The Real Reason Why You're Getting Creases When Curling Your Hair

Curling your hair at home seems easy until you try it. Whether you're using a wand or an iron, and even after watching a hundred tutorials, there are tricks that you figure out simply by messing up over and over again. Mastering your at-home technique is about finding the right way to hold the tool you're using, as well as how hot to make it and even how long to keep your hair in the thing without burning it off. As Javan Stone, senior stylist at L.A.'s Spoke & Weal, explained to Glamour, there are plenty of obvious ways you can mess up curling your hair.

First, you can neglect to prep it first. "Starting with a good blow-dry takes time, but you'll get salon results if you do it that way," Stone advises. Then there's not knowing which kind of curls you actually want. For "an old-school glamour curl, you want all your hair around the barrel," but for "modern, messier waves, leave the ends out and start lower down on your head." Thankfully, when it comes to one of the most annoying setbacks of hair curling, the solution is surprisingly simple.

As Our Everyday Life reports, those unsightly creases you get on your hair after curling it are caused by the clamp on the iron. If you're aware of it, though, you can expertly curl your hair while avoiding the risk of pleats. Once again, always ensure your hair is bone dry before beginning because using extreme heat on wet hair can burn it, not just causing long-term damage but also making the creases more obvious. Separate the section you want to curl, open the barrel with your other hand, and clamp it down close to your head. Slide the barrel down until it's clamped at the end of the section, then twist it under multiple times until you're back near your scalp once more.

Always hold the iron horizontally while twisting, and then tilt it at an angle once you're back near your roots. When you're there, ever so slightly let go of the clamp. Hold the iron in place for no more than ten seconds until your hair is warm to touch. To release your (hopefully) bouncy Hollywood curls, open and close the clamp quickly while pulling the iron swiftly downwards. This will further prevent pleats from forming. And voilà, perfect, crease-free curls.