Headband Curls | No-Heat Hairstyles
December 12, 2011
I do use heat on my hair from time to time, and also on a few hairstyles with my girls, but always make an effort to use a good heat protectant.
There are, however, hairstyles where you can get gorgeous curls without the use of heat. These no-heat hairstyles have been used for years in the form of pin curls, rag curls, foam rollers, sock buns, etc.
Here is a curling method you may not have heard about, for low curls only using a simple headband. How neat is that?
To begin, simply place a thin cotton headband on the forehead but over the back of the hair. Then spritz the hair with the water bottle so that the hair is slightly damp, gently finger-combing the water through the hair. {If the hair is too wet, then it will not hold the curls.} Proceed next by separating out small sections of hair to be wound tightly around the headband, until you reach the back of the head
Do the same on the other side and combine the remaining hair into one central strand that you wind through the headband until there is no hair remaining. {You can use a Topsy Tail on this step to make things much easier… I thought of that after we filmed the hairstyle!}
If you have a really cute headband, the hair at this stage can actually be a fun hairstyle for that day. It almost has a Greek Goddess look to it.
The key is to sleep on this hairstyle overnight until you are ready to take it out. You may choose to wear a silk scarf over the hair to keep it from falling out while you sleep.
The next morning, gently unwind the strands of hair from the headband. You should end up with large, voluminous curls in the lower sections of the strands, and you can style the hair as you wish in all sorts of combinations. We made this a half-up/half-down hairstyle by forming an upper ponytail with some of the hair, and then gently bobby pinning the curls back into the ponytail holder.
Again, this is a fun hairstyle for girls of all ages. It is so easy to do and you never have to touch a curling iron! Enjoy!
Items Needed: Brush, water bottle, 1 thin cotton/soft headband, 1 ponytail holder, 2-3 bobby pins, hairspray.
Time Requirement: 5 minutes (night before), 2 minutes (morning after)
Skill Level: Easy
Happy Hairdoing!
* Note from Mindy: Don’t forget to follow us on BlogLovin, a new easy-to-use blog reader!
This is awesome. My hair doesn’t hold curls worth…well, anything. I am SO going to try this!
I am having trouble grasping the concept. Could you do a YouTube video, please?
I want to try this on myself and my daughter. I like your hair as well Mindy. Mine is pin straight long and boring =) I wish I could find something cute to do with it.
This is genius!!!! I’ve always like braided my hair and twirled them in different directions to get nice curls on the second day.. but the head band thing is new to me.. and so awesome! Can’t wait to try it.
I love the way you make every hair do look so easy. thank you seriously! I am pretty clueless when it comes to hair other than a ponytail!
I can do more with our hair now thanks to you guys thanks for the insperation.
ps love your site have recomended it to all the mums at school.
I am loving this one. I am always looking for great quick ways to get curls in my daughter’s hair. Pinning this one to try, we have a party this weekend so I will be trying this one for that.
I seriously, CANNOT wait to try this! LOVE it!
This is fabulous! I had to come and see what you’ve been up to lately! ALways genius ideas.
Wanted to let you and your readers know about this cute giveaway I’m doing–so great for the little gal’s and their hair for Christmas!!-ends tomorrow! http://www.prettyhairisfun.com.
Cute! I’ve tried this, and I’ve also found that if you just cut off the hem of an old t-shirt and wrap it around your head once or twice (or tie it) that it works well. Good luck all!
I tried this last night and worked perfect!!! Pain free and fab!!!! Thank u xx
OMG! I love this. I cant wait to try this! I am a dancer and I am in the thanksgiving day parade. This will be great to sleep on the bus and not worry about rollers or anything. Thanks you!
I tried this last night on both my girls. Worked terrific on the one with really fine hair that doesn’t hold curl at all! It was still a bit curly when she got home from school! My other one has super thick hair and hers didn’t work.
I’m going to try it again with smaller sections of hair though! Totally great and neither one complained about sleeping in it. 
I’ve been following your blog for a couple of years now and I’m suddenly struck by how grownup everyone is looking these days! I’m going to try this I’ve got one with normal/thin hair and one with thick hair, I’m might try doing it tonight after they have been for their swimming lessons to make sure the hair curls well on the thicker hair, I might even try a little hair mousse as well.
love this… your daughters are gorgeous
Maybe it only works on hair that’s within a certain length range? I tried it on myself last nigth and got nothing but tangles. =0( Oh well, nothing works for everyone…
By the way, Louise is right. Your girls are looking very grown-up.
