The Lazy Girls Guide To A Salon Quality Blowout

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When I was a baby stylist and worked in my first salon, the first service I learned to perform (after shampooing and sweeping) was how to give a salon quality blowout! I trained, and practiced, and broke my wrists in order to perfect this skill. Selfishly, I could not wait to be able to give MYSELF a smooth, bouncy, voluminous blowout at home. Little did I know, that is SO hard! Even for a professional! My hair is long, course, and thick so the amount of time and effort it takes to do a classic blowout prevents me from doing it on myself very often. However, I have discovered the lazy girls way of achieving a salon quality blowout at home: Amika’s Blowout Babe Thermal Ionic Brush.

What Can You Use A Thermal Brush For?

When I first discovered the Blowout Babe Thermal Ionic Brush by Amika, I thought I would mainly use it to fix my cowlick. Anyone else struggle with an incredibly long part, that separates at your crown, after sleeping? Show of hands? I figured this thermal round brush would be the simple and fast solution to smoothing those hairs out and concealing the cowlick. While it does work for this, I had no idea how much MORE I would love this product for a quick and easy blowout!

As mentioned previously, my hair is thick, coarse, and wavy naturally. It varies from fluffy, to frizzy, to smooth on any given day. As a rule, I don’t ever wear my hair in it’s natural texture. I either blow-dry it straight, or I curl it after letting it air-dry. That is until I bought this thermal brush! I now have another option to style my hair and give it a solid foundation for the week. (Because we all know I’m not washing my hair more than twice a week!)

Why I Chose The Amika Blowout Babe Brush

Let’s talk a few logistics as to why I chose the Amika thermal brush over a different brand. Amika is a professional hair brand, which gives me confidence that the overall health of your hair is going to be a top priority! I was surprised to learn that doing hair professionally requires a lot of science! Most of us are just wanting to have cute hair and not thinking about the science that goes behind giving results! This thermal brush has a 1.5″ ceramic barrel which ensures your hair is heated evenly, preventing heat spikes. It comes with an Ionic Generator that increases the negative ion output which will result in shiny, smooth, frizz free hair, that is free of static! If you’re more interested in having volume and body you can turn the ionic generator off. Lastly, this thermal brush does not go above 356°F which greatly lowers the risk of heat damage!

How To Achieve The Lazy Girls Salon Quality Blowout

1. USE HEAT PROTECTANT AND START WITH DRY HAIR

My preferred method of using the Amika Babe Blowout Thermal Ionic Brush is to start with clean, air dried hair. You want to make sure your hair is 100% dry and that you’ve applied a heat protectant prior to using the brush. Two of my favorite heat protectant products are INCOMMON Beauty Magic Myst and AG Care Firewall.

2. WORK IN SECTIONS

Sectioning your hair neatly is going to make a huge difference in how easy this tool is! If you are trying to work with messy or too large of sections, you are going to struggle way more. I personally do about three to four sections. Also, make sure you don’t grab more than a 1.5″ size section of hair to wrap around the brush. Trying to describe this in writing can be confusing so if you’re struggling to understand here is a link to my video tutorial on Instagram.

3. FOCUS ON TENSION AND HEAT

Two of the most important things to focus on when giving yourself a blowout in general are tension and heat. If you aren’t giving your hair enough tension on the brush you won’t receive as smooth or as shiny of results. The bristles on this Amika Blowout Babe brush are made of 0.5″ nylon which helps grip your hair to smooth and style. Secondly, you want to make sure your hair is heating up enough to make it pliable. Heat weakens the Hydrogen bonds between keratin protein chains allowing the shape of your hair to temporarily change. These bonds are reformed as your hair cools down locking the style in place.

4. LET YOUR HAIR COOL BEFORE TOUCHING IT

As you are wrapping your hair around the brush, creating tension, move it slowly down to the ends of your hair and twist. This allows the brush to distribute heat evenly across the length of the section and manipulates it into a bouncy, voluminous blowout. Repeat this process on the same section you’re working on until your hair becomes almost too hot to touch comfortably. This is when you know your hair is hot enough to move on to the next section. Unwrap your hair from the brush then let it sit to cool without disturbing it. After your hair has completely cooled down, you can toss through the sections blending them together.

The Finishing Touches To Your Lazy Girl’s Salon Quality Blowout

Depending on your hair texture, you can stop here, and wear your hair for multiple days with a smooth, shiny, frizz-free blowout! If you have fine hair or super healthy hair, you would benefit from using a medium-hold touchable hairspray (two I like here and here) to help prolong your style. If you have either really heavy long hair, or thin flat hair, you might like to apply some texture spray or texturizing powder at your roots. This will help maintain the volume you achieve with your blowout. However if you plan to wear your hair multiple days after you style it, either skip this step, or use a light application. These products have a gritty texture which is what helps give you volume!

I hope this article was helpful for anyone looking to learn how to give yourself a salon quality blow-out at home! Also to those who were wondering whether the Amika Blowout Babe Thermal Ionic Brush was worth the hype! In my humble opinion, it truly is! It’s easy to use, requires minimal skill, has hair-health in mind, and what more could you want?! I appreciate you being here, reading this post, and sharing it if you found it helpful!

xoxo Aly

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