Essential Side Swept Bangs Styling Tips – Terrific Tresses

Pondering bangs? More specifically maybe you have your sights set on those sexy side swept bangs?

Worried? Is not being exactly sure how to style them holding you back?

Locked in? Are you uncertain if they will work with any future hairstyles you have in mind?

No worries. At least not once you understand these …

Even if you are scared your stylist will sap your will to live with just a few snips of the scissors you can proceed with confidence.

Although…

Truth be told, aside from being the greatest way to wear hair in the world, they can be simply awful to style just right at times.

It’s only after getting your daring new fringe that the real uncertainty sets in. And it will set in. Regardless if your stunning bang of choice was blunt, wispy or side-swept.

So yes. There will be moments you’ll feel less than confident about this decision. (Sorry but someone has to break it to you.) In part simply because the new look isn’t the same as the old look and change can be hard to get used to seeing in the bathroom mirror.

Then too good looking bangs don’t just happen.

It’s also sometimes hard to get a loveable fringe because you have no idea what you need to do to maintain that fresh from the salon look that you practically skipped out of the salon with. Am I right? Luckily after watching the super helpful videos below you WILL KNOW what to do.

Silence the Secret Critics

Lack of styling know how aside, in the days immediately after showing up to work or school with your chic bangs, behind your back others will be busy sniping or passing judgment about the decision.

“Oh no she didn’t! What did she do to her hair and what will she do with it until that foul fringe grows out? OMG.”

“‘Uh-Oh.’ Did you see that? Clearly SHE didn’t listen to her stylist.”

“I KNOW. She must think she’s a budding salon diva with a great sense of style. Not.”

Problem is with every failed attempt to judge and evaluate what others do with their hair, it’s clear we never learn our lesson. As we never have enough information to evaluate how someone’s new hair cut is going to work out – in the long run which makes any sneering or praise premature.

Simply put first impressions of a new cut, good or bad, are often wrong. There’s not much in those first few days spent adjusting to a new look to assure you one way or the other that things will fall into place to make the cut a success. Which is why trying to rate a cut at that point as anything beyond “INCOMPLETE” is completely crazy.

Plus what are the odds it can make or break the overall impression one makes anyway?

Probably next to nil.

Your hair will continue to grow its half an inch a month regardless.

So as mom would be quick to point out, today’s hair calamity in a couple of months will be yesterday’s look anyway – resolving itself one way or the other over time. Likely without much long lasting damage to anyone’s image – yours especially. No matter where you land on the always hard to pin down pinnacle of fabulousness.

Then too with a change to any hairstyle, long or short, involving bangs, well until you see if you can master styling them, anything anyone thinks or says is reckless supposition that is, as noted before, a premature judgment at best.

Which has brought us full circle. Back to styling a fringe and the lack of ideas or skills you may now possess.

Proven Styling Tips Revealed and Then Some

But relax. Getting the bangs of your dreams, that look absolutely amazing on you, is quite doable.

Because getting them to look just amazing is all in how they are dried. Which is why the next 3 videos in the ReelCut series that follow can help you get a fringe that’s hot and high on glam, not high-maintenance.

Obviously no one video can fill all the holes in your know-how (because I mean aside from you who knows what you don’t know), yet these vids should at least begin to give you some ideas for styling bangs. And the confidence that comes with that.

Besides, styling bangs to the side is a great way to create enough dimension to make thinner hair look thicker. Especially if your natural texture is on the wavy side.

And I don’t know. I think the first one is the best but that may just be me.

Just do pay attention to the points brought up repeatedly by each.

They are probably important and good takeaways if styling side bangs is holding you back from going with a fun, flirty fringe.

How to: Quick Side Swept Tutorial

Okay so one of the most commonly asked questions is how to style the cute side swept bang look. That’s because instead of a lovely sweep of hair covering the forehead and just grazing the eye a common result is a rainbow effect that fails to drape the forehead much at all.

Here’s how to pull this off.

First trick is after washing your hair you’ll want to dry your bangs first – before the rest of your hair. This is all the more important if you have some kind of cowlick stuck in your front hairline as it avoids letting the cowlick dictate the shape of your bangs.

Then the second is to blow dry your bangs in the opposite direction you normally wear them. So if you part your hair on the right hand side, initially dry them going in that direction. Then when mostly dry flip them.

Styling Tip: Volume a problem? You can always try a tiny amount of volumizing foam spritzed onto your fingers and run through your bangs with a focus on the roots. Or for extra hold you might try applying a conditioning spray or light hold styling spray which can help keep them in place yet leave things with an effect that will still look soft and natural.

Yet did you know there is a right way and a wrong way to direct the heat from your blow dryer into your bang? Well there is. Do it wrong and again you’ll be walking around with a big bump where the sleek and smooth is supposed to be.