I love your website. My daughter and I couldn’t wait to try this on her hair last night. It turned out so pretty and soft this morning. I loved it and she was so excited to wear it to school. She also wants the chalk so we can do the highlights. What great ideas you bring to us. Thank you!!
I love your hairstyles for my 4 daughters. Thank you! I am wondering if you can tell me how you did your hair in this film? All 4 of my daughters are under the age of 6-with long pretty hair. I have about your length of hair, too, but it is in a pony tail everyday. I would love to know how to make myself look and more importantly, feel better about the way my hair looks. Yours was so cute-how did you do it?
I just put my daughter’s hair up, and was having trouble with the last clump in the middle. I went back and reread your suggestion about the topsy tail, and I about did cartwheels! I can’t wait to see how this turns out! Thank you!
I am only ten and I can do this it is awesome mindy and I wish I could meet you I am your biggest fan!
I’m always looking for new heat free curling techniques and this one was new for me. Can’t wait to try it out. I think it is cute all wrapped around the headband too, I would go out in public like that!
Thanks Mindy and girls for another great one!
I am trying this tonight! Hope it works, my hair is so thick that I ran out of headband before hair also and I’m worried about the back sections of my hair. But I can always go over with a curling iron in the morning!
hi i was wondering if you could do a hair tutorial on my idea so what you do is a ponytail normal do the topsy tail the way you do it seperate the hair into 3 peices do regular braids on them put elastic bands on them so it dont come out then grab the 3 peices then start doing a braid until you ran out of hair
i hope its a good idea my name is marie and i am 12
were do you get the headbeans from thankyou for reading
on the chalk colring my vavoret color is puprple and the color of my hair is black i think it will be the right on my hair thankyou for your time
My daughter always has me brad her hair before bed so she can have the waves in her hair. Now I cant wait to try this hair style on her.
After trying it once and running out of head band and having the side I’d done unravelling whilst trying to do the other side, I found a solution – 2 headbands! One for each side, with the hair only being wrapped around one. Much easier when doing it to yourself.
Really great idea. It’s easy, not to time consuming, and turns out beautiful.
Hello!
I tried these and they work really well! i figured all the hair was gonna fall out in the night, but it didnt!!!! By the morning i had pretty luscious curls! Thanks you cute girls hairstyles!
These are gorgeous curls! I love how full they make hair look, even on different lengths of hair. Thanks so much for sharing this!
That is so cool my sister don’t have to damage my hair any more and I’m the same age as the twins my birthday is July 22,2000
Hey Mindy!! Your daughters are gorgeous!! How old are the twins?? Anyway I will definitely try it out! Hope it works!!
This is my favorite way to curl my hair! I did this the other night and I was very happy with the results!
CUTE!
I love this! I only wrapped the front part of my hair in the headband, then on Christmas I took it out and it looked so pretty! The last time a curling iron was used on my hair, the ends were the only curly part by lunch. I can’t remember how long these lasted, but I was running around a lot. THANK YOU!!!!!
I am soooo!! going to try this with my daughters hair. I have tried many of your braids and the compliments she gets are amazing. thank you for the great videos, keep them coming.
Hey Mindy! I am a teen girl who needs help! Most of your daughter’s hair is either long or really short, and mine is in the middle. For the longer styles I never have enough hair, and the short one just don’t work on my hair. Please do more styles that can b done on medium length hair!
thanks that helped alot!!!!!!!!!
Gah tried this but all I got was wavy hair. I think my hair is just to short for it to work…
I tried this on my daughter and it looked beautiful! However, when I did it on myself I got tight curls close to my head! I guess I need to use larger sections of hair to start out and have only slightly wet hair.
Trying this on one daughter tonight, and sock curls on my older daughter tonight. Wish us luck!! This is just practice – if they turn out we’ll try it again tomorrow night for church the next day. Can’t wait to see what turns up in the morning!! Too much fun!!
OMGOSH! So much easier than rag curls, I’m totally trying this tonight!!!! THNX
I’m trying this on myself tonight and if I like the way it turns out me, I will try it on my daughter. Thank you.
Hi Mindy! I have very thick and long hair (down to my hips). My hair is boring straight and I have a horrible time trying to curl it, as the curls just stay in for about an hour or less! I’ve tried this curling technique and it was wonderful! By afternoon I had big waves, but they were totally cute too!
