Skills: 10 Steps to the Perfect Blowout

(Ah! Pretty hair that I covet! This here is pretty much the perfect blowout. )

...and I don't mean in your baby's diaper. Those ten steps would be like 1) Feed your baby prunes and apple juice all morning. 2) Leave the house without your typical *just in case* extra diaper... etc. OMG the diaper blow out in public. Is there anything worse? Actually, no... one time I was in a store when my daughter was a year old and she totally projectile vomited everywhere. But diaper blowouts are pretty gross. Luckily, we're not talking about them today.

We are talking about HAIR blowouts. You know when you get your hair done, and the stylist blow dries it all perfectly silky smooth, and then you can never seem to replicate the job at home? Yeah that. Now I prefer to do my own blowouts so much that when I have my haircut I never let her dry it. I head home with it wet, where I can assess the hairstyle and style it my own way. I've had too many bad experiences where what I thought was a terrible haircut (PANIC!) was just a too-fluffy blowdry job (HOORAY!)

You should know how to get a perfect blowout. That means hair that has volume without being too terrifying or without having it go too flat. I like y blowout to have a little curl, but it totally depends on the texture that you have. If you have for real curly hair, you can complete the blowout steps with a diffuser for really defined curls.

Ready? Have your pen out? You better be taking notes! At the end there will be a test.

1) Start with wet hair straight outta the shower. I don't always condition my hair, but I always do when I know I'm going to be doing a blowout. When you get out of the shower, don't scrub your hair dry. That just ruffled the hair shaft and practically guarantees flyaways. Pat it dry.

2) Pop in some product. I am a mousse lover because I like the volume. But gel is fine, as is serum, if you have frizzy hair. Instead of just scrunching it through, apply it directly to the roots. I work mine in like I work in shampoo. Then, comb the product through to the ends. YAY.

3) Clip the top portion of your hair with a couple of large alligator clips. If you don't own any, get some immediately. They are awesome. Just part your hair by running your thumbs across the tops of your ears and pinning the top portion on top of your head like a weirdo.

4) Get your dryer and brush ready. I prefer to do the bottom portion of my hair without a brush, and just run my fingers through while I do the bottom portion, so it doesn't look so *done*. But a round brush will give you a good shape if you're not comfortable with going without. Point the dryer DOWN from the top of your head, directing the heat to the exposed hair. Pointing down with give you the smoothest results. Anyone who has seen a hair care commercial knows that your hair shaft can get all frazzle-y otherwise.

5) Once the bottom portion of hair is like, 80 percent dry, unclip the top. This is because as you blow dry the top of your hair, the bottom portion will be dried the rest of the way. If you dry it 100 percent, you could be burning it. NO GOOD.

6) Work with your haircut to dry the top portion of your hair in the same way as you did the bottom. If you have a shorter hairstyle, you're going to be working with your brush more to nudge it into the right shape. If you have longer hair, it's pretty easy to just dry it into shape. I flip all of my hair to once side and blast the hair dryer at the roots to get better lift, then I point downward as I slowly flip sections back over to the right side.

7) Heat up a flat iron or curling iron. I run it through the top layer of the hair only, and then twist the ends so I get a bit of bouncy curl at the bottom. Or, for straight hair, run the flat iron through while following the path of the iron with a round brush. The shape of the round brush will make the volume from the flat iron take hold.

8) Apply a little hairspray or pomade to finish the look. Shorter hair will benefit from pomade because it gives your hair more definition and shine. I prefer hairspray because my hair is longer. To finish off the look I grasp a large portion of my hair on the side, lift it, and spritz short bursts of an aerosol hairspray as I slowly release the hair. It creates little pockets of air and hold that give my hair a more well-rounded blowout.

9) Finally , smooth the top layer of hair over for a sleek look. I sometimes apply a leetle oil to the ends just to they look smooth and not frizzy.

10) Give it once over and wink at yourself in the mirror, sexy laday!

Alright, want to see a finished product blowout? Here's me!


This was my favorite hair EVER but it was red and everyone kept telling me I looked like my mom. Not that that's bad... it just got weird.


This was my family picture blowout that I did around Christmas time. It was EPIC good hair and I congratulated myself quite heartily. Also, I'm wearing false eyelashes and my friend said it looked like an Old Navy ad. Psssshhh if Old Navy had me styling everyone's hair maybe.

So, the blowout. The pretty, non-diaper kind isn't as hard as it seems. It takes a little time, the right techniques and the right products, but once you done it one time, it's super easy. It can even fit into a 30-minute level three! In fact... I think I might do one today (I have a volunteers dinner tonight to go to.) I'll post pics on the Facebook page when I'm done!

PS... I would like to point out that although I was extremely tempted to title this post "Skillz" I refrained. YOU ARE WELCOME, good sirs.