WATCH: Embrace and Enhance Natural Texture

If there is one word we would use to describe Miss USA Kara McCullough, it’s confident. And at this year’s Miss Universe pageant, everything she said and wore—even her hair—was radiating with confidence. Here’s how Kara’s stylist, CHI artist Albert Luiz embraced her natural curl pattern to enhance her look for the night.

A few takeaway tips when working with natural texture:

• Remember, natural curl texture does not follow the same curl pattern throughout the head. So, once you have the section you want to curl, hold it up, then let it fall. Then aim the tip of the curling iron (the CHI Orbit Wand!) in the direction the section fell and wrap the hair around the wand. Use the CHI Magnified Volume Spray at the root to give the hair lift that will last.

• On natural texture, Albert suggests working randomly. Work with random section sizes, curl in random directions (depending on where the curl pattern falls), curl some sections from roots to ends, curl some sections from mids to ends and leave some of the ends out completely to keep the natural texture.

• After curling, go back through the hair, apply the CHI Wax Spray throughout and separate the curls from one another.

• The goal isn’t to recreate a curl pattern, it’s to emphasize the natural curl and bring out the texture she is already wearing.