Sure you can do finger waves with gel and crusty hair, but I like them to look a little softer. And I have really struggled with making them look good and beautiful and soft and authentic. So I wanted to get my hands on some aluminum clips. I needed to double these up to get the waves to the back. I also have shoulder length hair and didn't have the waves go all the way down. I used them around the crown. The looked great. I did them on damp hair, be cautious of hair dryers, these babies heat up. I included a customer image of how mine turned out. I'm considering getting the 6 inch clips as well for when I want to go further along the crown and farther down the sides.