Sunset and 5th: Five Minute Hair

Have you ever dreamed of having your own hairstylist to just follow you around, touching up your tresses and making sure that every wave looks effortlessly flawless? Well, I certainly have. As I've gotten older, my hair has gone from being thick, lustrous, and wavy, to thin, course and frizzy-curly. One thing is certain, and that's that I don't have the kind of time one needs to achieve beach perfect waves, until now!

Enter my amazing friend and hairstylist, Randi P, (hair guru to the stars) plus one really wonderful tool she taught me to use, and my waves have been cut down to about five minutes! Here are the quick and easy techniques she taught me:

First, take hair that has been either blow dried once, or heat styled already for the day. At the end of the day, (and to help preserve it) pull hair up and back away from your face, and gently twist it clockwise.

Next, wrap it in a loose bun, while keeping the twist in shape. Make sure to use a scrunchy or soft tie rather than an elastic, as it will prevent creases or crimping in the hair. To keep shape and luster, make sure to coat the ends with an emollient before wrapping it up, like Moroccan Oil or Bumble and Bumble DeFrizz. Go to sleep with the coil in place.

When you awaken, shake out the coil and comb through with fingers. You'll have a lot of wave and volume, but if you're a rolling sleeper like me you may need to go back around the front and finesse a few pieces with an iron. However, if you go to sleep coiled as shown above, you won't need to curl, blow out, or iron your entire head from scratch.

To smooth flyaway bits, wrap a 1" flat iron barrel around just the top or front pieces that frame your face and twist outward and away in a clockwise motion. I usually only need to do 3 or 4 strand pieces on each side.

Comb through waves and add a bit more serum.

Voila, soft waves without frizz or 30 minutes of piece-y work. Total time thus far? About 3 minutes. The only thing left? Volume!

Here's my favorite part! You can do this last bit with my new, best friend--the Hot Tools Ionic, Hot Air Brush. Simple clamp the top pieces of your hair near the root, blast with heat for 5/10 seconds, and then hit the "cool" air button to set the shape. You'll have instant volume and sleekness, with none of the damaging effects!