Instant Waves

I keep seeing tutorials on pinterest for instant waves and decided to try it out.

I was taking the pictures myself while trying to braid my hair and the camera was freaking out and wouldn't let me turn the flash off.  So, sorry about the pictures.

First, start with clean, dry, hair...

*Or maybe a little hair spray or mousse to give it some hold.

Then braid your hair into 5-10 loose braids.

*Some advice:  you should curl the ends of your hair first so that you don't get the straight pieces at the bottom.

Then run your flat iron over each braid.

Spray lightly with hairspray and let each braid cool.

*I found that I had to run the flat iron over each braid a lot and very slowly otherwise the whole braid didn't get warm enough to hold the waves.

Then just undo each braid.  That's it!

As you can see, mine does look like I slept in braids, but it looks nothing like the pinterest picture.  I think I should have curled the ends first, and maybe only done about 4 braids instead of 9.  My waves were so small it looked like I crimped my hair.

My hair is really straight though, so maybe this would have worked better on someone with some natural wave to their hair.

Has anyone else ever tried this?  Did it work for you?  Maybe there is some secret that I'm missing.  I'm going to have to keep trying :)