the finished product! If you like, you can spritz a finishing spray to hold everything… but I personally like it when my waves fall throughout the day.

What do you guys think? Let me know if you try this method: take a picture of your locks and tag me on Instagram: @cocobassey — Happy hair styling!