Some women are blessed with hair that goes from wet to wonderful without any help at all. For the rest of us, only professional intervention seems to tame our manes. The good news: With practice, patience and some expert instruction, it’s easy to recreate a professional-looking blowout at home.

Here is a step-by-step guide to getting sleek, polished tresses on your own.  

1. Gather the right tools You’ll need a wide-tooth comb; a hand mirror; styling products; a blow-dryer with a nozzle; a round, ventilated bristle brush; and six hinged hair clips.

2. Gently blot hair with a towel Vigorous rubbing can create frizz and tangles.

3. Apply styling product Steve Lococo, who teaches blow-drying classes at his Borelli salon in Beverly Hills, Calif., suggests using a leave-in volumizing or lifting spray on the roots to give lift to limp hair. If your hair is wavy or medium-bodied, also apply an anti-frizz serum or other anti-humectant product from roots to ends. 

4. Blow out the excess moisture until hair is about 80 percent dry Concentrate heat at the roots and don’t try to control individual strands. If your hair tends to become limp or flat, add volume by bending over while drying. 

5. Section the front Lococo suggests beginning with an arch that spans the top of your head, running from ear to ear. Part that hair horizontally, creating two sections. Coil each section into a rope and secure with a hair clip.

6. Section the back Working from top to bottom, draw three horizontal parts across the back of your head from ear to ear; coil and secure all but the bottom section.

7. Wrap hair around a round brush As you wrap, pull hair at a taut 45-degree angle to your head and finish drying your hair completely. Begin with the loose bottom section in the back and continue working from back to front. Point the blow-dryer nozzle at an angle to aim air across the surface of strands and into the brush.

8. Subdivide the tough sections In areas where hair is thick or especially wavy, separate the larger sections into smaller ones that will dry faster and be easier to handle.

9. Check your work in a hand mirror Look for still-damp or unruly strands. Repeat the drying process, allowing hair to set by cooling momentarily on the brush before unwinding.  

Advanced Tips

• Use a natural bristle brush, suggests John Doucette, director of student salons for Empire Beauty Schools. The gentle boar bristles prevent hair damage and help smooth the cuticle, a process that enhances shine.

• If you make your part on the side, dry it with your hair parted in the center, suggests Muriel Mastey, who leads Hair Bootcamp classes at her West Hollywood, Calif., salon, Point de Vue. The switch helps keep hair from falling flat.

• Keep the nozzle at least an inch away from the hair to avoid heat damage.

• Use your hair dryer’s “cool shot” feature to finish each piece with a blast of cooler air and “set” the curl.

• Unwinding the hair with a twist of the brush instead of pulling it out straight results in smoother, shinier hair with a bit of wave.

• To help your blowout last longer, Mastey suggests using a root lifter or amplifier at the start of the blow-drying process. The product can help lift hair slightly from the scalp, where body heat and perspiration may flatten it or add frizz.

• If you’ve achieved that straight-smooth look, a light mist of hair spray can help prolong the shiny perfection of your blowout. But be warned, if there’s any frizz in your hair, hair spray will preserve that too.

Whether you’re wearing your hair loose and tousled, sleek and smooth or in an updo, nothing ruins the look of your hairstyle like split ends. It’s the equivalent of donning a gorgeous designer dress with a hem that’s unraveling.

The Science of Split Ends
Split ends are the result of hair that’s been pushed -- literally -- to its breaking point. Hot styling tools, excessive friction, chemical processes like coloring or straightening, all weaken the protective cuticle that surrounds the delicate hair fiber. When enough stress is put on the cuticle, it loses its grip on the inner fiber and the ends fray into two or more strands.

If you have thick hair, you’re especially likely to suffer those roughed-up ends. That’s because, as researchers have discovered, the structure of thick hair is less flexible than fine hair, making it more vulnerable to breakage. What’s more, medium and thick hair fibers also rub up against each other more often than fine fibers, and this friction can cause the cuticle to chip.

