Technical File: Creating volume with hair: Blow dry

 Blow drying the hair is another way to add volume with only a hair dryer and brush. Over the past couple of years big volumous blow dries have become a big trend, the desire for sleek, straight hair has some what taken a back seat, however is also still in demand.

There are two ways to add volume to the hair when blow drying, this can be with a curl or with a straight blow dry. The curling technique will give you an effortless glam look or the 'Victoria's Secret look' and the straight blow drying technique can be used to add volume to straight hair.

Health and safety:

• Make sure you have washed your hands before touching your client. 
• Ensure you take a consultation so that you know the hair and scalp type of your client, this will also allow you to understand if they have any allergies to anything that may be in the products you are going to use. 
• When washing the hair place a towel around your clients neck to ensure they do not get wet, also ask if the temperature of the water is ok to avoid burning them.
• When using the hair dryer ask if the heat is ok before you place it on your clients neck to avoid burning them 
• When drying the hair make sure you keep the dryer moving again to avoid burning your client.
• Avoid spraying products in your clients face and eyes. 

Tools that will be needed to complete this look:

• Shampoo and conditioner if you are going to wash the hair first.
• Water spray if you are going to wet the hair down.
• Hair dryer with a nozzle to help the flow of air. 
•  Moose. 
• Heat protection spray.
• Round brushes for the curling technique. 
• A paddle brush for the straight technique.
• Hairspray.
• Hair clips/sectioning clips. 
• Shine spray (optional).
• Sectioning comb.
• Dry shampoo (optional).

Steps needed to complete this look

1. Begin by holding a consultation with your client, this means taking a look at the hair and the head. Does your client have damaged hair? If so this will mean you should use less heat on the hair as to not damage it any further. Do they have thick, thin, corse or smooth hair? This may affect the overall outcome of the blow dry. Do they have a dry or greasy scalp? This will affect whether or not you can use dry shampoo on the hair or not. Finally remember that products are also important when it comes to blow drying. Moose may dry out the hair or make the hair look greasy if it is too tacky, dry shampoo may irritate the clients scalp and may leave the hair looking greyish if used too much and hair spray may leave the hair feeling crispy if not needed. Here is an example of the consultation notes I took before blow drying the hair:
   
2. Next wash the hair or wet the hair down with a water spray, if the hair has not been washed for a while then wetting the hair down and using products may leave the hair looking greasy, also washing and conditioning the hair way leave it too smooth for the blow dry to hold however this all depends on the hair type of your client. 
3. Once the hair is wet blow dry so that the hair is damp and not soaking wet. 
4. Section the hair so that the bottom layer is left down.
5. Take a section from the bottom layer and place the round brush to the root of the hair, make sure the section of hair is not to large for the brush as you will be left with bits falling out 
6. Take the hair dryer and dry the root of the hair, make sure you are holding the hair brush at an upwards angle as this will give lift to the hair. Also make sure you keep the hair dryer moving and not simply on the hair as you will burn your clients head. 
7. Take the brush through the hair with the nozzle from the hair dryer right close to the hair, this will keep the hair in the same shape and avoid any loose hairs. 
8. Repeat these steps holding the brush up at the root at all times to give the hair lift.
9. Once the hair is dry move the brush to the end on the hair and roll the brush up as if you were using a curling tong. 
10. Hold the heat on the brush, making sure you keep the dryer moving (as not to burn the head).
11. Unravel the hair from the brush, there should be a loose curl in the hair and the section should have a lot of lift to it. 
12. Once you have done this you can apply a hair clip to hold the curl in to cool, this will give you a more structured look whereas not applying a clip will give you a more undone natural look. 
13. Repeat these steps for the whole head. 
14. Next dress the hair; this means placing it in the right place and controlling the shape if need be.
15. Once you are done, lightly spray the hair with hairspray. 
16. Then take a look at the hair, if the client is requesting more volume you may backcomb at this point, alternatively you may apply a light spritz of dry shampoo to give more lift, this will also dry out the roots and keep the look in for a few days. 
17. Finally you can apply a shine spray to the hair, this will make the hair look glossy and healthy. 

I think this was good for my first attempt, as you can see the hair has a bouncy look to it and when the hair moved you could see this. I would have liked to have achieved more of a curl and consistency with the curls throughout the hair, however seeing as I struggled with this technique to begin with I feel this has been successful. I believe that practise will allow me to improve this technique as I will feel more confident with what I am doing and with my application of the products and the feeling of not hurting my client. 

Here I have attempted a straight blow dry, my client has naturally curly/frizzy hair so I found this a little difficult especially as due to the fact she had a fringe.

I then decided to try the blow drying on another client, although they too had a natural curl to the hair, this time they had a little damage to the hair due to colouring and the hair was substantially shorter than that of the previous person.

I did not like this as much as the curling blow dry as I felt it would have just been quicker to straighten the hair, although I did like the volume that this gave to the hair. I believe to improve this I think I could have held the brush tighter downwards to avoid the fizzy ended strands of hair, although I do not think the colour damage helped with this. However for my first attempt I am happy with the result.