How To Curl Your Hair With A Flat Iron – 2 Ways

Learn how to curl your hair with a flat iron in two easy ways.  Flat iron curls are a great way to curl your hair without a curling iron.

Today, I want to share with you this super awesome way to curl your hair with a straightener that’s much easier than other ways. Although I’m also including the traditional way towards the bottom.

Every time I do my hair like this people compliment me and I have to tell them how I did it, it’s just that fun!  

The old way I was doing it with a straightener was a pain in the butt and I don’t own a curling iron which makes curling my hair really difficult!

Unless of course I used the no heat curls technique, but that has to be planned out the day before! This is great if you feel like being spontaneous and it doesn’t take a ton of time!

Here you go….

How To Curl Your Hair With A Flat Iron Tips

  • Don’t take use too much hair for each curl because the hair will take a long time to heat up and the curls may be too lose.
  • Use two fingers for looser curls and one finger for tighter curls.
  • Using a good flat iron will do wonders.
  • Don’t leave the flat iron on too long or you run the risk of burning  your hair.

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Tools you will need:

Flat iron – like this one.

Comb

Blow dryer

Do you need a special flat iron to curl your hair?

You need a thin straightener that is around 1-2 inch thick like the one pictured below. 

Find more DIY hair products and styling tips:

How To Curl Your Hair With A Flat Iron

This version of flat iron curls, gives your hair a beautiful curl that looks like it was styled with a curling wand and is more like beachy curls.

Step 1: Dry Hair

Blow dry or air dry your hair! Yes that is what I look like letting my hair dry naturally. Crazy with a hint of unruly. Spray a little hair spray and heat protectant. Brush through.

Heat up flat iron

women with a white and blue stripped shirt with naturally dried hair

Step 2: Wrap Your Hair Around Your fingers.

Take a piece of hair and wrap around fingers. Two fingers for loose curls and one for tight “Taylor Swift” Curls {don’t wrap too tight or you won’t be able to pull the hair from around your fingers}.

women looping hair around her fingers for flat iron curls

Step 3: Create Loop

Pull hair off your fingers leaving a loop. Try to tuck in any lose ends.

women holding a loop of hair - how to flat iron curl your hair

Step 4: Clamp Flat Iron

Clamp a hot flat iron on the loop of hair, wait around 10-15 seconds {maybe longer if you have really thick hair}, release, and repeat until you got all your hair!

clamping hair with a flat iron - how to curl your hair with a flat iron

Step 5: Add Hairspray And Done

Look at these beautiful loose curls that look awesome!

women with a white and blue stripped shirt showing off flat iron curls - how to curl your hair with a flat iron

I was slightly rushed for this “photo shoot”!  Here’s another picture that I took for another future post that I did with the same technique!euro knot

How To Curl Your Hair With A Flat Iron – The Traditional Way

  1. Heat up curling iron. I usually set mine between 375 and 400 degrees.
  2. Start with dry hair, and seperate into sections. I usually separate the crown of my hair from the bottom.
  3. Separate into two sections if necessary using a clip or a hair tie.
  4. Take about a 1 inch section of hair and clamp the flat iron near the root. Pull the flat iron about an inch or two down and turn the flat iron at least a half of a flip to a whole flip while pulling the flat iron through.
  5. Continue doing this until all the hair is curled. I like to flip the curling iron in different directions so the curls are not all going in the same direction.

Flat Iron Curls

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Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Author: Amy

Instructions

  • Blow dry or air dry your hair! Yes that is what I look like letting my hair dry naturally. Crazy with a hint of unruly. Spray a little hair spray and heat protectant.
    Brush through.
    Heat up flat iron and section hair if needed.
    Take a piece of hair and wrap around fingers. Two fingers for loose curls and one for tight curls {don't wrap too tight or you won't be able to pull the hair from around your fingers}.
    Pull hair off your fingers leaving a loop. Try to tuck in any lose ends.
    Clamp a hot flat iron on the loop of hair, wait around 10-15 seconds {maybe longer if you have really thick hair}, release, and repeat until you got all your hair!
    Look at these beautiful loose curls that look awesome!

Notes

See another way to curl your hair with a straightener in the post.
Tried this recipe?Mention @ablossominglife or tag #ablossominglife!

How do you curl your hair?

This post was updated October 2019

step by step pictures of how to curl your hair with a flat iron

18 Comments

  1. I have a curling iron that I use. I have used it once in 2 years. I have an awesome flat iron that I got for Christmas that I use a lot more. I prefer to straighten my crazy hair.

    1. I dont blame you I straightened my hair for a long time especially when it was really curly… Now that my hair is confused and only has a slight wave I like to do this more when its not up in a bun!

  2. i use hot rollers religiously. i really can’t see living without them!
    but this is definitely something i want to try with my little flat iron, thanks!

  3. What a great idea! I’ve seen other tutorials on flat iron curls, but they were more complicated. This is totally more my style. Thanks for sharing. I found you from Mop it up Monday.

    1. Thanks Jelli! I used to do it the other way and it was kind of annoying and wouldn’t always turn out right! This way is much easier! Good luck trying this!

  4. I had a really hard time with this. Whenever I pulled my finger out of the hair and tried to grab the loop, the whole curl fell apart. No luck for me 🙁

    1. O no I’m sorry Tori! I grab the loop with the opposite hand and pull it out. Try to do the hair looser around your finger so its easier to pull out!

  5. I unfortunately had the same issues as Tori, but made it work on a few strands. Also I have a hard time grabbing the loop with the straightener without burning my fingers. Not a fast method until I get better at it I suppose. The ones that did work came out great. Probably not possible since this is an old post, but a video would help me understand the part of transferring the loop to the straightener.

    With that said, great idea! Thanks!

  6. There’s nothing wrong with your natural texture, I think you’d find it’s a gorgeous beachy sort of wave. The problem really is the amount of heat damage the length of your hair has.

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