Want to keep your ends intact? Just follow these five rules.  

1. Limit highlighting to only three or four times a year, says Kazumi Morton, a Beverly Hills colorist whose celebrity clients include Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. “Because highlighting is done with bleach, it weakens the hair cuticle and makes it more porous,” Morton says. (Regular color doesn’t create this type of damage.)

2. Use hot tools with care. “Your hair is technically dead and doesn’t have nerve endings,” says Morton, “so you’re not aware of how you’re burning it by overuse of curling irons and flat irons.” Don’t let the temperature of your flat iron go above 350 degrees if your hair is thick, or over 300 degrees if it’s fine. Keep your curling iron on a medium setting. When you blow-dry your hair, first rough dry it without a brush -- holding the dryer a few inches above your head -- until it’s 80 or 90 percent dry. Then, with the nozzle attached, keep the dryer moving through your hair in a downward direction, so you’re not applying direct heat to any one area for more than a second or two.

3. Handle wet hair gently. Hair swells when it’s wet, becoming fragile and vulnerable to damage. Brushes can snag your hair, shredding the ends. The best way to detangle knots after you’ve shampooed and conditioned your hair is to use a wide-tooth comb or pick, moving it slowly through your hair.

4. Strengthen your hair’s natural defenses with a fortifying leave-in conditioner.  Pantene’s Split End Repair Keratin Protection Crème helps seal ends that are already fraying, protects against heat damage and boosts hair’s keratin structure to prevent future split ends. Two other split-end smoothers: Pureology’s Essential Repair Split End Correcting Treatment and Alterna Bamboo Smooth Kendi Oil Pure Treatment Oil.

5. Get regular trims. Chopping off just a quarter- or half-inch every two or three months will prevent already frazzled ends from splitting up the hair shaft. Plus, it will create the smooth, sharp lines that show off your cut and color to its most dazzling advantage.

Bad hair days can drive you to distraction -- or at the very least, to the nearest hat department. We went to celeb stylists for advice on dealing with some of the peskiest problems. Here are their top tips on how to rehab your locks.

Frizz
“Start fighting frizz in the shower by using a hydrating shampoo and conditioner,” says New York stylist Kevin Mancuso, a favorite of Demi Moore’s. “Hair expands when it’s exposed to water, as it is on a humid day, but well-hydrated hair is less likely to drink up the moisture that’s in the air.” Use a silicone-based styling product to help seal the hair cuticle and lock moisture in.

If the frizz has already taken hold, you can still benefit from a silicone serum. Rub a dime-sized amount in your palm and smooth over the surface of your hair to add shine and deflate poof. Also, avoid brushing curly hair once it’s dry. 

Flyaways
A few simple steps will help you avoid the wind-tunnel look. “Often, when people blow out their hair, they over-dry it, causing flyaways,” explains Boston stylist Mario Russo, known for styling the locks of Natalie Portman and Caroline Kennedy. “Add a small amount of a moisturizing leave-in conditioner to your hair while it’s still damp, concentrating on the ends, which tend to be more dried out. Then blow-dry the hairline and crown first to get them smooth, aiming the nozzle down the hair shaft.” Keep the air in a downward flow as you dry the rest of your hair. It's important to get all the moisture out to avoid frizz, but stop as soon as your hair is dry to the touch underneath as well as on top, to avoid breakage.

A straightening iron can also help smooth flyaways -- when used correctly. “Always apply a heat protectant first: A hydrating spray is ideal,” says Russo. “Use minimal tension and round the ends in. Finish off with a styling cream or silicone serum to smooth down wayward strands.” Stash a travel-size serum in your bag to tame errant hair on the go. A dab before donning a chapeau will also help with hat hair gone wild.