Pretty, but too hard,sorry…!
I am in love with this! My hair is incredibly thin and hard to curl, so I’m gonna give this a try! I cannot wait to try this, however, I might get some weird looks from my parents(:
Whenever I do this the front goes really nice, but the back stays straight… D: Any suggestions???
OMG! so cute!::):);););)
Hey um so does this style work well on short hair?
i did sock curls and people thought i used heat
but agin im a little girl ten years thats litttle but i feel old
love how it looks, but i tryed it and i couldn’t take the headband of without taking some hair to.. when i wake up, i can’t find the ends and it’s just a big mess..then i pull out the band and some hair go with the headband..
i’m going to try sock curls, then..
OMG that hurt alot! I just did it to myself and it hurt badddddddd! I tryed sock curls 2 other times and they did not work! Not trying to be mean just please try to make another curl video. It may work but my hair does not curl so good luck head band curls.
thanjk a lot it does not hurt all you need to do is put a lot of mousse in ur hair it worked on me so thank you i have been trying to curl my hair for like EVER
awesome and so easy
I just did this on my hair. It’s really comfortable to sleep in and works great on my longish really thick hair. I’m thirteen and always do your hairstyles on my own hair and get loads of compliments! Thank you!
I think I left it in a little too long, I have very ringlety hair and it is quite big!
I have a different way to curl your hair.Try putting it in small buns around your head.Sleep in them and take them out we you wake up.If you want to try that.
It might work of you can actually get the hair out of the head band.Never try this!
Thank you so much for posting this! I have really thin naturally wavy hair that doesn’t hold many styles. When I straighten it, it stays straight for about an hour then starts curling at the ends. Likewise, it doesnt hold curls well after using a curling iron. I’ve avoided curling my hair because of how awful it looks after just a few hours. So, you can understand that I was quite skeptical, however I tried this one today and because of how fine my hair is, only needed to leave it in for a little over two hrs. The result: hair that looks as if I spent hours to get such pretty curls. I am truly amazed how well this worked. I don’t spend much time on my hair so this will be great for me. Thanks again for this great idea.
When I do this my hair slips out around the back so the curls are not as good in the back. Is there anyway to keep the curls in better in the back?
Omg this worked so well. i love curly hair and I have naturally gross huge waves and thick hair. It looked so pretty and i got so many complements.!
Thanks!! My hair is laired so that helped. Can you post more no hear curls again?
i really like all of your hairstyles and i always wear them to school and i get sooooo many complements thanks Mindy. please put more no heat hair tuttorials thanks again.
this worked so well i did this on my hair then slept on it and the next morning it looked like perfec curls! Post more no heat curl hairsyles!
I tried this on my daughter last night but it didn’t stay in. I even tried putting in a couple bobby pins at the end. Any suggestions. I love your ideas!
Hey Karilee, For your daughter try buying a beanie or cloth hat, you can find them at target for 2$ or use any cloth hat that wont fall of your head. MAKE SURE you only use the hat when her hair is REALLY dry.
This works so well thank you Mindy!
Hey Mindy, first of all I want to say I love all of your hairstyles that you do! They are all amazing!
Also, I love these headband curls. Does your hair have to be wet or can your leave it dry when doing these curls? I saw someone else use the exact same process except she said that you have to keep your hair dry.
Lastly, where did your daughter get her scarf from? It is so pretty! I also love how you dress all the time. Where do you get your clothes from?
Hope we can talk soon!
I want to try this but I was wondering…….. my hair will only stay curled for around 1 hour so will this stay????
I have super long thick hair but i tried doing two headbands(one for my top layer of hair and another for the bottom)it worked wonders! Could you do a video for one of those curly pined up things that you see all over pinterest. I cant figure out how to do it with really long hair.
Mindy this was awsome! thank you so much! I tried this on my hair last night and the curls have stayed in all day! I am 12 years old and have very thin hair that never holds curls so this is a big bonus for me!
thanks!
My hair is very hard to curl, so I tried this (mainly because I like how the curls come out)and I hoped that it would work. Well this morning I just took them out and they look GREAT! I love how it looks! I am so glad I finally found a way to curl my hair.
I love your hairstyles and i tried some like the bow braid and these curls l love them so much l am unable to send pictures of me but they really work