Curly Corkscrews

Here’s a typical pre-party scene: a straight-haired woman tearing her hair in frustration before the mirror because . . . it just won’t curl! Or a curly haired woman also tearing her hair because . . . it won’t curl the way she wants! Oh, sure, they could set it, but not everyone can manage that these days. And a permanent, well, that means permanent damage, at least until the hair grows out.

A couple of years ago, the hair industry brought us color without tears--spray-in, wash-out mousses and gels that didn’t require any commitment. Now, the same thing’s happening with curls. You, too, can have ringlets worthy of Pollyanna and then get rid of them the next day.

There are a couple of different ways to go about this. At Allen Edwards salons in Encino and Woodland Hills, artificial corkscrew curls are attached to your real hair for a romantic, face-framing effect. “Curls break up a round face or angular look,” said Edwards, who began adding fake curls as a way of softening slick, pulled-back styles on models with short, straight hair. Locks of fake tresses can be bought at beauty supply shops, or customers bring in falls and Edwards cuts them up.

Sebastian International, the Woodland Hills-based beauty product company, has two new items that will turn wavy hair into a mass of perfectly controlled ringlets. Molding Mud, which has a consistency in the jar rather like rubbery butterscotch topping, bonds hair into corkscrew curls without the stiffness and weight of liquid fixatives or damage of a body perm. It’s on the market next month. Used in conjunction with the hand-held hair steamer Sebastian is introducing next summer--a gadget that may do as much for curly hair as blow-dryers have for straight--this should turn out some of the curliest locks around.