Although managing and maintaining curly hair can be challenging, it can produce beautiful results with the right care. How do we achieve the healthy and thriving curls that we all desire? In this article, you’ll learn all about that.
Washing Curly Hair
1. Using a Sulfate free Shampoo
Sulfates are a cleansing agent and excellent at what they do; the only drawback is that because they work so well, they strip natural oils from the hair, and curly hair is already predisposed to dryness because these oils have a hard time moving down the hair shaft due to the structure of the hair follicle.
So start your wash routine with a sulfate-free shampoo! After thoroughly wetting the hair with water, pour a tiny amount of the shampoo into your palms, rub them together, and massage the scalp. Massaging it into the scalp helps eliminate dirt, product buildup, and excess oils.
2. Fix an “Oiling” day
Do some hot oil treatment to repair, strengthen and lubricate strands before a wash. Oils contain emollients that work to seal in moisture by creating an oily film.
For a hot oil treatment, add a variety of oils into a bowl, or you could use coconut oil. Heat the bowl containing the oil and when it’s warm, apply to the hair and give your scalp a good massage. Massaging your scalp, aside from being a relaxing treatment, aids blood circulation, which encourages hair growth.
3. Never Skip a Conditioner!
Conditioners should be an integral part of your hair care routine, with curly hair prone to dryness. Follow up your shampooing with a conditioner; it negates the negative charges from washing with shampoo as it primarily contains a cationic surfactant.
Incorporate the other types of conditioners, leave in, and a deep conditioner. The leave-in conditioner can help to hydrate your curls all day long and do a weekly or bi-weekly conditioning treatment, depending on your hair type and porosity.
Deep conditioning treatments are engineered to work ten times more than a regular conditioner, prevent split ends, and repair and preserve curls. Apply a deep conditioner as you would an ordinary conditioner, after which you put the hair in a bun and cover it with a shower cap. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes, depending on the product description, and give a thorough rinse.
4. Avoid Certain Types of Products
Certain products like surfaces, parabens, and alcohol can damage your hair. Alcohol can dry the hair, but there is also the good kind; fatty alcohols like Cetearyl alcohol provide that slip that makes the detangling process easier and does not damage the hair.
5. Wrap Hair in a T-shirt.
After washing your hair, dry it gently by wrapping it in a t-shirt or microfiber towel. Softer clothing may lessen damage and hair breakage, while a terry towel would be harder on the hair strands.
A microfiber towel is lint-free and has a massive capacity for water absorption. It would be much better for your hair if you switched to a microfiber towel.
Styling Curly Hair
1. Detangling your Hair
Use a wide-toothed comb and your fingers to detangle your hair. When your hair is dry, attempting to detangle it will result in a massive ball of frizz. If you do decide to brush, make sure to do it correctly and with the appropriate brush. If you could only work with your fingers, that would be best for your hair because excessive brushing or combing might harm your strands.
Start untangling conditioned hair from the tips and work your way up to the roots for the detangling procedure. Using this method, you can use a comb, brush, or even your fingers.
2. Use a Diffuser when you Blow dry
A diffuser is a blow dryer attachment that helps to disperse air evenly, keep the curl pattern intact, minimize frizz, and create volume.
To diffuse, place a diffuser over your hair dryer before you begin blow drying your hair; this helps lessen your hair’s exposure to heat and gives room to style. Be sure to spritz on a heat protectant to a section of your hair to get all the strands coated and protected.
For best results, flip your hair over your head, move side by side, and for more volume, scoop the curls into the diffuser bowl and turn on the blow dryer for ten seconds, turn off and move to other sections. Use a low setting on your blow dryer for this process. Better yet, limit heat usage.
3. Add in Styling Products
Buy styling products appropriate for your hair type and porosity; for fine curly hair, for example, volumizing shampoo, texturizing spray, and similar products are needed, whereas lighter-weight products are ideal for denser hair types and low porosity. High porosity hair and hair that is thicker or coarser demand larger weight products.
Understand what category you fall into and use products that work for each. To apply your styling products, follow the liquid, cream, and oil formation or the liquid, oil, and cream formation. Anti-frizz serum could be applied sparingly. Following a shower or blow-dry, an anti-frizz serum can make your hair look smoother and possibly help remove frizz. However, a little bit does help a lot. Frizz serum works best when applied in a dime-sized amount. The serum should be distributed evenly throughout your hair.
Handling Salon Trips
1. Get Frequent Trims
Getting regular trims is one way to get rid of split ends; split ends can not be repaired and, if not cut off, inhibit hair growth. Especially for damaged curly hair, getting rid of split ends is one way to begin the repair process. It is advised you get a trim every six weeks; if you dally on these, it would only go up more, and you’d still have to trim it away.
2. Request a Dry Cut at the Salon.
When it begins to flatten at the crown, get a haircut. There is no set interval between haircuts for people with curly hair in days or weeks. You only need to pay attention to your hair. It would be best if you had a haircut as soon as the crown begins to flatten.
Do not style your hair before going to a salon. At salons, ask for a dry cut: you desire a haircut that emphasizes the curls in your hair’s natural state. You want a precise idea of how your hair will seem following a trim. Ask your stylist for a dry cut because the appearance of curly hair differs significantly between wet and dry. Thus, you may be sure that you are aware of your hairdo.
3. Refrain from Constantly Touching your Hair
The general rule for curly hair is that the more you touch it, the worse it gets; stroking your hair should stop after washing and styling; repeated touching takes away the styling products and causes frizz.
Final Words
More than just caring and maintaining your curls is loving it in its complexities. So, feel free to experiment with various styles and products to figure out what works for you, and let keeping your curls healthy be a priority.