Blowout Secrets Hair Salons Don't Want You To Know

Does your hair style have a case of the blahs? Celebrity hairstylist Matthew Preece of the Fred Segal Salon in Santa Monica, California, shares his advice on how to give your hair style a quick pick-me-up this season. "Now is a good time to get some highlights and long layers in your hair to prepare it for summer," says Matthew, who doesn't recommend cutting too much so you can still have the option of putting your hair up when the weather gets warmer. "This is L.A.--everyone wants long hair," he says. Here, Matthew reveals how to get a perfect, salon-quality blowout at home!

HOW TO Get The Perfect Blowout

1. Pick a Powerful Dryer Matthew recommends keeping your dryer on the hottest setting to close the cuticle (making hair smoother and shinier), faster. At his salon everyone uses the Parlux dryer, but for home use, Matthew recommends Barbar dryers, because they're less heavy.

2. Start With Wet Hair Instead of towel-drying or rough-drying hair until it's only slightly damp, Matthew recommends blotting hair slightly with a towel and blow-drying each section immediately with a round brush. This is the only way to ensure that you'll get a perfect, smooth blowout without any frizz.

3. Choose Smaller Sections Instead of wrapping large sections of hair around your brush and going over each section over and over again until it's dry, Matthew suggests picking up smaller sections so the hair dries faster.

4. Line Up Your Nozzle For more smoothness and shine, Matthew suggests pressing the nozzle directly against your hair shaft on the brush, instead of holding the blow dryer inches away from your head.

5. Focus on the Ends Spend more time with the dryer and brush polishing your ends. Instead of going over the whole section from root to tip over and over again, Leave the root area once it's dry and brush through the ends a couple of times to make sure they're smooth and any curl you've created is set.

6. Add Volume After you've finished drying the hair section by section, take your dryer and blast it at your roots from below while fluffing your hair with your fingers. This will add lift and movement to your blowout. Some stylists (pro and at home) do this with wet hair (before they whip out the styling brush), but that only creates more frizz that you can't smooth out later, warns Matthew.

7. Make Sure Hair Is Dry Hair can look dry, but you have to really touch it to make sure you've gotten rid of all the moisture. Otherwise, if it's not completely dry, you'll have frizz in 30 minutes.

8. Set With Hairspray To lock in volume and waves (a must if you're getting an L.A. style blowout), a light mist of hairspray will do the trick. Keep the can at least six inches away from your head so you don't end up with any stiff or sticky spots.