Grand Salon’s April Guerra does the round brush blowdry her way, with tips to achieve the perfect volume, balancing heat v. velocity, her favorite products and even channeling your inner Farrah Fawcett.
Read the full transcript here:
Hi, I’m April with Grand Salon, and this is the Round Brush Blowdry my way. So I’m gonna start with applying a leave-in conditioner that’s also heat protectant, and that’s the Ciment Thermique from Kerastase. I’m just raking it through the ends of my hair, trying to get it evenly on each hair, and then slowly working it into the roots. And then I like to use a fine tooth comb to comb through my product so that it’s getting even more evenly down each hair shaft because it’s important to protect all of it.
Now I’m gonna use my favorite product, the Body Builder by Kevin Murphy. I like to have about a golf ball size, and then I’m gonna swipe it across the top, all the way down to the ends. Then I’m gonna work it in both sides. Then I’m gonna part my hair in the middle, and swipe it across the part, focused mostly on the crown there. And then now I’m just doing tiny circles with my fingers to incorporate the product, and then, again, I’m gonna use the comb and comb it through to help move that product further down. I’m going to do the rough dry. You’re mainly sectioning the hair and moving the roots to the directions that you want them to go to. I am gonna use medium heat with high velocity.
Whew! So now I have most of the water out of my hair, it’s probably 90% dry. And as you can see, I was holding this side up and this side up kind of forward, and a lot of this just straight down, and that’s all to get your roots going the opposite direction that your hair’s actually gonna be styled, which will give you the most volume. Now for my first section, I go right at the top of the ears and connect straight line through the back, and give a little twist to the hair, and clip it all up. And the sectioning that I’m gonna be taking is no wider than this brush and no wider than the bristles.
So I’m gonna split my section in half in the back, and I’m just tackle one side at a time. And as you can see, my section fits on the width of the brush and I’m not really pulling anything from above or the sides, which would make it more difficult. Now for this, I’m gonna use high heat and low velocity. I’m also going to make sure the air is flowing down the hair shaft, away from your scalp, and I’m gonna use the air from the dryer to bend the hair around the brush. I don’t actually touch the dryer to the brush and I don’t only spin the brush, I actually pull the hair down. And do the same thing on this section.
I’m gonna follow the hair down, make sure the air is flowing from scalp to ends and use the air to push the hair around the brush. Now this side’s a little too bubbly, so I’m gonna brush it out a little bit, and then I give a quick feel to the back, make sure I got them all. Now the next section is about as wide as the brush. So I go up to my temples here, make a horseshoe section around the top of your head, clip the top out of your way, and now I use the trick of leaning over to the side to separate the two layers of hair. The blowdry hair will usually just lay nice and sleek against you. So I’m kind of pre-sectioning for myself.
Around this shape of the head is the biggest sections, so I want to make sure to set myself up to not get too much hair in the brush. Same thing, hot temperature, low velocity. And I’m gonna scoop up to create volume and get that hair locked in the brush, and then I’m gonna do the same thing where I follow the brush with the dryer. And then I don’t like my round brush too bubbly, so I flatten it out. As I lean over, I can see this section. Lift it up. Get the brush right in at the roots and lift up. Gonna follow the brush with the blow dryer. Now I’m gonna set down my tools and feel my sections, and I can feel there’s no curly or wet hair.
So now our second to last section is going to be…I like to do the top bang parting section very last. So we’re gonna leave this tinier horseshoe out from the top of your head, and we’re gonna blow dry all around that. And on this section, I’m angling slightly forward. Now this piece is the piece everybody wants lots of volume in. So you’re gonna try to lift this piece either straight up from the crown of your head or you can even pull forward towards your forehead.
This right here twisting means my section is too big, so I’m just gonna take that out and move it to the side. I’m making sure I have good tension at the roots, pulling my hair forward, and you see I just brushed that curl out as soon as it comes out of the brush. While the hair is still warm, you can still manipulate the shape of it. And I’m trying to mimic the angle that I did on the other side, so coming slightly forward. How’s that feel? Feels good? Got good body, good shape, a little fun.
Now this part, you can choose which way your bangs are gonna go. Or you don’t have to choose, you can blow dry everything straight back and then choose a part later. Or you can choose a middle part by doing the same thing, everything will go straight back. So this is probably gonna be two sections or three, I might take out the bangs. Once that piece is dry, I’m just gonna set it back. And now for the bangs. And I say you do this a few times if you like to have swoopy side bangs, and then you’re gonna pull to whatever direction you want your hair to go to.
And as you can see, I got a nice Farrah Fawcett going on. And I’m gonna swoop once under, and I’m gonna pull the same direction, and that’s gonna give me a perfectly sweeped bang coming forward, but also off to the side. I’m gonna use the warm air to just break up those sections, and then detail as you want. Round Brush Blowdry.
