I use this kind of curling iron. I'm not sure if it is safer or less prone to damage hair. Simply because my hair is already absolutely fried from dying it from red to blond.

I use a 1" 20mm barrel curling iron. The thicker the barrel is, then the looser your curls will be.

You don't open the clasp at all. This can be a bit confusing:

You wrap your hair around the barrel starting from the TOP of your scalp and twirl your hair to the tip of your hair.

To keep the curls from getting too tight, only keep your hair wrapped around for a little bit of time. I usually time each about ten seconds.

It helps to section off your hair. Starting from the bottom of your scalp up to the top.

This helps me because I have a lot of layers in my hair.

Once your finished, take a hair brush like this and lightly brush through your hair, or use your fingers.

Wrap some of the curls around to make it look more natural.

I wait about twenty minutes to actually apply hair spray. Just so my hair is a lot more bouncy. I'm not a fan of the tight barrel curls so I just let my hair chill for a bit.