5 Flat Iron Hair Curling Method or Technique

In this article, we are going to see really easy methods and techniques of using your flat iron to create different curls and waves. I want to keep it more of like a guide, where I will guide you various techniques of how you twist, how you wrap, how you press, how you bend your flat iron to get different types of curls.

Flat Iron Hair Curling Method or Technique#1-Twisting Method

The first method or technique is how you twist your flat iron. And this is either away from your face or towards your face just because it gives you completely different styles.

• First one is the method to create curls away from your face. For this, you need to just keep a section of hair inside the flat iron and turn it outwards and twisting it all the way down. That’s it, you are done with your curl facing outwards. This, I feel like it kind of opens up your face because you have that hair and it’s swooping away, kind of like when you’re walking into the wind.
• For curling it towards your face, you just take your hair and instead of away, you turn it and twist it towards your face. You can definitely see the difference with both the curls, they completely give a different look.
• The one that’s going away from the face will be little bit more soft, it’s a little bit more feminine, and it’s a little more modern take on that wave versus the one that’s going towards your face. Inward curls give a very old Hollywood-esque, because it’s curving towards your face and it’s kind of hiding your face in a way.
• The next thing, when you do these kind of waves towards or away from your face, you can also alternate them. That’s what I like to do as well, many times. It would give a awesome look if the very first sections go away then the next section go towards the face, and it kind of plays with the technique a little bit.
• Like, if the front one is away from your face, the next section must be towards your face. So, twist it towards first and then come all the way down while scrolling. Just kind of plays with each other. And this one, we’re gonna go away. It really gives a completely different look, but still similar enough.
• It all depends on which way you wanna twist the flat iron, towards or away. That’s a personal preference in my opinion. So play around with it. See what you think, see what you like, even for your face shape, for your hair needs, for your hair wants, and I think you’ll find that perfect method for yourself.

Flat Iron Hair Curling Method or Technique#2-Angle Method

I think this is the method where you should pay attention to. This technique and method is how you hold your flat iron, because when you hold it in a different way, it can have different results.

• For the very first one, you just hold it vertically, but at an angle, and this one, I think results with really elongated curls depending how much you pull on the hair.
• For this method, first of all you just take your flat iron, put your hair through the plates, you give it a twist, depending how many twists you wanna do, just do a 180 degree, and then you gently pull it down at an angle.
• The next way is when you hold it horizontally and then pull it down. So exact same thing.
• You take the hair, you pull it through the plates, you give it a good twist but you hold it horizontally and down. This right here gives more of a body and a bounce depending how thick of a section you grab, how high your heat is.
• But you can notice that the hair is a lot shorter, it’s a little bit more bouncy, it’s not as long, and it’s a very different style that you can go for.
• And the next way you can hold your flat iron is keeping the flat iron upwards. So many people do this because it’s quite easy.
• For this method, you just hold the flat iron up instead of down at an angle, you just hold it straight up. So, take the hair through the plates, you give it a twist, and then you just basically pull it through the hair very gently.
• So this method and technique I would say is the closest to a curling iron method, just because you’re holding the plates up instead of down at an angle. That way, you don’t have to do too much twisting, and you’re literally mimicking a curling iron except you have the two plates.

Flat Iron Hair Curling Method or Technique#3-Wrap Method

There’s no twisting involved. All you do is just wrap your hair around the flat iron and you slide it down.

• For this method, take a section of hair, take your flat iron, keep your plates open, keep your hair on the plates and wrap it around, slide it through the plates, clamp it, just very gently slide down and that’s it.
• I feel like this is the easiest technique, but again, you have to decide whether you are going to wrap it around or away on your flat iron. If you want it going away from your face, wrap it away.
• Again for inward curls, take your hair, and instead of wrapping it away, we’re gonna wrap it going around and through. This is going to make your curls towards your face.
• You will notice at the end, by this method most of the curls are towards the bottom of the hair. If you have very long hair I would suggest this method, just because it’s easy. There’s no twisting involved. Just wrap, press, and slide down.
• Again, you can hold your flat iron horizontally, at an angle, you can again, play around with the first method and techniques that I described about in the beginning. I feel like those are so important of how you’re holding your tool just to really see what you prefer from your hairstyles.

