As if learning about how to care for curly hair isn’t confusing enough, some of the tips you might have seen sound like they’ll have the opposite effect! But I promise, give these four a try and you might surprise yourself…
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1. Add more water while conditioning
A common mistake that curlies make is assuming that you need palmfuls of conditioner to condition your hair properly. But if your hair is not wet enough, neither your shampoo nor conditioner can do their job properly.
This is why “squish to condish” is such an important method in curly haircare – this involves squishing a couple of palmfuls of water into your hair after you’ve applied conditioner, which helps distribute the conditioner and helps it adhere to your strands. With this method, your hair should get a nice slippery seaweed feel – perfect for detangling on!
But doesn’t this dilute the products? I hear you ask. As long as you’re not actually rinsing away the conditioner, this extra water does help it adhere! In fact, you might find you need less product than you think once you’ve added a little extra water.
2. Add more water to your hair when styling
The same goes for your styling step. If you find you have stringy, frizzy curls, it may be because you’re not styling on wet enough hair. Styling your curls on soaking wet, wet, or damp hair will all yield different results, but for bigger, juicier curls, you tend to need wetter hair throughout the styling process. This means spraying more water onto your hair if it starts drying too quickly. When you scrunch, you should be able to hear a “squish” sound – that’s how you know it’s wet enough!
You can also spray water onto your hands to help emulsify and distribute thick or sticky stylers, like certain gels. Here is the continuous mist bottle that I use.
As with the previous point, incorporating more water while styling does not dilute the product; instead it will help the styler adsorb to your hair. Don’t mix water into the bottle of your product, though – that’ll mess up its formulation.
3. Don’t be afraid of your hair forming a crunchy cast
I often get told “I don’t like using gels because they always dry so crispy and crunchy.” My friend, that’s what we want! This is called a cast, and it’s common in lots of products with hold, like mousses and gels. It holds your curls in place until your hair is dry.
Once your hair is 100% dry, you just need to scrunch out the crunch – either scrunch or smooth your hair with your hands to break the cast and release the curls within. You can also do this with a satin object, like a bonnet, to reduce frizz, or you can add a little oil while you do it to help seal and protect your hair and add shine.
I have no idea why brands neglected to mention “scrunch out the crunch” on their product bottles – it would have saved 14-year-old me a lot of wasted time.
4. Refresh dry curls with water or a little steam
It’s another water one! If your curls are frizzy when you wake up, there are a few refresh methods that could help smooth the fluff. A steam refresh involves using steam (duh) to loosen wonky curls and reactivate the styler in your hair. Then, you can smooth or scrunch a tiny bit of leave-in or styler on top.
You could also gently mist your hair with water to reactivate your styler, then smooth it over, or spray a little water in your hand with a smidge of styler and do a spot refresh on your dry curls, smoothing your halo frizz and redefining the odd curl. For more detailed instructions on these methods, check out my post on refreshing.
Worried that more water or steam will create more frizz? This will depend on your hair type and if the product already in it is a strong enough hold. I personally find wet refreshes (with a spray bottle) do create more frizz for me and make me lose volume, but a light steam helps me sort out dry and wonky curls and gives me a volume boost. As I’m always saying, there’s some trial and error involved!
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