How To: Kate Middleton Hair Tutorial

I think we all want Kate Middleton’s hair right? Polished, bouncy, with a little ladylike curl…what’s not to love. It’s definitely attainable with a little dexterity but I found that the right tools, a good video tutorial, and some patience really helped my first attempt at it this morning. Just two heads-up: If you’ve never used a round brush before, you might want to ease into this because that’s the lynch-pin here. Also, this is easiest done to layered hair.

Tools:
lightweight blow dryer
volumizing mousse
round brush (mine is a Morrocan Oil one)
metal double prong curl hair clips (like these)
medium hold hair spray (mine is Nexxus)
soy paste (for taming frizz, broken hair, and flyaways)

Steps I followed:

Prep: Anytime I’m planning to heat style for something like this, I try to wash my hair the night before so it has a chance to air dry a bit overnight to limit damage. Before bed I just added my usual styling products—Moroccan Oil, Bumble and Bumble Styling lotion and some leave-in conditioner—before gently twisting hair into a loose  bun high on my head. Don’t make a ponytail, then a bun because it will dent your hair. Just twist the tail to keep strands together, then coil it around itself. This prevented my hair from drying too much overnight.

Blow Dry: This morning I just loosened the bun, before I sectioned hair off into 3 sections at the crown. Next, I worked some volumizing mousse into the roots. I probably overdid the mousse on just the top of my head and will try it all-over next time, but I wanted to follow the video tutorial’s directions for the first time through. Then I rough-dried my hair using my fingers, flipping my head upside down to encourage lift, and side to side to discourage any particular part, until it was 75% dry.

Volume and curl: Next, I re-sectioned the hair at the crown into 3 parts and starting with the front, used my roundbrush in front of each section, while blasting heat at the root and rolling the brush forward and up. After 1-2 blasts like this, I’d move the brush to behind this section and brush and roll the hair back (away from face) and blast with hot/then cool air a few times. On the last blast each time, I’d put the dryer down (ok, it was between my knees, still on, facing down), so I could free a second hand so I could coax each just cooled brushed curl into a fluffy curl and pin to my head with a prong curl clip. I repeated for just three sections, set with hair spray, then took the clips out and was done. If I’d had more time, I’d have done my whole head like this but I was in a hurry, so I only focused on the crown area so the face framing sections and top layer of the back would be styled. It’s the  little trick I picked up from stylists over the years that make the difference I tell you.