The announcement of Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album got here with a number of social teasers. Fast clips housed a medley of notes kind the ‘60s and ‘90s—spinning vinyl and a typewriter sharing area with a babein’ skateboard deck—creating an imagined, eras-encompassing slumber celebration aesthetic. To place a pin within the level, Rodrigo paired her present trademark black manicure with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it throwback magnificence second: hair wrapped round Coke can rollers.
The look additionally featured in her Spotify album paintings, the higher to punctuate “All-American Bitch” and its lyrical reference to the traditional technique. “Coca-Cola bottles that I solely use to twist my hair,” Rodrigo sings, her face pouting previous two sections of free brunette wound round within the iconic cans. (Be aware: Bottles might have been the higher selection syllabically, however cans make for higher curls.)
“Can curls develop into standard within the Sixties when huge, bouffant hair turned trendy,” says Rachael Gibson of The Hair Historian. “Though rollers and different skilled styling home equipment had been accessible at this level, utilizing cans was an economical various and offered the specified elevate from the roots. The primary aluminum drinks can hit the market on the very finish of the Nineteen Fifties, and by the Sixties they had been in widespread use, so it wouldn’t have been onerous to get maintain of some and magnificence your hair on a budget.” Since then, cans have starred in a myriad of editorial pictures—one of the crucial memorable that includes Vogue cowl star Naomi Campbell—providing a considerably fantastical word to captured getting-ready routines.
On TikTok, #cancurling sits at 2.1 million views, with creator using aluminum cans within the place of scorching rollers and in modern new methods, the higher to revolutionize the throwback strategy (as Gen-Z is need to do). “One kind of can curling that we’ve been seeing on TikTok is inserting your hair via the opening of the can and heating it from the skin to create a cascading form of pure curl,” says superstar hairstylist Adir Abergel, go-to for the likes of Anne Hathaway and Kristen Stewart. “The opposite is the way in which that it was used within the ‘60s via the ’90s: doing a set with the cans and setting beneath a bonnet or hooded heater, letting quiet down, and getting a really horny, Cindy Crawford form of impact.”
Although the strategy is certainly efficient, it’s additionally extra laborious than using a curling iron or rollers. The cans can overheat unexpectedly, burning palms and fingers, and include their share of sharp edges. So what’s this resurgence all about? “It’s nostalgic, it’s enjoyable!” says Abergel. Gibson agrees. “My inclination is that this development is extra in regards to the in-process aesthetic—as a result of who wouldn’t need to seem like Naomi in that iconic Ellen von Unwerth shot?”
After you’ve loved your can curling second, choose to attain the identical supermodel-worthy oomph via fashionable means. Abergel recommends reaching for big velcro or scorching rollers, and beginning with combed-out lengths and a spritz of volumizer on the roots. “For the ends, I like to recommend one thing creamier like Virtue Strengthening Split End Hair Repair Serum Treatment in order that they really feel smoother and extra healthy-looking,” he says. Subsequent, wind sections of hair round rollers, making certain ends are polished and cleanly wrapped and hair is rolled away from the face. “For the velcro technique, add some warmth on dry hair utilizing a diffuser in your blow drier: low stress, excessive warmth,” says Abergel, who says 5-7 minutes will do the trick. “It will lock within the curl and never create additional frizz. Warmth it up for 5-7 minutes.” Permit hair to chill earlier than eradicating rollers for optimum bounce, and end with a mist of hairspray for maintain.
Traditional glamour touches every thing, from beneficiant manes to readying routines. So subsequent time you are prepping for a night out, contemplate that a few of your most memorable (and documentable) magnificence moments may very well happen en path to a completed look.