The crimper is the tool everyone mocks and a surprising number of stylists quietly rely on. Its reputation was set in 1986 and never updated, which means most people picture zigzag hair and a scrunchie and stop thinking about it there.

What crimpers are actually used for now, in salons and backstage, is volume. Not texture on the surface — structural lift at the root, invisible under the top layer, holding a whole style up. It’s one of the more useful tools in the drawer once you know the trick, and it belongs in the wider conversation about hair styling tools.

Crimper or waver — they’re different tools

Crimpers have narrow zigzag plates that create tight, angular texture. Micro-crimpers produce very fine texture that reads as fullness rather than visible waves. Wide-plate crimpers produce the recognisable retro look.

Deep wavers — sometimes called triple-barrel or S-wavers — have three rounded barrels that create smooth, rolling S-shaped waves. This is the mermaid-wave tool, and it’s what most people actually want when they buy a “crimper”.

If you’re after soft beachy waves, buy a waver. If you’re after volume or genuine crimped texture, buy a crimper. They are not interchangeable and the packaging rarely makes the distinction clear.

The root volume trick

This is the reason to own a crimper even if you never want visible crimped hair.

Take the under-sections at the crown — the hair that will be completely hidden by the layer above it. Crimp just the first two or three centimetres from the root. Do this across the crown, working in a fan shape.

Then let the smooth top layer fall over it. The crimped under-layer acts as scaffolding, holding everything up from underneath. From the outside, nothing is visible except hair that suddenly has considerably more body than it did.

It lasts through the day far better than backcombing, causes less damage than teasing, and works on fine hair that refuses to hold volume by any other method. Fine, straight hair benefits from it most.

Temperature, and why crimpers need care

Crimper plates hold hair in full contact for longer than a straightener glide — you’re clamping and holding for several seconds per section rather than sliding through. That means more heat transferred per pass, which means the temperature setting matters more than usual.

Fine or damaged hair: 150–170°C.
Medium hair: 170–185°C.
Thick, coarse hair: 185–200°C.

Hold each section for three to five seconds, not longer. If you can smell anything or hear anything, stop — that’s damage happening in real time.

And use a heat protectant spray without exception. On a tool that clamps and holds, this matters more than on one that glides.

How to use one properly

Start with completely dry hair. Damp hair plus clamped plates produces steam inside the strand, which cracks the cuticle from within.

Work in sections roughly the width of the plates and no thicker than about a centimetre. Thicker sections don’t heat through, so you get texture on the outside and nothing underneath.

Clamp at the root, hold, release, then move down and align the next clamp with where the last one ended. Misaligned sections leave visible gaps in the pattern, which is the main thing that makes home crimping look amateurish.

Let each section cool completely before touching it. Warm hair is still setting, and handling it while warm loses the shape.

Then finish. Fingers, not a brush — brushing crimped hair turns it into a cloud almost instantly. If you want softer texture, break the crimps apart gently with your hands and mist with a light spray.

Getting a natural result

The mistake that makes crimped hair look costumey is uniformity. Crimping every section identically from root to tip gives you a very obvious effect.

Instead: crimp some sections and leave others smooth. Crimp only the mid-lengths, leaving roots and ends alone. Alternate between crimped and straight sections through the back. Use a waver on the top layers and a crimper underneath for volume.

The goal is texture that looks like something your hair does naturally, which means variation.

Who it suits

Fine, flat hair. The best candidate by a distance. The root volume technique solves a problem no other tool solves as well.

Medium hair. Works well for both volume and visible texture.

Thick hair. Takes a long time, and thick hair rarely needs added volume. A waver for texture is a better use of the time.

Curly hair. Generally not the tool. Curls already have texture, and clamping heat plates on them is a lot of thermal damage for a result you could get from a curly hair products routine instead.

Short hair. Works, with narrow plates, and the root volume trick is particularly effective on short styles.

Damage, honestly

Crimpers are among the harsher heat tools, because of the sustained contact. Used weekly at a sensible temperature with protection, that’s manageable. Used daily at 200°C, it isn’t.

Signs you’re overdoing it: hair that stays crimped even after washing, increased breakage at the mid-lengths, and ends that look frayed. All three mean stop and reassess.

Sensible frequency is once or twice a week maximum, with deep conditioning in between.

The alternative worth knowing

Almost everything a waver does can be achieved overnight with braids or twists, for free and with no heat at all. Damp hair, several braids, sleep, unravel in the morning. Tighter braids give a crimp-like texture; looser ones give soft waves.

For volume, hot rollers lift from the root with far less direct heat than a crimper, and the result lasts longer.

Buy a crimper if the root volume problem is one you actually have. Otherwise it will join the wand from 2021 in the drawer, and you’ll get it out once a year and wonder why you bothered.