Too-short Bangs
Got a little scissor-happy? While you can’t speed up hair growth, you can make the process more bearable. “Try sweeping your bangs to the side,” suggests MariLynne Mele, of Blow, a New York City salon that specializes in blowouts for a high-end clientele. “Blow-dry your bangs down with a comb to achieve maximum length, then lightly go over them with a rounded brush. Giving the ends a bend will ensure they don't bounce up, and impart a soft, naturally wispy look.” Luckily, headbands are tres chic these days too.

Over-processed Hair
Too many chemical treatments and your hair can end up looking -- and feeling -- like corn husks. Celeb stylist Ted Gibson, who helps get Anne Hathaway and Debra Messing ready for their photo shoots, offers this advice: “Getting a haircut, even a trim, will instantly cut off damaged ends and give you a fresh new look. Be sure to do a deep-conditioning treatment once a week as well.”

Mele recommends making your own treatment cocktail. After washing your hair, use a deep-conditioning mask mixed with about two pumps of shine serum. Apply, wait ten minutes, then rinse. It will give those dry, broken hairs extra shine and some weight to keep them down.

Roots
It’s one of the great mysteries of life how you can go to bed with perfectly fine color and wake up the next day with half-inch roots. To tide you over until your next dye job, New York City colorist Jason Backe -- a favorite with beauty editors -- recommends this trick: “Hide gray by using eye shadow or mascara on the roots and setting it with hair spray. Both shadow and mascara are available in shades from light brown to black, which will work for all shades of brunette.” 

It’s harder for blondes to get away with this. They’re better off trying one of the new at-home hair-coloring kits designed solely for root touch-ups. Match the color as closely as possible to the rest of your hair. Finally, no matter what’s at the root of your problem, changing the location of your part will help hide the telltale signs.

Sun, surf, steamy days and sultry nights -- all the things you love about summer also make it the toughest season for managing curly hair. But instead of hiding your ringlets under a scarf, follow these tips from the pros and learn how to care for your hair ’round the clock.

1. Ready, set, wet. Sticky summer days may send you to the shower, but washing your hair every day can lather away the nutrients that help keep it manageable, says George Gonzalez, owner of George: The Salon in Chicago, and a hair stylist at the spa at Harpo Studios. Instead, a few times a week, just wet your hair in the shower without shampooing. Apply a conditioner, rinse out and follow with a leave-in conditioner.

2. Wash and protect. Curly hair’s twisty structure impedes the flow of natural oils, leaving your hair prone to feeling rough and dry, says Dr. Jeni Thomas, senior scientist for Pantene. “If you have curly hair, avoid clarifying shampoo,” says Thomas. “A clarifying shampoo offers zero protection from damage, especially when hair is in its most vulnerable state -- wet.” Opt for a moisturizing shampoo that is specially formulated for curly hair and you’ll whisk away summer’s stubborn buildup and styling residue while defending your locks against damage and frizz.

3. Quench thirsty curls. “Curly hair has more protein and less moisture than straight hair, so it seeks to balance itself by absorbing any available moisture,” says Craig Carter, an ethnic-hair expert with the Carlos Lobo Salon in New York City. If your hair is parched, it will pull moisture from the humid air, leading hair shafts to become puffy and frizzy. A weekly deep-conditioning mask will help curly hair stay well-hydrated and will create a humidity barrier.

4. Put down the hot styling tools. Make that half-hour walk or drive to work your drying time and embrace your hair’s natural texture. “In a perfect world, I would love to wet everyone’s hair, put on conditioner and let it air-dry,” says celebrity hairstylist Daven Mayeda. She advocates styling curly hair without direct heat whenever possible -- and that’s especially true in summer, when your hair is already getting a light frying from sun exposure.

5. Use portion control. Applying products to curly hair should be more like buttering toast slices than tossing a salad. “If you want a uniform curl pattern, you need a uniform application of styling product,” says Gonzalez. Try this: Emulsify a small amount of product by rubbing it between your hands, and then apply -- starting at the ends and coating the entire strand -- up to the scalp.

