Creating the Kate Middleton ‘blowout’ using heated rollers

The hack
Creating a fast, bouncy, blow-dry effect with heated rollers.

The test
Heated rollers have fallen out of fashion, and perhaps with good reason. It’s hard to find a good set – they’re fiddly to use, and with newer developments (see the Dyson Airwrap) and heatless hacks (see the bathroom belt or sock methods) we have other choices now. However, this method, coined by TikToker Shauna Rafferty, uses heated rollers a little differently.

Instead of starting with your hair down, then rolling each section and pinning it to your head, you put your hair in a high ponytail then divide the tail into sections, using a hot roller for each, and finish by pinning them to the crown. When they’re cooled, Shauna undoes the ponytail to reveal Kate Middleton-esque curled ends that look like a professional blow-dry.

So I did exactly this, but having curly hair I also needed to blow dry it straight first. After following the method, my ends were indeed bouncy as I did the big reveal, but I could also get this look quicker using tongs.

The verdict
If you like this style, have straight, thick-ish hair and heated rollers to hand, then give it a go. A bigger issue for me and my fine non-caucasian hair is that this Sloaney bouncy blow-dry look was difficult enough to achieve first time round as a 00s trend. So if it’s having a revival via TikTok, then I just have zero desire to try to fit that mould again.