Frizzzzz! Frizz is the bane of a curly’s life. No matter what we do, what products we use, how tightly we tie our hair back, it’s always waiting to pounce…
It’s a common misconception that frizzy curls are just dry curls. There are actually a number of reasons why your curls are frizzy, and only a couple of them can be fixed with a deep conditioner. For the other reasons, you’re better off looking at your stylers, the weather, or even inside yourself…..(mysterious!) Let’s get into it!
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- Your hair is damaged
- Your curls are dry (under-conditioned)
- Your curls are over-conditioned!
- Your products are too heavy for your hair
- The weather isn’t agreeing with your curls
- You have product or hard water buildup
- You haven’t applied enough curl styler
- Your curl styler isn’t a hard enough hold
- You didn’t style your curls on wet enough hair
- You styled your curls on too-wet hair…?
- It’s part of your natural curl texture
Your hair is damaged (or there’s breakage)
The most obvious cause for frizz is that your curly hair is damaged in some way. Perhaps you’re starting your curly hair journey after straightening your hair for years – but it’s not just heat tools that can damage our hair.
We can also undergo mechanical damage (from playing with our hair, friction from clothes and fabrics, or over-brushing it), UV damage (from the sun), and chemical damage (from dyeing/bleaching your hair, or swimming in chlorine pools). This damage is causing holes in the hair cuticle, which makes our curls more porous, meaning they can’t hold onto moisture very well.
Broken hair strands can also look like frizz, but with blunter, snapped-off ends: this can result from too-tight hairstyles, or really severe heat and chemical damage.
How to fix it: By using deep conditioners and bond builders more regularly, you can help fill in the holes in your cuticle and help your hair hold onto moisture better. Adding a curl cream while you style, along with a harder-hold styler like gel, will also help your hair retain that moisture.
But some damage, like chemical damage and broken hair, cannot be fixed – the best thing to do in that situation is to cut it off.
Repairing curly hair products to try:
Olaplex No.3
Briogeo Don’t Despair, Repair Deep Conditioning Mask
Your curls are dry (i.e. under-conditioned)
Dry frizz happens when our hair strands are reaching into the air for more moisture, or if they are feeling too rough and won’t sit nicely alongside each other. Curly hair that hasn’t received enough conditioning products (be that regular conditioner, leave-in, deep conditioners, or curl cream), along with damaged hair as mentioned above, is going to feel rough and frizzy.
The fabled “protein overload” is also a form of under-conditioning – it basically means you aren’t getting the conditioning agents that you hair needs to feel lubricated.
How to fix it: Incorporate more conditioning products in your routine. You could add a co-wash or moisturising shampoo, switch to a thicker conditioner, deep condition more frequently, or add a leave-in or curl cream before styling. It’s best to just pick one of these to start with rather than piling on several products all at once, so that you don’t overload your hair (see below!).
Moisturising curly hair products to try:
As I Am Coconut Cowash (use code LFTFCOAST for up to 20% off)
Bouclème Curl Cream (use code COAST15 for 15% off)
Your curls are over-conditioned!
Yes, frizz can be caused by both under-conditioned and over-conditioned hair! Also known as over-moisturised hair, over-conditioned hair is when you have too many conditioning products in your routine, which is making your curls too soft and causing fluffy frizz. You might also find your curls struggle to hold if they’re over-conditioned.
How to fix it: Start by cutting some of the conditioning products out of your routine. Is your shampoo moisturising? Are you using both a leave-in and curl cream? Are you deep conditioning every week when you don’t need to?
Clarify your hair, then strip your routine back to a less moisturising shampoo, a lightweight conditioner and a hard hold gel, and see if your curls fare better. For more info about fixing over-moisturised curls (including when to add protein), check out my post Can you over-condition curly hair?
Lightweight curly hair products to try:
Only Curls All Curl Cleanser (Get £5 off with code COAST5)
JSL Essentials Lavender, Geranium and May Chang Conditioner (use code COAST15 for 15% off)
Your products are too heavy for your hair
Like the overconditioned curls mentioned above, if your products are too heavy for your hair, then this can cause excess frizz or flat, limp or stringy curls. Products that contain a lot of butters and oils, in particular, can be overkill for fine hair. It’s possible to get decent moisture in your hair without thick products!
How to fix it: Identify which of your products contain a lot of these butters or oils, then swap them for something lightweight. Brands like Cantu and Shea Moisture are examples of quite heavy ranges that are better suited to coarser or tighter curls.
