Attention all curly girls: If you are a curly headed girl, tired of the frizz that takes over your life from season to season to season – or the tangles that make you want to voluntarily pull your hair out – allow me to be your savior. From one curly girl to another, let’s check out some tips that will hopefully make our lives a whole lot easier and permanently keep frizz at bay.
I cannot believe I went 25 entire years without my mom, an aunt, a friend, or even a commercial, informing me that if you have curly hair you should ABSOLUTELY be using a wide-toothed comb. There is no if, and’s, or buts, about it, it is a necessity. A wide-toothed comb is almost designed for curly hair, making sure to begin brushing wet hair from the bottom and not the top, you will not believe how much easier it is to get rid of stubborn tangles and knots, all while keeping your beautiful curl pattern intact.
Leave-in conditioners are nothing short of a lifesaver. If you are someone who has anything from waves to thick coarse curls or coils, you absolutely are out of your mind if you are not using a leave-in. Leave-ins have a great job, they are perfect for moisturizing brittle and freshly washed locks fresh out of the shower – so that you are not ripping anymore hair out than absolutely necessary. Once you step out of the shower with your hair freshly washed, you will want to go ahead and generously apply the leave-in of your choice all throughout your hair, ensuring it is fully saturated, and then proceed to detangle your hair beginning from tip to root. This will allow the leave-in conditioner to hydrate and spread throughout our naturally dry hair, creating a nice slip before even more healthy moisture will be introduced.
Okay, being honest, not EVERYONE has to follow this step. I am a girl with a 3c curl pattern and I was initially doubtful about the actual importance of cutting out such ingredients. However, I can say with confidence it has absolutely helped my hair become much healthier and break less. If you are someone whose hair benefits from sulfates and silicones, that is fine, use away, but experiment a little and see if your hair thanks you. Sulfates are dangerous in that they overly strip the hair of any and all moisture – including natural oils your hair produces – leaving our already dry hair even dryer, leading to breakage.
If you have kinky, curly, wavy, or coily hair and own and are using a regular old towel, THROW IT OUT. Seriously, I cannot stress this step enough, regular towels do nothing but damage our hair. Look, our hair is dry enough, when you add the rough texture of traditional bathroom towels, it’s a recipe for disaster. A microfiber towel is designed so that it is gentle on our already frizz-prone hair, but it is also an expert in drying only the excess water from the hair – leaving the products and all that good stuff within. I like to use the microfiber towel to dry my hair after the shower and sometimes I use it right after I have applied all of my products. You always want to use the microfiber towel with your head tilted at an angle or upside down, so that your hair isn’t drying stuck and flat to your scalp. Also, when you use the towel, ensure that you are drying your hair in a scrunching motion, as opposed to roughly going crazy with it – because that is also a main cause of hair breakage.
So, I am someone who went through middle school and all of high school using alcohol packed gels in my hair, that when dried up not even the wind could make move. This is not something that is aesthetically pleasing in the slightest but as I grew more learned in how to take care of my hair I realized that it wasn’t really all the gel’s fault, instead it was HOW I was using it. When you pick a gel it’s a smart idea to opt for an alcohol-free option, although not absolutely necessary. When you use the gel in your hair, you’ll want to try and refrain from touching your hair until it is absolutely and completely dry; this period of waiting is what we call “the formation of the gel-cast”. Once your hair fully dries and is in full-on crunch-mode, all you’ve gotta do is turn your head upside down, take your hands and scrunch out that crunch. I recommend doing this gently, as to prevent frizz. Scrunching is an open/close claw motion of the fingers, that you’ll want to gently do all throughout the hair. If you follow these steps correctly, the gel cast should break, leaving you with pillow soft curls.
So, this tip is only for a specific audience of curly girls, the ones that wish to have more defined clumps and curls within their hair. I personally really enjoy having defined curls, and when I heard about the Denman Brush it sounded too good to be true. You can grab it on Amazon, and trust me you will not be disappointed. With this brush, I recommend brushing while your head is tilted or upside down, so as not to brush the hair flat against your head. You will see how the brush instantly and effortlessly grabs your curls, creating gorgeously defined clumps. If the clumps form too big for your liking, all you have to do is run your fingers through the section, and break the clumps up a bit.
The good old act of plopping, something that I have only recently learned about, but absolutely love. Plopping is ideal if you are someone who struggles to gain volume and would rather not use heat to achieve it. Plopping comes in handy when you finish styling your hair; it looks good but now it is time for the daunting task of waiting for your hair to dry. All you have to do is find a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt, lay it out on a bed or a flat surface, standing in front of the shirt with your head flipped upside down you want to allow your curls to fall into the shirt’s middle, you then gently want to pull up the bottom end of the shirt and lay it atop your head, and finally, grab both of the sleeves once your head is in position, wrap it around, and secure it with a knot – joining both sleeves. With this plop, the excess water in your hair will be slowly absorbed by the cotton, all while drying atop your head to avoid flat, lifeless hair against your scalp. I usually leave the plop in for 30 minutes and then take it down to allow my hair to air dry the rest of the way. Plopping will not fully dry your hair, so just decide how long you think your hair benefits from keeping it on and then air dry away!
This is a very simple, yet effective, tip; a silk pillowcase does wonders for curls! A typical cotton pillowcase does not do our hair good when we are constantly tossing and turning, rubbing our already delicate tresses on the unforgiving material that is cotton. However, with a silk pillowcase, it allows our hair to move about throughout the night as freely as we need, all while cutting down on the nuisance of frizz.
Ahhh there is nothing quite like a good deep condition. Deep conditioning is essentially conditioning but…deeper? Seriously though, deep conditioning provides intense hydration that average conditioners can not provide. Unlike typical rinse-out conditioners, deep conditioners are left in the hair for typically 30 mins to an hour – either while under a shower cap and steam, or while you’re just laying around your house doing a couple of chores. After the time is up you’ll want to rinse the deep conditioner out of the hair, making sure to use cold water to do so; cold water closes up the hair cuticle, allowing all of that good moisture it just finished soaking in, to stay put. What you are left with is absolutely incredible silky hair that you cannot believe belongs to you.
Trust me, I understand the overwhelming and constant desire of wishing nothing more in the world than to smooth those frizzy and frustrating curls into straight and silky locks, but heat is just not healthy for our hair. With too much heat used overtime, you can actually begin to permanently damage and even alter your natural curl pattern. Does this mean you can never use heat? No. If you want to use heat for a special occasion or because you’re bored with your hair, that’s fine, but you should only do so while using important precautions, such as a good heat protectant.
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