When I donated my hair, it was so short that my usual 1 inch curling iron trick no longer worked. It made me look too curly Sue. And just created the wrong kind of look that I was going for. I thought I could just go back to this hair tutorial using my trust 1-inch GHD curling iron. Boy was I wrong. I ended up pulling out my trusty L’ange wand instead and loved the look. Now it’s the only way I’ll curl my short hair for beachy waves. This hair tutorial also works on shoulder-length hair and honestly, long hair too.
Of course, there are also days I want to create flat iron waves which is also ideal on short hair. You can check out the super easy tutorial here. But it’s definitely a different look. For real beach waves, I love the wand and here’s how I do it.
How To Get Beach Waves On Short Hair With A Wand
Products & Tools For Short Length Waves
- 1-inch wand
- Hair clips
- Beach wave spray
- Texture spray (a sea salt spray works great too)
Step One – Start With Blown Dry Hair
Always start with hair that’s fully dry. Whether it’s day one hair or day three, just make sure it’s dry before applying heat like this to it. I typically blow dry mine with a Denman brush or round brush just to make sure my ends aren’t flipping out. I want them straight or flipped more under. This is key!
Step Two – Section Off Your Hair
Depending on how much hair your have, you may do this technique on a few sections, or just two. I typically start with about the bottom 1/3 of my hair and will curl this part first. Since my hair is super short, I will often skip the very very bottom layer because it just doesn’t really matter.
Step Three – Start Curling With Your Wand
Take small sections as you can see here, and start wrapping your hair around the wand. I typically will go in mostly the same direction and just throw a few in the opposite. But around the face, always curl away from your hair.
The wand technique will automatically have you leave a small bit of hair out from being curled (unlike a traditional curling iron where you can clamp and curl the whole piece). Leaving this little bit of hair out helps to give the ends a more beachy and natural wave look as they’ll be more straight, and the rest will be wavy. So no need to stress about getting every bit of hair touching the wand to the end of your strands.
Step Four – Run Your Fingers Through Your Hair
Break up the curls a bit and run your fingers through your hair to loosen them up. You can also use a wide tooth comb, but your hands work great here to get those loose waves.
Step Five – Finish With Hair Products
Depending on your hair texture you’ll want to finish with your favorite hair products. For me, I need a little extra help in creating that gritty look for beach waves. And a little separation. So I like to use a combination of Kristin Ess Hair products. I’ll use the Kristin Ess Hair Beach Wave Spray and spray from mid shaft down to add some separation. And then for a little volume and grit, I’ll use Kristin Ess Hair Working Texture Spray and spray this up into the root. You can also always finish with a light hair spray to hold it all in place.
TIP: Revitalize this look the next day with a quick touch up of a few face-framing pieces and some dry shampoo.
