How to Get Tousled, Beachy Waves in the Middle of the Winter

Combat the winter blues by creating perfect, tousled, beachy hair with the help of stylist Jill Guzzo of NYC's Butterfly Studio Salon!
-Lucia Peters, BettyConfidential.com

Beachy Waves
Beachy Waves

Generally, I like winter. I realize that I may be alone in this sentiment, but I do-for the most part, that is. Usually, though, come January, I start longing for the summer sun, just like everyone else who lives in colder climes. But even if you're stuck somewhere snowy, you can still capture just a little bit of summer fun-through your hair! Jill Guzzo, stylist extraordinare at NYC'sButterfly Studio Salon, just did what I thought was impossible: She taught me how to wear my wack-o hair curly. And she did it by giving me tousled, summery waves that make me look like I came straight from the beach. Here's how to do it:

Like all good styles, this one begins with a cut. Here's what I looked like walking into the appointment:

Lucia Before
Lucia Before

We're going to ignore the fact that I'm extremely unphotogenic.

A little drab, no? It's been roughly three and a half months since the last time I got a cut (shhhhh, don't tell anyone), this is second-day hair, and it's been beaten into submission with a flat iron to boot. Time for a change!

The last time I got a snazzy new cut, we discovered that razor cuts do wonders when it comes to taming my ridiculous mane. However, I learned a new thing about razor cuts this time round: You want to be a little careful about how frequently you get them, because the nature of the cut tends to wear a little hard on the ends of your hair. So this time, Jill used regular scissors a little more in an effort to keep the ends of my locks a little stronger, using the razor technique to select sections to add a little texture. Also, since the whole goal of this particular cut was geared towards being able to wear it curly as well as straight, Jill kept the front sections just a tiny bit longer to ensure that they wouldn't end up poofing out because of being too short when they dried.

This probably isn't the first time you've heard this, but the secret to tousled, beachy waves is this: scrunching. There's a trick to good scrunching, though. Here's what I learned from Jill: First, run a little pomade through your hair while it's still damp; something like Shu Uemura's Cotton Uzu Defining Flexible Cream ($38 for 2.5 oz, shuuemuraartofhair-usa.com) works well for this purposes. It's a softer, gooier pomade than the ones that you're probably familiar with, and it's great for taming frizz and amping up curls. Remember, when applying product, always work from the bottom of your head up-the last thing you want to do is glop a whole lot of product right on the top of your head.

Butterfly Studio
Butterfly Studio

The gorgeous Butterfly Studio!

Once you've worked the pomade through, scrunch away! Think of it more like blotting: If it's carefully done, it will minimize any frizz that may be fighting to make itself known. As you scrunch, you can also take individual sections of hair and twist them with your fingers; this will enhance the texture of the style already built in by the cut. If you want, you can even blow drythe back and sides a little bit with a diffuser, though make sure to keep the heat no higher than medium . You'll also want to cup your hand around your hair and scrunch as you blow dry, again to keep frizz in check.

The front sections, however, get some special treatment: Blow dry them straight. Trust me (or rather, trust Jill the hair wizard). Then, add just a touch of pomade and twist them back away from your face while blow drying. Doing this will give you a softer look in front to frame your face, keeping the super texturized waves and curls at the back and sides of your head.

For the finishing touches, it's time to break out that old standby, the curling iron. Curling irons with one-inch barrels tend to work universally well for what we're about to do (and it's super simple to boot): Grab random sections, wrap them loosely around the barrel of the curling iron, hold them for no more than a second or two, and sweep them back. If there are any stray pieces of hair that are misbehaving, you can use this technique to keep them in check; it also adds a little more definition to the whole style. Then just add another dab of pomade to any trouble spots, and you're good to go! Check it out:

Lucia After
Lucia After
Lucia After Side
Lucia After Back

You know what to do next, don't you? Grab a pina colada, kick back under a sun lamp, and relax. Ah, summer!

Lucia Peters is BettyConfidential's associate editor.

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