20 Gorgeous Hoco Hairstyles Down For Long Hair

The 20 Hoco Down Styles

1. Hollywood Waves

One continuous S running the whole length, set on a large barrel and then brushed through with a bristle brush. The brushing is what makes it a wave rather than a row of curls, because it collapses each spiral into a single flat bend that lies against the head instead of hanging free.

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2. Loose Curls With a Deep Side Part

The part does more work here than the curl. Moving it two inches off centre forces the hair on the heavy side to travel across the crown, and roots pushed against their growth direction stand up rather than lying flat, which is where the front lift comes from.

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3. Bouncy Blowout Curls

Set on a large round brush instead of an iron, so the bend is wide and the ends turn under. The brush dries and shapes in the same pass, which means the hair cools while still wrapped around the barrel and holds far better than a curl dropped straight off a hot iron.

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4. Sleek Straight With a Middle Part

There is nothing to drop, which is why it survives a four hour night intact. Straight hair shows every remaining kink, so the iron has to move slowly through thin sections; a fast pass only partly resets the strand and it reverts in the first humid room.

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5. Beachy Waves With Texture Spray

The spray leaves salt and polymer on the cuticle, which raises friction between neighbouring strands so each wave keeps its separation instead of merging into the mass. Spray before you iron rather than after, since a wave already flattened cannot be re-separated by anything you put on top of it.

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6. Flat Iron Bend Waves

Waves made by rotating a flat iron down the length rather than wrapping a barrel, which puts a soft bend in the hair instead of a spiral. A bend has no spring to lose, so it loosens gradually rather than dropping out, and it reads as a wave for hours longer on heavy hair.

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7. Curtain Bangs Over Long Waves

The shortest point sits at the cheekbone and the length runs back toward the jaw, so both halves fall away from the centre. That diagonal gives the eye something to follow other than the flat horizontal line where a blunt fringe would sit.

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8. Face Framing Curls Pinned Behind One Ear

Curl the front pieces away from the face, then pin one side back so the two sides are not identical. Curling away rather than toward the face opens the cheekbone up instead of closing hair across it, which is the whole point of the front section.

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9. Half Up Twisted Crown

Two ropes twisted from the temples and joined at the back with everything else left hanging, covered further in the half up half down guide. The twist lifts the weight of the front sections off the parting, which is what stops the crown collapsing by the second hour.

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10. Braided Headband With the Rest Down

A single braid taken from one temple across the crown and pinned under the length on the far side. It holds its curve because a braid is three strands under constant tension against each other, where a loose section laid the same way would simply slide off the round of the head.

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11. Two Front Rope Twists

A rope holds because the two strands are twisted one way and wound around each other the other way. Twist each strand clockwise and wrap the pair anticlockwise and the tension locks itself; twist and wrap in the same direction and it unwinds on the walk to the car.

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12. Ribbon Braid Along the Part

A narrow satin ribbon woven in as a fourth strand down the parting line. The ribbon does not stretch, so it carries the tension the hair would otherwise take, and the braid stays flat to the scalp instead of lifting away as it loosens.

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13. Rhinestone Barrettes on One Side

Two or three clipped in a line above one ear, which creates asymmetry without moving the parting. Set each one into a section that has hair beneath it, because a barrette clipped over a single smooth layer has nothing to bite on and slides down within an hour.

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14. Pearl Pins Scattered Through Waves

Push each pin in along the direction the wave runs, then rotate it half a turn before letting go. The twist is what traps the hair against the shank; a pin pushed straight in has nothing holding it and works its way out as soon as you start moving.

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15. Root Lift With Long Loose Curls

Backcombing at the crown, curls from eye level down. The backcombing tangles the shorter broken hairs into a cushion and the smooth top layer lies over it, so the height you see comes entirely from the cushion underneath and not from the hair on show.

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16. Crimped Roots Under Smooth Ends

A fine crimper used only on the first two inches, kept hidden beneath the top layer. The crimped hair props the smooth hair above it, and because that is a heat set bend rather than a tangle it survives the night far better than backcombing does.

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17. Zigzag Part With Straight Lengths

Running a comb tip in a wave down the parting breaks the scalp line into short segments so no continuous strip of skin shows. It also drops roots on alternating sides, and those alternating directions read as fullness along the whole parting.

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18. Volumised Half Up Ponytail

The top section tied high with everything else hanging, crown backcombed before the elastic goes on. Tie over the cushion rather than dragging the elastic back through it, because pulling an elastic through backcombing pulls the tangle apart and the height leaves with it.

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19. Soft Curls With a Padded Headband

The band lifts every hair it crosses, so the crown gains height with no backcombing at all. Slide it forward past the hairline first and then push it back into position, which sets the lift into the roots instead of dragging them flat on the way through.

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20. Deep Side Part Finger Waves at the Front

Flat S shapes moulded into the front section with gel and clips, with the rest left in loose curls. Gel holds by drying into a continuous film across the strands, so the waves have to dry fully clipped; releasing them damp breaks the film before it has set.

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Styling and Upkeep

Style on day two hair. A day of natural oil raises friction between strands, which is grip you do not have to buy. Freshly washed hair is slick and slides out of every shape.

Cool the whole head before releasing anything. Pin as you go, do all twenty sections, then unpin from the bottom up when the last one is cold.

Spray section by section as you release. A single coat at the end lands on the outer layer only and leaves everything underneath unset.

Carry six pins and nothing else. Anything that needs a repair kit will need it at the worst moment. Pins fix a slipped section in ten seconds.

Keep your hands out of it. Warmth and oil from fingers soften a set faster than dancing does, and the front pieces take the worst of it.

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Mistakes to Avoid

Curling from the root on long hair. The length hanging below drags the root curl straight inside an hour. Start at eye level and lift the crown separately.

Brushing a set out warm. The bonds are still reforming. Brush it cold or the wave never sets at all.

Drowning fine hair in hairspray. Product has weight, and on a fine head that weight flattens the shape it was meant to hold. Two light passes beat one soaked one.

Using one iron temperature for every texture. Fine hair sets around 150 to 180 degrees and scorches above that; coarse hair needs 190 or more or it takes no set at all.

Trying the style for the first time on the day. Every head sets at a different speed. Run it once a week early so you know how long your own hair needs to cool.

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FAQ

Will curls last all night? Only if each one cools pinned before it is released.

Curl from the root? No. The weight of the length below pulls a root curl straight within the hour.

Hairspray before or after? As you unpin each section, not once over the whole head at the end.

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Final Thoughts

The set is the style. Iron temperature, section size and cooling time decide whether you are wearing the picture at nine o'clock, and no amount of product added afterwards changes that.

For more shapes that keep the length hanging see hoco hair down, and for setting curls that already have their own pattern see hoco hairstyles for curly hair. More in Occasion Hair.