hair curling for thin & straight asian hair - without heat.

i love soft, curly hair. i'm highly attracted to men with relatively long, curly hair and envy caucasian girls with beautiful, soft waves and curls. you always want what you don't have, and that's a central theme in the asian ideal of beauty. we don't only want to enhance our naturally given features, but we want high noses, double lids, pale skin, curly hair and full and curved lashes. and even though i don't think i am a real "victim" of these desires, the hairy part is right. i wish for full and curled lashes and curly hair.
my hair is ok, it has a nice natural reddish/brown ombre, is very shiny and doesn't look too opaquely black, but it's extremely fine and sparse and very straight. it's so sleek, it doesn't hold a curl at all. i've tried several curling irons, steam rollers etc, but no chance. after about 3 hours it's again a thin, weary something. only with straightening irons i can get curls that stay all day, but i never manage to achieve even, beautyfully shaped curls. plus the heat really damages my fine hair and i get split ends very quickly.

i have even once tried a perm with loose curls about 5-6 years ago, it looked nice but was quite maintain-heavy and after few months it dried out my hair completely so that i needed to chop it off to a short bob :(

now i stumbled upon this funny hair curling tool few months ago, i remember it was from some very expensive brand so i forgot about it quickly. about two months ago i discovered a knock-off version of it on ebay, though, and at only 2.90€ for a whole pack of 18 curlers, i ordered two sets to play around with.

these curling gimmicks are made of a spiral, thin flat tube of plastic mesh. you use them on wet/damp hair:

• take your stick tool, thread it into a curly tube.
• put a strand of wet hair into the hook of the tool
• pull the tool, at the same time push the curly tube upwards and thread your hair through the tube. 

 

• after you finished your whole head you will look funny like this:

• just let your hair air dry completely for a few hours, you can blow dry it to speed up the process. 
• pull the curling tubes straight and remove them. you will get defined, spiral curls like this:

goofy expression time!

then i would just run through my hair with my fingers and then scrunch some of TIGI's Bed Head Small Talk styling creme through my curls. i'd add some root volume powder to my roots to add some volume.

the result will look like this:

i really love it! i'll have more volume and the curls will look very beachy and wavy after about 30 minutes. and no heat at all is needed, so i wouldn't have to use any more heat protecting or styling products and my hair will stay soft and silky and nice to touch.
the curls are more even, spirally and bigger than if i'd used common bendy curlers.
best part is that the curls last all time 'til the next hair wash.

they are quickly applied (i need less than 15-20 minutes for my whole head) and during the time they dry down, i'd do other things (eating, make up, get dressed, learn, etc.). i am obsessed with curly hair these days and am so glad that i've tried these funny curlers!

there's just one negative point about these curling tools: this knock-off version only contains short curling tubes, they're much too short for my long hair. i would always use two tubes on one strand to curl the whole length, so even with my thin and sparse hair i'd need 2 packs of 18 curls each. on the other side, ~3€ for one pack and free postage is quite a steal so i wouldn't get the longer but more than 10 times expensive original version.

what about you? how do you manage hard-to-curl hair?

EDIT: ah, i'm such a forget-head! write the whole post and then forget the most important information for you: where and how to find it!
just search for "leverag" on ebay. i don't even know what language that is, sounds like dutch or chinese english ;) then you should find the 2.49£-offer.