“Secret Lives of Mormon Wives ”Star Jessi Ngatikaura Gave Me Her Signature Utah Curls

NEED TO KNOW

• When The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jessi Ngatikaura asked if she could give me her signature Utah curls, I jumped at the chance

• Ngatikaura appeared at the three-day destination retreat LadyWorld in Miramar Beach, Fla.

• Attendees of the event got to meet Ngatikaura and get a closer look at the haircare products available via her line, JZ Styles

I am neither a Mormon nor a wife, but that didn’t stop me from spending one sunny Florida afternoon transforming into one — thanks to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Jessi Ngatikaura, who gave me a hair makeover at LadyWorld.

The reality star and haircare entrepreneur — who actually trademarked the phrase “Utah curls” — was on hand at the three-day destination retreat in Miramar Beach, Fla., which offered attendees a unique destination where they could experience their favorite creators, performers and personalities.

When she offered to give me her signature look, I jumped at the chance.

We started on dry, semi-clean hair (I had washed and conditioned it the night prior), and she used one of her own brands’ one-and-a-fourth-inch barrel curling irons to create loose curls around my entire head.

“I like to use clean hair, because you can give it that grit on your own with texture spray,” Ngatikaura says.

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If you have extensions (Ngatikaura sells her own line of extensions as part of her JZ Styles line), she suggests adding pieces of real hair with the extensions as you curl, so the end result is more natural.

“The key is to start the hair close to the bottom of the iron and slowly wrap it around, opening the barrel and moving the hair as you go,” she says. “I’m constantly moving so that each section of hair gets a fair amount of heat and it doesn’t stay on one piece for too long. Once the hair is in the iron, I hold it for a minute, then release it.”

She also suggests curling sections of hair away from the face for consistency.

Once all of the hair is curled, Ngatikaura added texture spray to the entire head, using her fingers to pick the hair up and apply the product throughout. Next, she sprayed hairspray everywhere to set the style and help tame flyaways.

“At the end, I like to come in to the front bang area, pull them together and spray — that way I can form those front pieces,” she adds.

Last, she takes a brush, brushing hair from the ends up. “This will help smooth and help work through the curls at the same time.”

While Ngatikaura became well-known due to the Hulu show — which follows Ngatikaura and her fellow Mormon Mom Tok cast members Taylor Frankie Paul, Mayci Neeley, Jen Affleck, Mikayla Matthews, Miranda McWhorter, Layla Taylor and Whitney Leavitt — hair is her longtime passion. In addition to her line JZ Styles (which sells hot tools, brushes, serums and extensions), she also owns a salon and a hair school in Utah, and frequently travels to events to teach stylists how to use her products.

“It was crazy, when the show came out and it just popped off — the Utah hair, the extensions — I wasn’t expecting that because it wasn’t part of the storyline, just something people picked up on,” Ngatikaura says.

The trio behind the LadyGang — actress Becca Tobin, entertainment journalist Keltie Knight and branding entrepreneur Jac Vanek — are the ones behind LadyWorld and earlier shared their excitement with PEOPLE about Ngatikaura’s attendance.

“We fell in love with Jessi when she appeared on our LadyGang podcast during her first season of Mormon Wives and have stayed in touch. We would see her commenting on posts about LadyWorld and how excited she was so we reached out to ask if the Utah Curls could come to Florida!” the trio told PEOPLE ahead of the event.

Read the original article on People