So first flip your bangs to the opposite direction of your part. You can do this with or without a brush. (And the heat setting on the dryer isn’t critical to success here either.) But you want to dry your bangs with the dryer air aimed down and the hair going down as you finger comb them. In other words you don’t want to blast the air up into them. There. Let’s call this downwardness stuff the third trick.

Styling Tip: I know. Typically we’re warned not to style with a brush before our hair is mostly dry. Not so with bangs. Since most any fringe tends to dry fast anyway don’t hold back on the brush if you want sleek results in the end.

Speaking of which, if you use a brush, you want to brush into the hair, bend the hair at the root and pull upward while shooting the hair with the dryer. The video shows you exactly how to do this and doing so can add some body and volumizes the bang just a bit.

Or you can pull your brush straight down if you are going for a flatter bang. You can even do them completely straight forward rather than to the side. Each approach will give you a slightly different finished look.

Alright, once maybe 90% dry, flip them. It’s clear this approach makes them lay quite nicely sans the dreaded rainbow effect. Finish drying them, this time in to the side you wear them. Taking care to aim down never up.

Finish off with a flat iron. She splits the bangs in half clipping the top half out of the way. The idea is to take the iron and go up at the root for some more lift and slowly run the hair through the iron with a little bend at the end. Again the video shows this technique perfectly.

This is then repeated with the clamped up part of your bangs. The hair nearest the part, you want to run through the iron pulling the hair in the opposite direction.

When they are looking like you want, spritz with hair spray to lock the look in. You may not want to spray the hair directly however, but instead spritz your thumb and index finger and work the holding power into your hair that way.

How to: Perfect Side Swept Bangs With Volume Tutorial

Different video same theme. More ideas for those in search of the magic pixie dust needed to get your side swept bangs to lay perfectly across your forehead. You know like they were meant to do that?

Here’s the technique. And it’s not much different from the one just shared on the previous video. You start by blow drying your bangs.

First take your brush or comb, and part your hair to the opposite side you usually wear your bangs.

Then turn on your blow dryer and blow them down and to that same opposite side. This will force your bangs to fall onto your forehead rather than arch up and away from it. This trick will give you the perfect swoop you are looking for. (You got it. This is a repeat of the three tricks from the previous video. Just want to make sure you are getting this, you know?)

As before see how the bangs are blow dried down finger combing the strands as she goes.

After drying the bangs you’ll want to dry the rest of your hair. The brush of choice is a round boar bristle variety. The hair is wrapped around the brush and away from her face and blasted with the heated air to noticeably thicken fine hair. Focusing the heat on the roots will result in fuller bodied locks.

How To: Side Bang Styling

Two deceptively simple yet different ways to style bangs are found in this one – explaining how to style freshly washed and second day hair. Both involve using a blow dryer and a one inch ceramic ionic round brush.

The styling technique for freshly washed hair is simple. Wrapping the bangs around the brush and away from her face she sticks the blow dryer, nozzle firmly in place, right against the hair on the brush. Turn off the dryer but hold things in place as the heat is retained by the ceramic brush itself. Think hot rollers. Once you remove the brush you’ll have well behaved, swept back, volumized side bangs.

There’s nothing complicated. Nothing tricky. But in a minute or less you’ll have your lock locked into place. You could use hair spray to really lock down the look but that usually isn’t necessary – depending on your hair of course.

When working with second or third day hair the approach is much the same yet different. Some kind of hokey dryer with a brush attachment is used. The metal that is used warms up so again she keeps the hair on the device for an additional 15-20 seconds after turning off the heat.

IMPORTANT POINT: Bangs come down to styling. Sure when you leave the salon your hair will look great. The stylist will cut and style them and you’ll walk out the door looking ready for the red carpet. Problem is duplicating the look can be a challenge. Especially if you don’t know what to do with it. Tricks like these can help you achieve the same look you would get at a salon.

So true.

And let me slip in one more little styling nugget.

Styling Tip: Does a humid weather forecast send you into hysterics because it means your bangs are going to go all wacko on you? See if a drop or two of a silicone based serum like Frizz Ease by John Frieda applied before blow drying and smoothing with a mini iron might help seal in their sleekness. Take that humidity.

These vids are proof positive you don’t need a SWAT team of celebrity styling pros to style hairstyles with bangs that you want swept to the side. With a bit of practice and little know how you too can have a sultry bang laden look.

Just remember the three tricks for a torrid tress effect:

• Style your bangs first then the rest of your hair.
• Blow dry to the opposite side you wear them.
• Aim the heated air down not up into your fringe.

Bangs add easy drama to your ‘do. For more styling inspo like this please follow our popular pins board on Pinterest. You’ll be glad you did!