Reshaping Hair

Setting can help you reshape your hair’s natural appearance by giving it more volume. Blow-drying with a round brush to form the hair and then using rollers to hold it in position until the drying is complete is a common setting technique.

Setting wet hair with the help of a foam or gel increases the curvature of the hair shaft. Shampooing helps this process because surfactants in the shampoo penetrate the hair shaft, making the dried hair respond better to what you’re doing to it. (Refer to the earlier section, “Keeping things slippery with surfactants,” for more on these compounds in shampoo.)

Teasing hair is a common method of increasing volume, but repeated teasing will permanently damage the hair because it breaks the scales off the hair cuticle, and these broken scales can’t repair themselves. (The section, “Combing the cuticles,” earlier in this chapter explains the cuticles and scales.)

All the following materials are useful in setting hair because they create adhesion of the hairs. They form films on the hair shafts that dry and hold one hair to another (like a weld on the hair), producing a better lift and therefore a better illusion of volume and fullness.

• Water-based materials such as gels, mousses, and foams: These wash off easily with a good shampoo.
• Hair spray: Hair spray forms a hard film that bonds the hair into place. Combing sprayed hair that has dried can break the hair at the bonding point. Therefore, it’s best not to mess with the hair after you apply hair spray, or if you do attempt to restyle it, be very careful not to tug on the hair as you comb it again.
• Many people spray on way more hair spray than needed, leaving the hair overly saturated and making it very difficult to remove the hair spray completely with one shampoo application.
• Hair waxes and pomades: These are more complex to apply and much more difficult to remove, but a good strong shampoo with a very active surfactant will clean waxes and pomades off the hair shafts, although it may take more than one washing.

The advantage of waxes and pomades is that they stay in place and hold the hair against wind and even rain because they’re not water-soluble. Waxes act like a plaster cast, imparting a rigidity to the hair shaft, and they work well in hair of any length. The spiked hair of many movie and rock stars is achieved using waxes and pomades.

Unlike hair-sprayed hair, which is difficult to remold, wax based products make it easy to rework the shape of the hair again and again. They’re so durable that you could restyle your hair as you walked down the street (although you may prefer to do it in front of a mirror)!