How To Create Heatless Curls for Low-Maintenance Hair Styling

October 2023

We love effortless beauty, and we love giving our hair a break from heat damage. Most of all? We love not having to wield heat tools during the hottest days of the summer. However, let’s be real—we still want our hair to look good.

The air-drying solution that coaxes your natural texture into a more gorgeous but still authentic version of itself? Heatless curls. Without the excessive use of heat, your hair will become healthier over time, leading to less dryness, breakage, and dullness. Here, we’ll cover how you can create heatless curls yourself and discuss the incredible benefits they offer.

Celebrate Your Natural Texture
The best texture for most of us is the one we’re born with—just amplified a bit. Heatless curls incorporate your own curl or wave pattern, allowing you to embrace your unique beauty. Whether you have straight, wavy, or curly hair, these techniques can enhance your natural hair pattern and give you stunning curls without resorting to heat damage.

Minimize Hair Damage
As mentioned above, one of the most significant benefits of heatless curls is their ability to minimize hair damage. Heat styling tools subject your hair to high temperatures, which can strip away moisture and lead to brittle, weak strands. By using heatless methods, you eliminate the risk of heat-related damage, ensuring your locks remain healthy and vibrant.

Versatility and Convenience
What’s great about heatless curls is that they offer a range of styling options, allowing you to experiment with various curl types and create versatile looks, whether you’re into loose beach waves or tight ringlets. The best part is that you can create heatless curls overnight, so your hair does the work while you sleep. This saves you time in the morning, and ideally, you’ll be able to simply wake up and enjoy your beautifully styled hair.

Budget-Friendly
Heat styling tools can be expensive, and in addition to the possible stress they can leave on your hair without proper thermal defense, their continuous use can lead to increased energy costs. When you opt for heatless curls, you can save some money in the long run. Heatless curling techniques require little to no equipment, and they use your hair's natural capabilities to create curls, making them an economical choice—and a great choice for travel.

Look Longevity
Another major advantage of heatless curls is their longevity. With the right support products such as styling products or finishing sprays, heatless curls can last for several days, providing you with beautiful waves or curls without the need for constant touch-ups. By preserving your hair’s health, heatless curls maintain their shape and bounce for a long time. Hydrated, healthy hair is hair that can withstand more time in an air-dried style.

How To Create Your Heatless Curls At Home
First, try layering in in Kenra Volume Mousse 12 as a styler to add volume and set the hair while it’s damp. If your hair is soaking wet, you can prep it with Kenra Platinum Blow-Dry Spray and give it a quick rough dry to take out some of the water. You still want it to be at least 50% wet before creating your heatless curls.

There are several ways to create them.

Use A Kit
There are a lot of heatless curl kits on the market which include a satin tube, clip and satin scrunchies for securing the ends. You can buy one of these if you don’t have clips or scrunchies, but you can also use household items like a headband, tights, or a robe belt to wrap, or twist, your hair around to create your look. Using your item of choice, starting from the front, wrap small sections of hair around the headband, tights, or robe belt until all your hair is wrapped. Twist your hair away from your face for a modern effect. Leave it overnight and remove the item in the morning to enjoy beautiful, heatless curls.

Braiding
Section your hair into multiple braids before going to bed. In the morning, release the braids to reveal soft, natural-looking waves.

Twists
Divide damp hair into small sections and twist them tightly. Secure the twists with clips or bobby pins and allow them to air dry. Once dry, unravel the twists to achieve beautiful, defined curls.

Flexi Rods
Wrap small sections of hair around flexible rods, starting from the ends and rolling them up towards the roots. Leave the rods in overnight or until your hair is completely dry. Carefully remove the rods to reveal stunning, heat-free curls.

There you have it! Heatless curls are a fantastic alternative to heat styling, offering so many benefits for your hair. Plus, no two heatless curl sessions are the same, so you get a slightly different look every time. Enhance your look without heat and experiment with different heatless curling methods all year-round. Give your hair the love it deserves by embracing the beauty of heatless curls.