Flat Iron Hair Curling Method or Technique#4-Bend Method

This is where you literally take your flat iron and you bend it up, down, up, down, or you can alternate it down, up, down, up, down, up. The same as the very first technique, it all depends how you wanna start off your curl or wave. It’s definitely easy method once you get the hang of it, but with this one, I would say requires quite a bit of like trial and error and seeing how you like it.

• Start of with a little bit more of a wider section, and what you need to do is take your flat iron, you’re gonna keep it horizontally, and start bending it down, and then you flip it back up, and then you take it down again. Just like that and it will give a nice little wave.
• On the other side you can go up instead of down. So first you begin up and then go down and again, up and down. You will notice it’s a little bit different but similar enough.
• To make your waves look better, you can also alternate. Like, at the very top, you start doing up and then go down, but then start alternating midway just to kinda give a different dimension, a different look to the waves, so they’re not all unison. A little bit different, because natural waves, they don’t all go in the same direction.
• I do appreciate this one because it looks like you didn’t try so hard, but you do have a little bit of a bend happening here and there, and it’s quite easy. You can also play with your angle of the flat iron, so taking it a little bit at different angle will give a very different look.
• Once you figure out the method that you prefer with this bend technique, it’s really easy and it takes not even a couple minutes to do your full head, because the thing is you don’t have to be very precise with it. Just go for it and you’re done.

Flat Iron Hair Curling Method or Technique#5-Pressing Method

This is literally where you take the flat iron and you press it over a certain pattern that you are creating. Again, this is very easy, but it is the most time-consuming. This is the most creative, the most imaginative, because you can do your hair around any kind of object, and then you take a hot flat iron and then you press it to create that style.

• For example, you can take a section of hair, and you kind of bend it down, you take your flat iron, and you press it a couple of times over that area. And then you take the next part and you kind of place it up, and again, just basically follow that curvature by pressing, which will create a very slight wave, but I feel like this one is the hardest.
• The next way is, you can just take a section of hair and you literally wrap it around chopsticks. Hold it there at the very end, take your flat iron and press. Hold for a couple of seconds and then you move it down that section of hair, and just kind of move it back and forth until it heats through.
• Then let it cool off, and then you reveal your creation. This is why I mentioned before that this takes a lot of effort, a lot of creativity, a lot of time, because you’ll be doing a lot of hair. I would say this is very artistic.
• The next way by which you can do it is the pin curl where you need to have little pins ready. You take a section of hair and you wrap it around your two fingers.
• Again, you can wrap it whatever way you prefer, but keep it kind of nice and tight. Then you slide it off the fingers, kind of from underneath, but still holding it. Then take the hair, gently clamp it like sideways, and hold it in there.
• Actually just press and hold for 5 to 10 seconds depending on how thick your hair is, how much heat it needs, how high your heat is on your flat iron. And then instead of letting go, you basically wrap it back up while it’s still hot and hold it with the pin and let it set. It will create a big wave.
• Another great pressing method is take a section of hair, do a three strand braid, and can do small little sections, you can do big sections, like big braids and take your flat iron and you press it down. Then just move it down the section of hair, and again, depending on how thick your braid is, how wide, you might wanna hold it for a little bit longer, but always just keep it moving in a way.
• You can also, take these sections and spread them out before you clamp, that way you get bigger sections. But again, this is all about your technique, your method.
• Another way you can do this is you can do it horizontally and then go down and then wrap it back up into your fingers and then clamp it out of the way. That way this will ensure that the curl is nice and set. It’s a little more consistent, it’s more uniform, and I personally prefer it like I mentioned.

I hope this shed a little bit more light on how to use a flat iron, ’cause there’s so many different techniques and different methods, but I feel like once you get those first several methods and techniques down, you’ll know exactly what you wanna do, you’ll get very proficient at it, and then you won’t even really have to think about it and you’ll just do whatever.

You’ll wrap, you’ll twist, you bend, you press, whatever your heart desires, but I feel like this is a good little guideline of what you can do and what if maybe you’re doing something and you’re not getting the result, maybe you’ll understand why you’re getting those results and why you should be doing something else to get the other result that you’re trying to get but you don’t know how to get there.