Hair Tutorial: Get Curly Hair Using an Old Pillowcase

If there's one thing I've gathered from my girlfriends when it comes to hair, it's that you always want what you don't have.  This rule of thumb also generally applies to boob size too, but that's a post for another day.  Being one who falls squarely in the category of naturally wavy hair (in the ugly, frizzy way), I've always lusted after big, bouncy, bodacious curls.  Funnily enough, my husband also lusts after big, bouncy and bodacious, but we're not talking about curls (wokka wokka).

Since I was little I've been obsessed with curls.  I even managed to somehow talk my mom into taking me to get a perm when I was in elementary school, and whenever we had one of those biography projects where you dress up like a famous person and speak in famous-person-first person to your class, I always picked Shirley Temple just so my mom had no excuse not to put my hair in ringlets using this pillowcase method.

My mom is the only one of Grandmother's three daughters (there are also three boys) who didn't have super curly hair, and this pillowcase technique is how Grandmother curled my mom's hair as a girl.  Maybe it's old fashioned to still do it this way what with all the options available, but I like carrying on such a simple tradition.  And it's free. Jackpot.

A note on how to do this technique - just like with a curling iron, the smaller the sections of hair, the tighter the curl, and the tighter you wrap your hair, the tighter the curl.  When my mom used to do Shirley Temple ringlets, she'd divide my hair into at least fifteen sections.  In the photo above I did four sections, wrapping fairly tightly.  I probably would have done better with five - one on each side, one for the bottom section in the back, and two for the top section of the back.  Remind me next time, would you?

What You'll Need:
- a few uninterrupted hours to walk around looking like a mop (I just do it at night before I go to bed)
- scissors
- pillow case
- damp hair (if your hair dries quickly, keep a misting water bottle on hand to re-wet as needed.  Also, if your hair doesn't hold curl well, you may need drier hair.  A holding product may be recommended.  I didn't use anything, but next time I'll use a little anti-frizz spray to keep things smoother)

P.s. Thanks to my husband for taking the pictures and not making (too much) fun of me.