Long Styles For Curly Hair

Long Curly Hair Styles - Click for Larger Pictures

When we think of long styles for curly hair, it can seem like we're almost thinking about an an absence of hair styles altogether.

Picturing curly hair in your mind, sometimes you see a wild tumble of locks, all individual, all reckless, all following their own lead and finding their own level.

And it's true that this tendency to self-determination is one of the most attractive, intriguing and delightful traits of curly hair. Long curly hair cuts can certainly include styles that are essentially loose, where curly hair is allowed to follow its own inclination and discover its own shape.

But that's not the bottom line for curly hair cuts.

You're not limited to wearing whatever your hair feels like doing that day, just because your have long curly hair. Curly hair does have a mind of its own and it's not afraid to use it.

But curly hair can still be persuaded in different directions, urged along different lines, enlisted in the service of causes that matter to you - feeling good at school or work, getting noticed at a party.

There are so many ways to wear your curly hair long, and that means there are lots of long styles for curly hair.

One of the simplest modification is to wears long curly hair away from your face, with an individual curl trailing down on either side. The twin curls make a natural frame for your face, ready to draw in passing eyes. But they're more than a static picture frame. They're a border that continually redefines your beauty as they sway with the movement of your head.

You can use colour dramatically, with warm highlights distributed throughout your long dark curly hair. Contrast underscores the shape and length of your curls, and adds drama to their carefully disordered arrangement.

A highlighted, tousled, long curly hair style like this is a natural attention-getter, an eye-magnet, a curiosity arouser.

And curiosity is important. It can lead to infatuation, romance, love. A good hair style excites curiosity as much as desire - curiosity to know what sort of woman might be found beneath that glorious head of hair. You can give your curly hair extra height, by using clips to hold selected strands in place above your forehead, raised, while the hair is drying - naturally, of course - no blow dryers.

With that extra height you have more long styles for curly hair at your disposal.

Sweep your raised hair up and back for a dramatic look. Your face gains height, and your hair gains both height and volume as it cascades down your shoulders and back. It seems to spring from higher up ... and in a sense, it does.

Or from that extra height, draw your hair forward so that it tumbles across your forehead and down your cheeks, unevenly, cushioning your face in soft curls that give just tantalising glimpses, your lips, our cheek, the flash of your eyes.

Long styles for curly hair don't always have to be long, either. Long curly hair can be teased up into a cloud of fine curls that seem to float on the air, a shifting mist swirling mysteriously around your face.

Or long hair can be teased outwards, still loose, still long, still curly, but gaining volume around your head and neck and shoulders, claiming and focusing attention, once again, on the features held within - your lips and brows and lashes, your smooth skin, your lowered eyes.

When you use long styles for curly hair like this, to surround, enclose and partly conceal, your face becomes more delicate, a fragile and precious thing barely revealed among the enveloping curls and waves.

It makes people curious.

But long styles for curly hair can leave your face unshielded, too, exposed to view and open to appraisal. The long hair tumbling down your back still draws gazes, and your open face welcomes them. It's a statement of confidence, like wearing short hair. But here there's a nice counterpoint between that confidence and the long, luxurious curls that speak of a very feminine presence.

Long styles for curly hair have that ability to combine different ideas in a single look. Confidence and femininity ... Or glamour and casual grace. Long, loose hair, for instance, is a low-key, approachable look ... but the glossy waves of that same long hair pack all the eye-catching glamour and style of Veronica Lake.

Seriously Glamorous Long Styles for Curly Hair

And then there's this classical look associated with occasions of the highest glamour.

Pull your hair completely over to one side, so its entire length falls along one cheek and tumbles across one shoulder.

You might add a long ear ring on the free side, a counterbalance to your hair that says "Look, this also is beautiful!"

But even without decoration the delicate contours of your ear, the elegant profile of your cheek, the smooth line of your chin are made more evident and more striking by their contrast with all that long curly hair enveloping the other side of your face.

Be careful with this one. Of all long styles for curly hair, this is one whose only purpose is to look glamorous. There's no other reason to wear your hair this way. It can't double as a handy style at the office, it wouldn't fit a casual gathering of friends.

It's a serious, unmistakable grab for prestige and attention. When you wear it you announce your desire to be admired, as clearly as if you'd shouted it at the top of your voice. And that's fine, as long as you choose the perfect occasion and get the look just right.

Practise this long style for curly hair at home and make sure it works for you. Because when you do wear it, whatever happens, everyone will notice.

Long styles for curly hair can mean just naturally curly hair doing its own casually gorgeous thing.

But there's a lot more to it than that.