Curling with a flat iron

I first learned about this styling trick back in December of 2010 when I was getting my hair done for some bridal portraits. The stylist curled it using her straightener. What?! Her straightener? I know it's no big deal to curl it this way now because EVERYONE is doing it, but a couple of years ago, I had never heard of that method.

I feel like I have evolved sooo much in the beauty world from the last three years. I have perfected a winged liner, started filling in my eyebrows (which I am obsessed with), began wearing lipstick almost on the regular, and now started curling my hair with the straightener.

In case any of you have missed out on this hair method or have been hiding under a rock, then I wanted to show you a pictorial of just how easy this can be! Just keep in mind that everyone has a different way of approaching this so if what you see below doesn't exactly work, tweak it a little until you get your desired look. And if it still doesn't work, tweak it some more.

This method is a lot faster than curling your hair with an actual curling iron. And if you keep burning your fingers with a wand (like me, ouch) then maybe you should try it. [Just FYI, I've been playing around with GIMP for the pictures in this tutorial. Pardon my bad cropping, but I just had to give it a try to see what the outcome would be.]

Step 1 | Grab your hair with the flat iron as if you were going to curl it by flipping it out.

Step 2 | Twist the iron once, a full 180, and instead of pulling down horizontally, pull it vertically away from your head.

Step 3 | Pull all the way out, slowly, while making sure the end of it is going through straight.

Step 4 | The curled piece of hairs might look like a way but twist it with your finger and it will form into a curl.

Step 5 | This isn't really a step...Just continue Steps 1 - 4 until your entire head is complete. If it's easier to section it off, go for it!

My hair is so thick that it takes me about half an hour to curl it with a flat iron, maybe 20 minutes if I'm in a hurry. It's about 40 minutes with a traditional curling iron. Plus, depending on how slowly you go with it, you can create tight curls or loose waves.

What do you think? Do you have other hair tools that you can use in more than one way? For example, did you know that in addition to using hairspray to set your hair, you can lightly spray it on your face to set your makeup? Orrr, I just learned that you can use it make a temporary tattoo!

I'm linking up with My Thrifty Chic.