Big Goth Hair Tips n Tutorial
For context, my hair is fine, moderately thick mostly in the back, and silky. It doesn't take to teasing well if I only use hairspray and a brush. And my goal is generally how to make it last through a night of dancing and through multiple days if possible.
My preferences tend to be more of a halo from the front with the ends trailing down like a willow tree. Soft and fluffy rather than cemented into place with hairspray.
It takes me about 2 hours to do my hair and then I keep it up for 2-4 days. It tends to be as good as it ever gets on that 1st day and then it's all downhill from there.
I've gotten all my tips on hair from either online sources or personal experience.
Here's how I do my hair.
Thing's you'll need:
- fine-toothed comb, pintail comb (my preference), or a brush
- Hairspray, Strong-hold (I use got2be)
- Volumizing Root Powder (Optional)
- Crimper and Heat Protectant(Optional)
- Volumizing Mousse (Optional)
- Layered Haircut (Optional)
1. Wash Hair
This is to clean out previous product
Product buildup and dirty hair helps with volume, but I dislike how it feels personally, and it's not really great for the scalp
I add product back in again regardless, but I like to start with a clean slate.
2. Apply Mousse
Add Mousse to damp post-shower hair. The brand doesn't matter, but I just use Tresemme because it's cheap and available.
Helpful for volumizing any fine and silky hair
Blow dry upside down for extra lift at the roots
3. Wait 1-3 Days
This is so the hair's also a bit dirty again before actually backcombing. Ideally don't backcomb the same day as the shower, but if it can't be helped, try at least the day after?
4. Heat Protectant
Apply enough, "listen to your ancestors". I do more than I normally would leave-in conditioner just to be safe.
This is mostly to help with heat damage from crimping.
Try and coat all the strands, brush it through your hair and let dry before moving onto the next step.
5. Hairspray before Crimping
Spray in thin layers in roughly sectioned layers of hair. The general idea is a light coating on every hair strand, but especially on parts of the head where you want the most volume.
The texture of your hair should be a bit sticky but not clumped together. If they're clumped together you have applied too much hairspray at this stage.
6. Crimp Hair
Set crimper somewhere between 300 to 350 degrees.
Take 0.5" x 2" or so rectangular sections and crimp roots to ends, focusing on roots. You can omit the ends if desired.
The size of the section is arbitrary, but it depends on how much hair comfortably fits inside your crimper. Too much hair will prevent the piece from being thoroughly crimped, and too little hair will take a lot of time to get through.
Clip crimped hair up and out of the way; I start crimping from the top of my head and then go down.
The hairspray from the previous step will help the crimp stay longer.
This step takes about 30-40 minutes for me.
7. Brush out lightly with fingers
7.5. Do makeup if you plan on doing makeup?
8. Apply Root Powder
I focus on the top again and omit application on lower portions of hair.
Apply to root hair and rub in, but try to avoid getting powder on the scalp itself.
Texture wise, you still want the roots to be sticky, but not so sticky that they're stuck to each other.
Initially I'd used Big Sexy Hair's Powder Play, but I switched to Not Your Mother's Plump for Joy Root Powder because it's cheaper and still contains the primary ingredient of silica silylate.
9. Backcomb small sections at a time, combine new clumps to previous clumps
Backcomb by pulling sections of your hair up and then combing from mids to roots, towards the scalp. It forms a clump of structured tangles at the root that will provide volume. Backcombing more tends to create a denser clump and I prefer to make my clumps pretty dense since they hold up better over a few days. But it may not be the look you're going for.
I take 1" x 1" sections starting from the top and then I backcomb in a line going down the back of my head. Like a deathhawk.
After the "deathhawk" portion is done, I hairspray a light layer on both sides, 6-8 inches away. So that it's set, but not unmalleable since I still want to add portions to it after.
From that initial section, work outwards, hairspraying larger chunks of multiple small sections rather than individual clumps at a time.
Add newly backcombed sections to already done sections by taking both and backcombing as if they were one
My goal is usually to clump up all my hairs evenly rather than having one particular part that is backcombed a lot more compared to other parts.
10. Finish with 1-2 light layers of hairspray
Got2be will freeze your hair into place, which is both a pro and a con. As a pro it'll help with hold over time, but as a con it'll make the hair harder to backcomb after it's been sprayed. Additionally, it tends to add weight to the overall hair itself which I don't want on my ends. Try to get the majority of your backcombing done before applying the hairspray.
Optionally, you could go for more hairspray, but I just like to go light since I apply hairspray throughout the process and I don't like the glued together frozen solid look. I prefer my clump base secure and my ends trailing in the wind.
11. Post Notes
Avoid jostling the hair after finishing.
The hairspray will lose strength over time and your hair will never be as big as when you first put it up.
Regardless, if you backcomb the roots enough, you can retain the volume over a few days.
Order of Priority for what tends to help the most of the optional steps: Crimping, Root Powder, Mousse, Haircut with layers
12. Days After
Usually I sleep on my stomach when my hair is up so the back doesn't flatten from laying on it.
Sometimes I retease the ends, but if the base wasn't all that great to begin with there's little saving it that doesn't involve using too much hairspray for my taste.
Reteasing the days after gives a bit of a different effect too, more of a post-punk messy hair vibe like Robert Smith.
13. Washing it out
On wash day, taking down my hair adds an hour to the usual routine.
I like to rub coconut oil into the clumps and then lightly pull those denser clumps apart with my fingers.
I let the oil sit for a bit before dunking my head under the tub faucet and putting shampoo in to get all the hairspray and product out.
I DO NOT DETANGLE UNTIL ALL THE PRODUCT IS OUT
You can detangle it, but I find I get more breakage when I detangle with product in, so I detangle after.
At the least, the majority of the big clumps loosen up a lot after shampoo since my hair is naturally wavey and silky. But regardless, I apply conditioner with the tangles still in and a hair mask once every two weeks or after I've backcombed my hair twice in general.
Apply leave-in conditioner after the shower
Detangle when hair is dry with fingers and then with a wide toothed comb.
Here's a video showing how I backcomb
