When beach waves are done well they look easy and effortless, a tumble of tousled strands. That is, for the three minutes they stay in the hair. Infamously difficult to “set”, beach waves have a tendency to fall out quickly. Less structured than a tight curl or ringlet, a beach wave is closer in form to straight hair. Because of this, when a wave falls, it falls straight.

Outside of rinsing half a can of hair spray, founder of JVN Hair and Queer Eye and Getting Curious presenter Jonathan Van Ness has an easier, less crunchy way to troubleshoot your beach wave dilemmas and it has nothing to do with the type of heated tool you use.

Working with Austin-based food blogger and model Jane Ko, Van Ness outlined the simple steps he takes to inject fullness, body and hold into his beach waves. First, he tells her to get upside down. “I need more volume in this hair,” Van Ness says, instructing Jane to flip her hair over. “This is such a good trick, you guys, if you need more volume and if you want bigger hair. 

“Also… when you’re trying to get the hair bigger, take the nozzle off [the hair dryer] because the nozzle kind of concentrates the airflow but in this case, we want to get this hair bigger and like beach wavier [sic] and we want it to hold. You don’t even need to [use a] round brush or paddle brush.”

The reason for this, he says, is because a brush can be the reason your hair doesn’t maintain the initial shape, texture and volume after styling. “It kind of pulls [the hair] straight,” he says. “This way we’re not going to pull it so straight and hopefully it’s going to hold a little bit better.”

Separating her hair into two sections (straight down the middle), Van Ness then uses one hand to twist the hair while he dries – flipping it over, curling it under through his fingers and scrunching up towards the root and holding for a second before repeating. The hairdryer (still being used without a nozzle) is held about eight inches away from the hair as he does so.

“This is a really good way to set the hair,” he says. “It’s really easy. It still takes as long as a round brush does but it’s less labour intensive.” If you want to get more texture from the hair, Van Ness suggests using smaller sections as it’ll make for a tighter wave or curl. 

So, if you struggle with hair that refuses to hold a beach wave – consider going without a brush. You’ll get more texture, more volume and, crossed fingers, come home with the waves you left with.

Main image: Getty