Lightweight curly hair products to try:
Umberto Giannini Curl Jelly Range (use code COAST20 for 20% off)
Hair Dance Strengthening Growth Conditioner
The weather isn’t agreeing with your curls
It should come as no surprise that our curls become frizzy the second we step outside. If it’s not heat and humidity, it’s wind and rain, or super-dry air sucking the moisture out!
How to fix it: Aside from obviously covering your hair if it’s sunny or raining, take a bit of time to look up what your curls could benefit from in different weather. Things like avoiding glycerin in very humid or arid regions can make a big difference to preserving the longevity of your curls. Check out my post How to tweak your curly hair routine for the summer (or winter) for more info about this.
Weather-proofing curly hair products to try:
Bouclème Seal + Shield gel (use code COAST15 for 15% off)
Tootilab All-Weather Styling Gel (use code CURLSBYTHECOASTfor 15% off)
You have product or hard water buildup
Both product buildup and hard water buildup can make our curls lank, greasy and frizzy. Hard water can deposit minerals on our hair and skin over time, while heavy, buttery or oily products, or certain silicones, can build up on our hair and scalp.
How to fix it: Use a clarifying shampoo with chelating agents, to shift the buildup and allow you to start again on a clean slate! Like the heavy products mentioned above, be aware of what products or ingredients might be making your hair weighed down or greasy faster.
Clarifying and chelating shampoos to try:
Noughty Detox Dynamo Shampoo (use code LFTFCOAST for up to 20% off)
Malibu C Hard Water Wellness Shampoo
You haven’t applied enough curl styler
Sometimes frizz can be as simple as not having enough styler on your hair. The amount of product you should use on your hair will depend on its length and how thick or coarse your curls are, but you should be able to feel the product in your hair as you’re scrunching.
How to fix it: As a rule of thumb, create a loose ponytail on your dry hair with your thumb and forefinger. Pull your hand away from your hair and look at the size of the circle that your thumb and finger have formed: this is the amount of gel you could start with (of course, this method doesn’t work with mousses!). Keep tweaking the amounts each washday until you get it right. But bear in mind this next point too:
Your curl styler isn’t a hard enough hold
Curl stylers can be soft, medium or hard hold. In order for our curls to hold their shape and withstand the elements, we need a decent level of hold so that we don’t have to keep re-washing our hair every day. If you are getting frizz just a couple of hours after washing, maybe you need more hold in your routine.
How to fix it: Make sure your stylers are marketed as hard hold. Curl creams don’t tend to provide enough hold on their own – gels and mousses are your best bet.
Hard hold curl stylers to try:
Bouclème Super Hold Styler (use code COAST15 for 15% off)
Curlsmith In-Shower Style Fixer
You didn’t style your curls on wet-enough hair
Your hair needs a decent amount of water in order to get those juicy, bouncy curls! If your hair is drying frizzy and stringy, you might have applied your stylers while your hair was more damp than wet. And while this works well for some curlies, it can create messy results for others.
How to fix it: When styling, keep your hair wet enough that you can hear a “squish” noise when you’re scrunching. If you’re not styling straight out of the shower, or your hair starts to dry out quickly while styling, use a spray bottle to keep your hair wet enough while you apply your stylers.
You styled your curls on too-wet hair?!
Incredibly, the opposite can also be true: when I style on soaking, dripping wet hair, my curls look a bit “frayed” and flat once dry, due to the water weight and the longer drying time.
How to fix it: It’s another game of trial and error – mess around with styling on soaking wet hair, wet-but-not-dripping hair, and damp hair to see which result you like best. After you’re done styling, be sure to squeeze the excess water out of your hair with a flat-weave towel.
It’s part of your natural curl texture
Hard-to-swallow-pill time: Frizz will always be a normal part of your curly or wavy texture. There is no way to completely eliminate your frizz – sure, you can reduce it using the tips above, but it will always come creeping back, especially if we’re going outside or just, you know, living our lives.
How to fix it…? What we need to do is accept this imperfect part of ourselves, and let go of the notion that frizz is automatically “messy.” Some frizz can add volume to our hair, and even character! It adds to the uniqueness of our curls.
So yes, try these tips to help your definition and for longer-lasting curls, but try not to stress too much about frizz. I promise you, it’s normal, and it’s natural!
Curls by the Coast 
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