Step by step guide for washing and styling your curls, I have broken the techniques into rough sections. Finer curls and waves, Medium curls and Super curly , obviously there are many curls in between.
The first decision you need to make is whether you are going to have a parting or not as this decides whether you wash and style your curls Upside down in the shower or with a parting standing up and have your curls directing down towards you . This will decide whether you have volume or not and the direction your curls will fall in to. For me having finer curls I can’t wash and style inside down as my curls would be at a weird angle. If your not sure just ask me what I think on your appointment.
Fine curls or waves:
So washing and conditioning with finer wavier type of curls is not rocket science although the information available these days would suggest so. So just think about your routine and how you can fit looking after your curls into your busy life, it doest have to take long, you just need to make sure you are thorough on wash days as you will get more days out of it.
Washing: First of all you need to use a shampoo, if you use a co wash it will make your curls greasy before you have started, try and use a shampoo every now and then that is more protein based than moisture and one that doesn’t contain oil. I love Dizziak shampoo and Curly Ellie shampoo is another favourite of mine. Make sure you massage the roots for a few minutes to lift the dirt and oils from the scalp. If you wash your fine curls every few days you only need to do one wash but if you only wash once a week to be thorough I would do two washes. After washing make sure you rinse your curls thoroughly.
Conditioning: The conditioner you choose for finer wavy curls has to also be free from oil and not too slippy otherwise you won’t be able to do anything with your curls and it won’t have volume. You can finger the conditioner in or use a wide tooth comb. You only need to put it at the mid to end of the curls and you don’t need to leave in if the curls are natural. At this point you are either stood up in the shower pulling your curls down towards the ground putting in the parting or upside down pulling together towards the ground. Make sure you rinse thoroughly and keep your curls really wet before you apply the product.
Styling product : This depends whether you want very soft waves with just using a product like orange Marmalade on soaking wet hair or you want to achieve more hold and use a mouse and slightly more product with also dripping wet curls Either upside down you will get lots of volume and no parting or stood up with a parting and A softer result. So to apply the product you need to make sure the curls are dripping wet. If you are stood up you need to take the product in your hand using two pumps at a time in the palms of your hands and stroke the product downwards and then push curls in to sqidge in product. After applying product use the equivalent of a t shirt and dab the moisture out before adding two more pumps of product in the same way as before.. If your head is upside down you need to stroke down and squished up to apply the product and make sure it’s distributed well throughout the curls. The use tshirt dab water out and move your head from side to side shaking the curls to make sure you don’t get a flat section at the back of your head. If the curls as too weighed down with water and the curls are too fine to leave the curls soaking wet, push the curls into position then squeeze the curls as you would apply the product first to remove sone for he water and start to set the curl pattern.
Drying: To dry your curls you can either if stood up let them more or less drip dry and by not touching the curls they will be flatter but beautiful and natural or dry upside down with a diffuser will give you more volume . You could even dry with a diffuser for a few minutes both ways then let your curls dry by themselves. You will achieve volume and definition. Try not to keep scrunching the ends of your curls together as they dry otherwise you will make your curls break up and make them fluffy. You can pinch and lift the roots just don’t touch the ends of your curls.
For medium to course curls:
Washing: First thing to do is to work out whether the roots of your curls need shampooing or co washing, I would recommend to alternate between the two. So one wash day co wash and the other shampoo so you are keeping you scalp balanced. As a co wash will leave moisture behind to keep your curls soft but you will get build up. |shampoo will remove build up and give you volume. Make sure if you have a lot of hair that you section your curls to add the shampoo or co wash , making sure all of your scalp gets the product and a nice vigorous massage to keep your scalp clean and fresh. If you only wash once a week then my advice is to do do two washes to be thorough. Make sure you rinse all of the product out of your curls before you start the next step.
Conditioning: With conditioner you need to make sure that you choose the right product for your curls. I would make sure that the product is moisturising without being oily as you don’t want to weigh the hair down. When thinking using the conditioner you should always make sure that you put it on the mid lengths and ends first using tiny sections and keep the hair really really wet to ensure that the hair gets enough moisture. I would add water to each section as you go along. You can use a wide tooth comb if necessary or use your fingers to Detangle there is nothing wrong with using a wide tooth comb you’re not going to change your colour pattern as long as it’s your hair is wet with enough conditioner that is absolutely fine. You just need to make sure that the Product hasn’t too much Shea butter as it will be done my hair and make it really greasy because we’re only talking about medium thick curls, the hair might be slightly course but does not really need shea butter. You might want to leave the conditioner on the hair for 510 minutes after applying it you might even want to rinse off the roots a little and leave it on the Midlands to end just leave a little bit in another leave in conditioner. You might also rather than using a conditioner might want to use a thicker mask or treatment as this will help keep the hair softer it’s basically just a conditioner without a lot of water in it so a mask has just got less water so it’s really very thick and intensified. With these products you just need to get used to how to use them you need to maybe experiment you could also try using it as an even by using half kettle water in a spray bottle and put some of the treatment mask in water it down you could try using this as a leaving. If you can’t leave a little in when you are when you’re doing the conditioning process you could try rinsing it all out And just apply a tiny bit back in the ends of your curls, as long as a whole is soaking wet when you apply.
