Heatless Waves: 5 No-Damage Techniques To Try

The Highlights

Creating heatless waves means needing the perfect canvas for your hair: slightly damp. This ensures your hair isn't as fragile as it would be when fully wet, but can still create waves and curls.

Heatless waves use tools and techniques that make them easy to sleep in.

If you're a mover in your sleep, secure each scarf, sock, rag, headband, or ribbon with extra hair clips or pins.

While curling wands are always going to be a tried-and-true hair tool for achieving beachy waves, regular use can cause split ends, breakage, and other forms of hair damage—especially if you don't use a heat protectant.

Lucky for us, there are now tons of ways to create wavy, voluminous hair without heat.

If you've spent some time on social media, you'll notice there are a lot of people who've tried getting natural, heatless waves overnight.

This is because they actually work! While it can take some trial and error finding the right tool for you, plus a ton of practice, with our techniques, you can achieve your dream hair overnight.

P.S. Give your new DIY hairstyle extra drama with The Halo. It instantly adds volume (and length, if you want) within a few minutes.

What You'll Need To Create Heatless Waves

Heatless waves take less effort to do because once you're done with the curling technique, all you need to do is wait.

For example? If you do it right after a shower, you can sleep with it first. Come morning, you'll have beautiful beachy waves!

To make sure your heatless waves actually work overnight, make sure you have these non-negotiables with you:

Damp hair (not too wet) - Curling hair when slightly wet will help your waves set overnight. Why shouldn't your hair be too wet? They'll be more fragile. And sleeping with very wet hair can be a recipe for disaster.
A detangling comb or brush - Tangled hair can cause damage, so make sure there are zero knots before going in with a heatless wave technique.
Claw clip - It makes it easier for you to section your hair in one area while working on another.
Sea salt spray or texturising spray - The one product that will help your hair actually keep its beachy texture the next day!

Ready to try and get some heatless waves overnight? Keep scrolling below.

Silk Scarf

The key to successfully getting heatless waves with just a scarf is liberally applying a texturising spray.

This ensures your hair is grippy, or "dirty" enough, to keep its shape.

If you have any silk scarves gathering dust in your closet, this is the perfect way to use them.

To start, you'll have to tie your scarf around your head like a headband. Next, take one-inch sections and carefully insert each of them into the silk scarf—until your whole head is tied up.

In the morning, just untie the scarf, let your hair loose, and style as needed!

Socks

Curling hair with socks might sound like a gimmick but it's real because we've tried it!

You can use any pair of socks—just make sure they're freshly washed—and divide your hair into two sections.

Dampen each section with sea salt spray then wrap the hair around the sock. Make sure it's toe part up!

To secure the wrap, tuck it into the sock opening. Repeat it on the other side, sleep it off, and come morning you'll have pretty heatless curls or waves.

Old Rags

Curling hair with rags is nothing new and has actually been done for centuries. It's easy to sleep on and lets you create tighter waves and ringlets.

If you have an old T-shirt, you can just cut it into strips to use them as your "curlers".

Like with the sock, you'll need to wrap your hair tightly around each rag cloth and secure it with a clip or pin to stay in place overnight.

Want looser waves? Don't wrap your hair closely together and leave some space between them. Or, you can wrap bigger sections around the rags, too.

In the morning, just remove the rags, run your fingers through the waves to loosen them up and you're done!

Curling Headband

How can a headband, an accessory girls and teens love to wear, help you get heatless waves overnight?

Curling hair with a headband is easier than you think. It all has to do with the flexible wire or rod inside the silk or satin fabric.

RobeCurls Heatless Curling Headband has an integrated wire wrapped in pillowy soft fabric (charmeuse satin) so it comfortably sits on the head whether you're running errands or sleeping.

You just place the headband on top of your head and start wrapping hair over it! The tighter you wrap it, the curlier your hair will be in a few hours.

Curling Ribbon

These can be made with velvet, velour, silk, or satin, depending on where you buy it from.

Curling ribbons are similar to curling headbands except they don't have a rod or wire inside. Instead, it's just pure fabric doing the work—which means it's great for sleeping.

It can take a while to get a hang of it (you use it the same way you would with the headband) since there's no flexi rod to help shape it, but the results are worth it.

If you've ever wanted natural-looking waves without having to dip in the ocean, this is the product to have.