Do Curlformers Work?

Faced with the mandated ‘curl your daughter’s hair’ for their theatre performances coming up…. I went on a research binge.  I hadn’t had much luck with curling irons or those velcro rollers in the past.  After many youtube videos and emailing some friends the methods were various – bendy noodle things, more expensive curling irons (without the ‘thing’ that holds the curl in – rod only) along with protective gloves.  I stumbled across ‘Curlformers.’  More videos watched… some encouraging… some downright HILARIOUS….

We bought the ‘extra long, wide’ Curlformers kit that came with two rods.

They have different lengths and different widths.  We needed ‘tight’ curls so didn’t pick the ‘extra wide’ more barrel style curls.  My daughter’s hair is pretty long – halfway down her back so for sure needed the added length.  They also have Spiral Curls… but didn’t want that.

The photos below are our FIRST attempt!! It took about ‘one movie’ worth of time (yup, was a while!) and she slept in them that night and took them out in the morning. It totally worked.  The curls lasted all day and into the evening.  For our second attempt for the actual performance, the time was shortened by a LOT because of the prior experience of sliding the hair in just right and I’d had the knack of it apparently so it went soooo much better every time after.  You can see that some curls in the photo look better than others – the funny looking ones were when I didn’t take the time to let it ‘sproing’ back up into itself completely.  The way your curlformers hangs, is how the resulting curl will look. (See in the BEFORE photo that one Curlformer was kind of hanging down and not coiled back up…. you don’t want to do that!! Makes a weird curl. )

I tagged this post under ‘character’ … because it took us both a lot of patience and perseverance to learn how to use these contraptions…. and reduce any painful accidents on my part with getting impatient and trying to force more hair than I should into one Curlformer!

WOULD WE BUY AGAIN?

Absolutely YES! But…. we don’t need to. We have enough… but if we did would try the Extra Wide for the more fashionable barrel curls. Besides, with all the youtube videos… discovered a free and easy way to get those types of casual curls…. “headband curls” !  The biggest thing that I like is the ability to curl hair without high heat = frying hair.  You just don’t need to damage your hair.

TIPS

• use on clean washed hair that is still damp
• spritz a curl forming type light ‘spray’ gel type product onto each strand of hair after it’s been combed straight
• your hair piece to be inserted must be combed through with no tangles!
• don’t force too much hair into each curlformer
• make sure your kit comes with the Rods that you insert the hair into – like threading a needle
• pre-setting up a Curlformer onto each Rod does save time
• brush and divide the hair into quadrants – count your Curlformers and try to balance out how many per section so you don’t run out!
• alternate the two colors each time
• each color is a different ‘direction’ for natural looking curls
• choose the right direction for around the face – curl ‘away’ from face
• make sure they are in ALL day or ALL night… they need time to dry and set
• you can use a warm blow dryer or hair drying machine cap to speed it up or make sure everything is totally dry before taking them out
• don’t try to take them out without straightening the Curlformer all the way! ouch!
• when all out, you can by hand loosely separate out your curls a bit until they look the way you like them
• brushing might get too frizzy…. but some people on youtube did it a BIT….
• only buy the Curlfomers brand – there are knockoffs that are cheaper but are made with questionable plastics/chemicals

Have fun!