How to Fake a Blowout with a Hot Air Brush

I don't know about you, but I can never quite get the results I want with a blow drier. I've read a bunch of "how to get a blowout at home" articles and always study my hairdresser but I've still never quite gotten it. It's hard to hold the dryer in one hand and a brush in the other while getting the right angle, my arm always gets tired and I end up hot and sweaty, and some of my ends end up curling while others stay straight. God only knows what's going on in the back. 

I ordered a hot air brush (I'm using a 1.5" brush by John Frieda) before Christmas because I thought it would curl my hair (wrong-o) but I'm loving the results I get with it for straight hair. It's funny, hot air brushes and hot combs sound like something my mom would have used back in the '70s, so I was a little hesitant to try it, but it works surprisingly well. It gets me the volume I crave while also keeping my hair looking polished and shiny.

To use the hot air brush, you're going to want to start with hair that's mostly dry, either because it's dried naturally or through a rough dry with your blow drier. In a lot of tutorials people say "80% dry" which is a little confusing to me, so I thought I'd show you what my hair looks like when I go at it, starting to actually look dry but still feels damp. I added a volumizing spray throughout my hair (I like Ojon volume advance) and volumizing foam to my roots (I like Aquage Uplifting Spray).

First, start by sectioning off all of your hair off below your ears, and clipping the rest on top of your head with duckbill clips. Grab about a fourth of the hair you left down (or less if you have really thick hair), lift it up, and put the brush underneath it, pushing up hair at the root, and hold with the brush on hot for 5-10 seconds.

Then I slowly pull the brush through to the ends, and roll it up to the root. I keep the brush on hot for about 5 seconds, and then switch it to cool to set the hair and leave it for about 10 seconds before pulling it out. The cool switch on this brush works so much better than any hair dryer I've ever used, and actually does set my hair. You can see how curled that first piece got: 

I repeat this process all over my head, letting down small sections from the hair I have clipped up at a time.

Once I get to the top of my head, I overlap the sections I'm drying with previously dried sections to avoid having any weird separation and help the style blend together. 

And voila, an at home blowout! The beauty of this is it really only takes one hand and not a lot of concentration, so I can watch Netflix, text, or even put on makeup at the same time.

Have you ever tried using a hot air brush?

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