On Sunday, my roommate and I both agreed it was already vacation time even if PC didn’t let us leave until Tuesday. This obviously meant it was time for a Girls Night In, which consisted of a Friends marathon (Joey confessing his love for Rachel gets me every time), Cosmo quizzes, snack food and, of course, browsing the internet. While we were stumbling along, we found a Youtube video called “How to curl your hair with a sock! No heat”. As you could imagine, we were skeptical…but after watching the video, it was necessary for us to try it out.
The girl in the video does her sock up-do like a champ, but it’s a little more difficult than it may seem at first. So here are a few tips and tricks for those who are novices like us:
Preparation
1. Selecting the sock.
The sock should be on the longer side– a tube sock or a dress sock would do. Don’t select one you’re attached to because you need to cut the toe out in order for it to work. And, of course, make sure it’s clean!
2. Roll
Roll the sock into a doughnut. It should look like this:
3. Dampen your hair
I found that trying this immediately as you get out of the shower isn’t the best idea because your hair tends to be a little too wet. The curls won’t set if the hair has too much moisture in it because they won’t dry overnight, so make sure it’s just damp. Spritz some water into your hair and comb it through to get rid of the tangles.
4. High Pony
Pull your hair on top of your head and secure it with an elastic to make a high ponytail. You’ll look like you belong in the 90s, but that’s totally fine. The higher, the better — besides giving you more hair to curl, it will also eliminate any creases the hair tie would otherwise give you.
The Bun
Pull your hair through the sock donut as if it’s a scrunchie. After this, swing your hair in front of you (so that you can see what you’re doing) and begin curling the hair around your donut. Make sure you tuck in the tips of your hair. Keep rolling it up with the sock donut until it lands like a bun on top of your head.
There isn’t a lot of variation between fine and thick hair. For fine hair (like my roommate’s), it’s really important that you make sure you curl your hair tightly over the donut. Thick hair (like mine) it will help if you bend over and roll it up so that you could see it best. Make sure that you fan out all of your hair so that it gets all the way around the sock. By fanning out the hair, you’re also ensuring a more even curl.
It should look a little like this:
The Curls
Sleep in this overnight. Then, when you unroll it in the morning, you should have beautiful curls! They’ll relax a little bit during the day, so don’t worry if you’re intimidated by the volume of the curls.
Alternatives (Also using socks)
If this doesn’t work for you (and it does take a few tries, so don’t be ashamed if it wasn’t perfect the first time), you can always use a few alternatives.
Step 1. Take 3 socks (you don’t have to cut the toes off, but they should be longer). Make sure your hair is damp as before.
Step 2 – Gather the hair at the crown of your head (as if you were going to put your hair in a half-up, half-down style). Make sure everything is detangled!
Step 3 – Take the sock and place the heel portion of it at the end tips of your hair. Again, make sure they’re tucked in and roll them up as far as you’d like (I prefer to roll it all the way to the top of my head) with the sock. Tie the two ends together.
Step 4 – Split the remaining hair up evenly to the right and left sides of your head. Do the exact same rolling motion and tie. The knot doesn’t have to be incredibly tight, but should last you through the night, so if you know you roll around a lot, make sure you prepare your hair for that.
Step 5 – Take it out in the morning and you’re good to go!
(Feel free to add in a little de-frizzing serum to control any flyaways.)
So collegiettes™, if you’re looking for a way to curl your hair without getting the extra heat damage from a curling iron, try these methods out and let us know what you think!