How to achieve heatless curls overnight

Keeping your hair healthy while retaining your luscious curls can be a challenging task, as heat damage from curlers can cause your hair to dry out and lead to frizziness. Curling your hair without heat treatment can allow your hair to remain healthy and vibrant while allowing those curls to last longer. Below, we’ll share six different ways to achieve heatless curls overnight, and help you find the best method your hair.  

1. The sock method

This is a new technique to achieve heatless curls overnight that has gained a lot of popularity on social media sites such as TikTok. Just grab a clean sock and follow these steps to get heatless waves. 

1. Wet your hair and allow it to nearly completely dry, then plop your wet hair in a microfiber towel and shake it from side to side to speed up the drying.
2. Clip the cuff of a sock, you will want to use a longer sock depending on your hair length, onto a section of hair near your scalp and start wrapping this strand of hair around the sock down towards the toe. Use a tighter wrap for more curls, or a looser wrap for more drawn-out curls.
3. Twist and wrap this sock and hair braid into a bun and then use the cuff of the sock to secure it in place, keeping in a tight ball on your head.
4. Repeat this process with different sections of your hair, and wait until your hair is completely dry before you take the socks down. Leaving your hair in these buns overnight is also a great option.
5. Put a few drops of oil and run it through the large sections of clumps to loosen them up, but don't brush your hair out, and you should have some luscious curls. 

2. Robe tie

Another recent viral trend for getting heatless curls overnight involves using a robe tie, or similarly long pieces of fabric and following these steps.

1. Dampen your hair or start with a styling spray, then part your hair in the middle and back and place the robe tie on top of your head, you may need to secure it with a clip. 
2. You are going to be french braiding your hair around the robe tie, lay strands of hair on both sides of the robe tie, and wrap them around the tie in opposite directions, gradually moving down and adding in lower sections. 
3. Keep the ties in overnight for best results. 

3. Bendy rods

This is a great option for getting tight curls overnight without using heat. This method will give you corkscrew curls, which will take more time to achieve than some of the looser curls on this list. 

1. Dampen your hair, as always
2. Start twisting small sections of hair around the rods, fix them in place close to your scalp by bending the end of the rods.
3. Continue throughout your hair and when you finish wrap your hair in a scarf before bed. 
4. In the morning take out the rods and give your hair a good scrunch with some Curl Cream for optimal results. Enjoy your lively and bouncy curls.

4. Braiding wet hair 

A classic way to achieve heatless waves in the morning, braiding your wet hair before going to bed is a simple and effective way to get consistent results.

1. Wash or dampen your hair and remove any excess moisture, you don’t want to have soaking wet hair for this.
2. If you’re looking for more drastic results try applying a curling cream at this step. 
3. Braid two Dutch braids and head to bed for the night
4. These types of curls usually take upwards to 5 hours or more to set, so overnight is the best time to do this method. In the morning take your hair out of the braids for large waves.

5. Rope twist into a bun

This might be one of the easiest methods on this list. Since this method twists your hair around itself you will get tighter curls than what you would get wrapping around a robe tie or curling rod. 

1. Slightly dampen your hair, add product if you want better results
2. Split your hair into two equal sections, and twist both sections in the same direction. 
3. Wrap both sections together in the opposite direction, if you twist to the right you want to wrap to the left. 
4. Repeat until you finish with your rope braid, keep twisting each suction in the same direction and wrapping in opposite directions.
5. Secure the end of your braid with a small elastic band, and curve the braid around to form a bun. Pin your bun into place with bobby pins and allow it to sit overnight.
6. Wrap your hair in a scarf, and remove it from the bun in the morning. 

6. Finger curls with straws

Most of the heatless methods we talked about so far are looser curls and waves, but if you want tight finger curls, try this method. You will need a few plastic straws.

1. Start with damp hair. If possible, use a curl cream can help here to keep that essential moisture.
2. Wrap a small section of hair tightly around a straw as if you were using a rod, and once you finish, bend the straw and secure it with a rubber band or bobby pin. Repeat this process, you will want to alternate the direction of your wrapping of the best results. 
3. Leave your hair in these wraps until it dries, overnight works here but it may be less comfortable to sleep with all the straws in your hair compared to say the robe tie method. If you are leaving these overnight, you will want to wrap your hair in a scarf.
4. Remove the straws and enjoy your bouncy finger curls!

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