No Heat Curls: How to Curl Short Hair without Heat or Curlers

By: | Last Updated: June 15, 2021

I believe straight hair never go out of season. But it can be tiring sometimes with daily styling even when your hair is short.

I have short hair and it is quite heartbreaking when I am trying to rush off in the morning and most times I’m caught up in the web of trying to style my short hair perfectly!

I’m sure I’m not the only one.

A great way to style short hair and add volume is to curl it.

There are plenty of hot rollers for short hair, and even curling irons. But I know many of you don’t want to add more heat which can contribute to hair fall.

Curlers and rollers are okay to use from time to time, but not regularly.

If you want to take a break from heat styling your hair, then you’ll be glad to know that there are many ways to get heatless curls for short hair.

Most of what I’ll be sharing below involves leaving your overnight and waking up with gorgeous curls.

These are easy to do, and require little equipment which you can just find at home or in your kitchen. Don’t believe me? Read on 😉


Here are 4 ways to achieve no heat curls for short hair:

1. Use a juice straw or pen

One can never run out of juice straws especially if you are a sugar junkie like me! Haha 😀

The length of the short hair would determine the length you would cut the straws into.

The first step is to wash your hair properly with shampoo. After drying, get a gel or mousse (I use Tresemmé mousse), and divide your hair from the front of your hair down into two equal halves.

Take a small portion of your hair, and twist it around the straw or pen. Then remove the straw or pen from the middle and use a hairpin to hold it against the root of your hair.

CHECK OUT: The Ultimate Guide on How To Curl Short Hair


Video tutorial: How to do straw curls on short hair

Repeat these steps until you have curled all your hair. Leave hair to air dry for an hour or two (although mine lasted for more than a couple of hours – it’s that dang humidity!).

If you don’t wanna wait, sit in front of a fan or use your blow dryer’s cold shot setting.

READ: Weird Things Youtubers Use To Curl Their Hair


2. Use pieces of cloth or socks

My experience with hair curling has taught me that old clothes can be useful.

I found a colorful old cotton shirt, and cut it into strips the same length as my hair and about 2 cm. wide.

You can use pieces of cloth from an old shirt for beautiful rag curls or socks for sock curls, whichever you prefer.

Sock Bun Hair Tutorial for short hair:

The same procedure applies, as what I described above in using a straw or pen (washing and drying your hair, using a mousse or gel, then twisting the strips of cloth or sock round your hair, then removing the cloth and pinning down with bobby pins and leaving to dry).

The only difference is that cotton shirts and socks gives you a soft and gentle curl.

Check Out: Sock Curls Tutorial: How to curl your hair with socks


3. Weave your hair

When I first started doing this, I asked a friend to weave my hair. You can get someone to help you braid your hair. Or if you can do it yourself, then the better.

To get curls through weaving, wash and dry your hair properly since you would be weaving, and a wet weaved hair breaks easily. There are two results you can achieve while weaving depending on what you desire.

Two braids – Curling Diva

First, if you want to get curls towards the end of your hair, part your hair through the center, and weave two braids on both sides.

If your goal is to get curls that would begin at the root of your hair, part your hair from the center, create two French braids on both sides of your head.

After doing any of the above procedure, leave the braid on for hours or overnight, then undo them afterwards. When it was time to unknot my hair, I used my finger to gently and playfully comb through it and I added mousse to hold the curls.

Check out these 8 hair rollers for heatless overnight curls!


4. Bantu knots

Yes I tried it, no side eyes. It was really amazing.

Bantu knots is an African/ African-American style. The first thing to demystify about bantu knots is that they are really not knots but spiral rolls that resemble arranged tires.

Bantu knot is a terrific method of getting curls without heat since they can be styled with your hands after loosening the knot.

How to do a bantu knot on short straight hair:


The first step to achieving a perfect curl is to properly wash the hair (shampoo and/or conditioner).

There has been diverse opinion on whether or not to allow the hair dry properly or to leave it slightly damp before making the bantu knot.

For me, I believe the texture and volume of your hair would determine whether it should be left completely dry or damp. I left my own slightly damp because I sorta have dry hair and that’s what worked for me.

The size of your bantu knot would depend on whether you want a large or small sized bantu knot. But if your hair is really short, small portions of your hair should be twisted.

READ: How To Add Volume To Short Hair

Gather small portions of your hair and twist twice or thrice depending on the length of your hair in between your fingertips. While twisting, make sure you don’t do it too tight to prevent hair breakage.

Remove your fingertips from the centre of the twisted knots and use hair pins to hold the knots in place. Repeat procedure until the rest of you hair is knotted.

Here’s a great step by step tutorial by Latonya Staubs over at A Beautiful Mess (go check it out!)

Since my hair was slightly damp, I left it to dry all through the night and I wore a shower cap to prevent the knot from loosing.

In the morning, I carefully unwrapped the knots without pulling or tugging to avoid getting frizz.

While unwrapping the knot I added my mousse to hold the curls. I also used my fingers to slightly detangle the curls without affecting the sections or partings. The bantu knot was an exciting experience for me and I would love to try it again.

READ: How To Use Velcro Rollers On Short Hair


Overnight heatless curls are great, but..

..is there a way to do it faster?

Glad you asked!

No heat curls do take some time to set, but there are hacks to curl short hair without heat in 5 minutes! We’ve dedicated an entire article for that. Go check it out 🙂

Also, curling short layered hair might be tricky if you’re using any of these heatless curling methods.


Have you tried any of them?

I hope I have been able to help you give your hair another look, save time and stress of styling your short hair daily.  I can’t wait to hear which of the tips was your favorite.

PIN For Later!
How To Curl Short Hair Without Heat or curlers – Curling Diva

Featured Image Credit: Deposit Photos

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