Styling product
Thinking about styling product for medium curls you need to think about whether you want more volume or definition , it’s quite hard to get both with a styling product. Instance a product like Boucleme defining Gel will give your curls an amazing shine but not necessarily lots and lots of volume. On the other hand orange marmalade by ecoslay will give you the volume but not necessarily lots and lots of shine it dries out quite quickly as it’s so natural. If you’ve already got medium sick cause you might not need lots and lots of volume you might need something a bit more moisturising the Boucleme defining gel would work better giving you the definition and lots of the shine as it’s got lots of oils in it. To use it on soaking wet her again either pop it putting your head forward or styling it or standing up and pulling everything down towards you. You need to use a pump of the gel at any one time and rub it through your hands and stroke onto the hair downwards and squeeze into the roots. I would use about 6 pumps in total on a medium head or curls maybe five or six pumps of the gel just applying a pump at a time once you get a nice squelch to the curls use the equivalent of a T-shirt take the hair at the ends squeeze into the roots to remove some of the excess water making sure that you don’t scrunch the hair. The Motion is basically to open and close your fingers just squeeze the water out.
Once the excess water has been removed take another pump of the gel and stroke and squeeze back into the hair , either stood up or with your head upside down depending on whether you want maximum volume with your head upside down or stood up to get a flatter smoother wavier look.the gravity will pull the curls down a little . Once you have applied the products you can decide how to dry the hair.
Drying, You need to think about whether you want to let the curls dry naturally and have a softer wavier curl or create lots more volume and curl and use a hairdryer with diffuser for have a bit of both. If you re going to root clip you need to do this as the hair has dried a little otherwise not only will the hair take ages to dry you need to get a little natural lift from the curls first before you put them in .
Naturally-To let the hair dry naturally you will get softer Curl and a much flatter look, this means you can just go about your day with little effort and let the hair dry with gravity helping with your hair., as long as you don’t mind your curls taking a while to dry. in the summer this is ok but in winter you may not want your curls dripping down your back.
Both diffuse drying and natural - So you could always do a bit of both diffusing and drying naturally, as who has that much time to drytheir curls from day to day. So you could start off using a diffuser to start setting the curl and then let dry by itself until nearly dry then diffuse again at the end. Every now and then you could shake your head from side to side to get the curls lifting off your head but without scrunching them.
Diffuse drying-when using a diffuser you can either just put your head upside down to get maximum volume or with your head from side to side to keep the curls flat on top. This would depend whether at the conditioner stage whether you put a parting in your curls or not. If you don’t need a parting you can put your head upside down and dry your curls slowly without scrunching still and moving your head to each side so you don’t get any flat sections. You don’t need to push the curls back on themselves like the old 80’s technique just let the curls hang naturally and sit them in the diffuser. If you are using a diffuser I would not dry fully every time you wash your curls as this will dry out your curls but once in a while is ok to fully dry.
Super curly thick curls/ coils
Washing : Washing super curly hair in my opinion has to be thorough and not rushed, you need to set sometime aside to do it properly to get the best results. I would advising washing the scalp properly with two consectutive washes once a week and half way through the week you may have to re wet the curls and moisturise again as this type of hair can dry out very quickly. Depending on the scalp and the texture I would advise co washing one week and shampooing the next. This is a general guide of course! You need to section the curls after throughly saturating the hair, if the curls won’t stay wet dont worry as once you have put the cowash on (which should have wetly achohol in the lock in the moisture) the hair will stay wet. You need to section the curls into four or more to apply the cowash or shampoo which should be put at the roots of the hair to clean the scalp. Once you have massaged the scalp throughly since the product out and leave the curls soaking wet for the next step.
Moisturising : At this stage you need to think about locking the moisture in, most super curls are heading towards low porosity so they need as much moisture as they can get. I would not use a normal conditioner for these types of curls as they need a heavy creamy product that will trap the moisture in. So I would recommend using a mask or treatment as tis will moisturise the curls well. you need to section the hair and take little c=sections using more water as you go and using a wide tooth comb if needed as some curls knot too much to just be finger combed. If you can also use your fingers to smooth in the product too. Even when you think you have added enough water add some more as its not enough just to put the product on and not use enough water with it , the hair should not look white with so much product it should still look like the colour of your curls. The product is trapping the water , the water is as important as the product, you are looking for sea weed feel to your curls. Once you have applied to product you could use a steamer to open the cuticles further for 15 mins or so you can buy bonnets that act like steamers that you can put in the microwave that are as good as the original steamers. Then you need to start rinsing out the product but maybe not all of it, so you want to drizzle water over the curls and pull your hands down the curls and lift the curls back into the roots to distribute the moisturisers evenly so that it comes out of the roots and islet on the mids to ends of the curls. You are looking for a milky consistency with the water and leave the rest in as its added moisture and will aid with the definition as the curls start to dry.
Styling product: Adding the product straight after the moisturising is essential , the hair has to be very wet then I would use a little leave in with again cetyl alcohol to keep the water in and keep the curls defined and moisturised for longer. Im not suggesting that this texture curls don’t look amazing in their natural state but that if you moisturise this courser texture properly you will make the hair stronger and less likely to break. On top of the water next needs to be added a little leaves in conditioner. Then adda little or drizzle more water then straight over the top a gel that has slip and will also hold the water in . I would section the hair to add this product as you need to make sure enough product is added
Drying: When drying this texture it is by far better to let the hair dry slowly by itself and let dry naturally, as using a diffuser will dry out the moisture that you have worked so hard to get in.