How to curl thick Asian hair with a hair straightener

I love romantic curly hair, but I’m scared of my curling iron – too much exposed metal! I recently discovered that you can curl hair quite well using a hair straightener, which is a lot less scary for a butterfingers like me to use on the back of my head where I can’t quite see it (I’ve also been thinking about investing in some heated rollers, but I haven’t gotten around to finding some yet).

I’ve been using a pimpin’ ghd gold V classic styler in a limited edition sahara gold metallic finish. I’ve heard a lot about ghds, but never tried one properly until now, and I’m impressed! For my stiff Asian hair it’s a godsend – it’s so much faster than any other styler I’ve tried, and my hair stays straight until I wash it (longest so far is two days). It’s lightweight, the cord is generously long (2.7 m), and the on/off button sits cleverly between the arms, so you don’t turn it off by accident. It’s on the expensive side though, and doesn’t have temperature control settings. It heats super quick – 15 seconds is all it takes until it beeps and is ready to use.

Here’s a fun, casual evening look I did on my sister, who has the same thick, coarse, stiff hair as me, but chemically straightened. For my massively thick hair, I’ve found that doing the thing where you pin the top layers up and work on the bottom layers first is usually a fail, and I end up with an out-of-control, clownish afro.

On the left is how her hair naturally dries – I’m definitely getting mine permanently straightened soon!

1. Lightly mist hair with hairspray (and heat protectant if you want).

2. Take a thin section of hair from the top of the head (about an inch wide, depending on how thick you want your curls). Grab it crosswise about 1.5 inches from the roots with the heated straightening iron. Twist it up and sideways so you have hair wrapped around one arm of the straightener (which should be pointing straight up). It should look a bit like this:

Pull gently away from the head and glide the iron down the length of the hair. Ta-da – a curl!

3. Curl all of the top layer, then mist it lightly with hairspray again.

4. You should now have a bunch of curls, with weird straight hair poking out at the bottom from underneath. Curl the straight bits that stick out – this prevents you from becoming a massive boofhead. Mist the bits you just did, stand back, admire! The curls will fall out a bit after a while, so if you overdid it and look like a poodle, don’t panic.

For a curlier look, you can hold the hot curls together with a bobby pin, mist with hairspray then undo them when they’re cool to set the curl better.

What’s your best tip for curling your hair?


ghd limited edition stylers also come in red and silver, and retail for $279 – see here for more info.

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