Hair Setter

A hair setter, otherwise known as hot rollers, are a quicker alternative to curling hair with a curling iron or using chemicals for a perm. Many manufacturers of hair appliances make hair setters, with popular brans being Vidal Sasoon hair setter, Remington hair setter, Clairol hair setter, Conair hair setter, Caruso hair setter, and Bed Head hair setter models. Many of these hair setters operate much in the same way by emitting negative ions to smooth hair while creating long-lasting curls.

A hair setter can come in one of two types, dry and wet hair setters. Dry and wet, or steam, hair setters have their advantages and disadvantages but both use heat to curl the hair and are held in place with heated clips. Both hair setter models have a base for heating, sides, mounting posts, and a heating mechanism. A dry hair setter, usually an electric hair setter, has rollers mounted on mounting posts, which are heated and heat the rollers internally. Once the rollers are heated, and this can be only 90 seconds for some professional hair setters, they can be removed from the mounting post and applied to the hair, held in place with heated clips. A wet hair setter, usually called a steam heated hair setter, has rollers bathed in steam or boiling water so that the moisture collects on the rollers – usually foam versus ceramic for electric hair setters – and helps in setting the hair by preventing the hair from drying out due to heat exposure.

A hair setter set can vary in size, with smaller sets having twelve rollers and large size sets with up to thirty rollers. Both sizes of hair setters have a combination of small and large rollers, although larger hair setter sets often have graded rollers for a greater variety of curls. A thirty piece hair setter, for example, would have six petite rollers, six small rollers, six medium rollers, six large rollers, and six extra-large, or “jumbo,” rollers, with heated comb clips, styling instructions, and a case for the rollers included in the hair setting set. The range in sizes for a kit like this can produce pin curls with “petite” rollers and large wave-like, loose curls with the extra-large, or “jumbo,” rollers. Whether you purchase an electric hair setter or a heated steam hair setter, all rollers are set with clips. Much like a curling iron, the rollers in a hair setter curl the hair by emitting negative irons and forming the hair with heat to create frizz-free, long-lasting curls. As a result, some hair setters, such as a Caruso molecular hair setter, are called “ionic” or “molecular” hair setters.