Best Pin Curl Tutorial & How To

Create Vintage-Inspired Pin Curls

This tutorial will show you how to make your hair bouncy, with beautiful curls or waves, without causing any damage or using any heat. There is a vintage element to it, as the method is derived from styles of the past. I do my hair like this often, especially if it’s either flat and boring, or frizzy and all over the place. It manages to transform my unruly hair into large, beautiful, full-bodied curls and waves – all from using some bobby pins.

What You Need: Bobby Pins, Damp hair or water bottle & a brush!

For written instructions:

To start, you will need to have washed your hair recently. You can’t wait several days after washing, as it will not work. Next, if you’ve just gotten out of the shower recently, let your hair either air dry or blow dry it, leaving it very slightly damp. It can’t be wet or even very damp – or it won’t work as well or look as well when you’re done. Try to get your hair just about dry. If your hair is too dry, take out your water bottle to spritz pieces you are working on.

Have your bobby pins out and ready, your brush nearby and your water bottle also.

Separate your hair into two sections and secure the top part, so it’s out of the way (use a clip or hair tie). Then, take a chunk of hair either on the left or right side, be sure it is slightly damp (or use the water bottle to dampen it) and brush through it. Then, take one hand and begin to wrap the hair around two fingers. Take your other hand once you get near the roots, so you can grab onto the looped hair you created.

Then, take a bobby pin and secure that loop close to your scalp or head. Take another bobby pin and secure it from another direction, crossing the bobby pins, as needed. When I wrap the hair around one hand, I tend to use two fingers to wrap it around, while opening my fingers a bit as I don’t want the curl to be super tight. Keep doing this and pulling out more hair to work on, while securing the rest out of the way. Do this until you have all your hair pinned up. I used to do this without having to create so many pin curls, but lately since my hair has gotten longer, I have to take smaller chunks of hair, and do more.

You do all these pin curls at night, before going to bed. You can then sleep on them comfortably and remove them in the morning. Once you remove them, you will see that the curls created are very different from the curls made by a curling iron. These aren’t flat or average looking. Pin curls create massive volume, shine and bounciness to the hair. It creates quite a transformation and this style looks great on short hair and long hair. After the pins are out, you can brush it, or just run your fingers through it. It is up to you.