6. Prepare to defeat beach head. Exposing the porous cuticle of curly hair to wind, salt and moisture at the beach will lead to frizz in a flash, says Gonzalez. “The trick to avoiding this is to coat the cuticle with thick leave-in conditioners or with styling gels,” he says.

7. Soak, coat, dunk. If you swim in the ocean or in chlorinated pools, rinse your curls before and after you get out of the water, then apply leave-in conditioner. “Spray-on conditioner is great for wavy hair or hair that’s fine and curly,” says Gonzalez, “but if your hair is coarse or frizz-prone, a cream or thicker leave-in conditioner is best.”

8. Sleep silky. A satin pillowcase helps keep curls from tangling and won’t soak up natural oils as much as cotton, says Ebony Mikila, a hairstylist at Paint Shop Beverly Hills salon. Avoiding friction is important, adds Thomas, because the complex web of curly hair’s rough fibers can rub against each other, causing damage.

In the hair care battle of women versus their curly locks, monotony often comes out the winner. Curly hair, in all its varieties of texture and curl patterns, can be maddeningly difficult to manage. Small wonder that once curly-haired women find a cut and style that works for them -- more or less -- they settle into wearing that day after day.

“Women with curly hair struggle a lot,” says Craig Carter, an ethnic-hair expert with the Carlos Lobo Salon in New York City. Dealing with curling hair’s twisty ringlets, tight coils or something in between may require additional deep conditioning and preparation with styling aids -- such as curl-defining or enhancing mousses and gels -- than other types of hair, he says. But with a regular at-home conditioning regimen and a few new and simple styling tricks, you can easily bust out of a hair rut.

Braids
If your hair grows in spiral curls, twist it into five French braids down your back and then sleep in them, suggests Daven Mayeda, a Los Angeles hair pro who styled Mariah Carey’s hair during her Angels Advocate tour. “When you wake up and take out the braids, your hair will be an amazing texture,” says Mayeda. “It’s a great no-heat, organic way to do a curly hairstyle, and it will last for several days.”

Buns
For a full, wavy look, create five or six small buns in places where they won’t interfere with your sleep, says Mayeda. Dampen hair with a mix of water and conditioner, then coil hair into ropes, twist into buns and secure with bobby pins. Let the hair dry overnight and simply unpin and tousle in the morning.

Asymmetry
“With curly hair, anything asymmetrical is amazing,” says Mayeda. He suggests experimenting with a few coils pinned up on one side. Another off-center look that’s a cinch to achieve: side-part your hair, and then plait it into a low-slung loose braid on the heavy side of your part.

Layers
“I’ve been giving women with really curly hair a few shorter layers or a bit of fringe around the face to help create shape, instead of letting the top and sides be flat,” says George Gonzalez, owner of George the Salon in Chicago and the hairstylist for Oprah’s in-house spa at Harpo Productions. With layers and bangs, you’ll have loose pieces that you can keep free when you create the half-up-half-down hair trends you’ve long admired on women with straight or wavy hair.

Creativity
With her waist-length, shiny black ringlets, Timon Cana, a Beverly Hills hairstylist, has lots of opportunities to experiment with new styling options. Unlike slick, straight hair that can slide around, “curly hair will stay where you put it,” says Cana. She’s a fan of a loose ponytail that you secure wherever it looks and feels best -- high at the crown, low on the nape or folded into a loop on the back of your head. Curly hair looks great slightly mussed, so Cana often allows some portion of a ponytail, braid or bun to hang loose.

Accessories
Curly hair is a great anchor for all types of accessories, including chopsticks, banana clips, combs, chignon pins and silk head scarves. Bun cages are a favorite of Cana’s; these cages or domes fit over a bun and are held in place with a hair stick. You can find them online or at your local beauty-supply shop in a wide variety of materials, including tortoise shell, beads and rhinestones.