I’m often stopped and asked by women (and men) who have very curly hair how they can better care for their hair. The most common complaint is about the lack of manageability in many curly hair types. The hair is unruly, prone to frizz and tangles, and generally seems intent on doing only what it wants to do.
Usually, after discussion it turns out that many of the styling techniques used are only adding to the problem. It’s in these areas that my advice can be most helpful.
So let’s take a look at some tips on Caring for Curly Hair. We’ll start with basics, then move on to specific problems and some solutions, all while including professional tips to deal with curly hair.
Basic Care:
We’ve said before that the hair needs only to be shampooed when it becomes soiled, but that it should be conditioned every day. We’ve also explained that most rinse-through conditioners are alkaline enough to remove the minor amounts of soil from most people’s daily routines. Curly hair especially can benefit from a cleansing-conditioner routine, since it helps to maintain high levels of moisture and emollients in the hair to improve manageability, tame frizz, and give shine.
Luckily, modern advances in hair care offer us special formulations of shampoo and conditioner specifically for curly hair in order to help create smooth, controlled curls. Many of these contain additives and ingredients that help smooth the cuticle layer to seal in moisture and offer definition to the curls.
Yet the treatment of the hair after shampooing or conditioning is just as important when dealing with curly hair. The process of drying the hair should never include “rubbing, or buffeting” the head with a towel, especially not when dealing with curly hair. The hair should be carefully wrapped in the folds of a clean, dry towel and gently squeezed to absorb the water.
With shorter lengths, press the hair against the scalp, or squeeze it with the fingers through the towel. Once the majority of the water has been wicked away, use a second clean, dry towel to wrap the head in turban fashion and let the hair continue to be wicked of moisture while you do other things in your routine.
{Professional Tip: One trick many stylists use when dealing with curly hair is to dry the hair using paper towels. These disposable towels are highly-absorbent and perfect for removing excess moisture without roughing up the hairs and leaving frizz. As an added bonus, the paper towel is perfect for targeted removal of moisture – from the scalp area, or from the ends – anywhere that is needed.}
Styling Care
Curly hair is generally styled in limited fashion. Unless it is physically reconfigured by such methods asbraiding, or held in ponytails or clips, styling curly hair is usually a matter of making careful use of the natural wave. This generally means drying the hair with a diffuser and trying to avoid creating a puffball.
Yet any time you plan to use heat styling tools (and a blow dryer IS a heat styling tool) on curly hair, you want to make sure to use a protective product to help prevent damage to the hair. This may be a leave-in conditioner, an anti-frizz serum or perhaps a protective balm, as you prefer. Follow this by making sure to use the proper settings for the dryer with diffuser attached: low-heat and high-air flow. The goal is to allow the air to circulate through the curls and evaporate the moisture, using the fingers to gently lift and scrunch the curls to help them retain their shape.
Occasionally, an individual with curly hair will want to reconfigure her curls to a slightly different size, or to encourage a specific direction of the curl. This can often be done with a curling iron if there is a limited arrangement of curls to be worked, and with a wet roller set if you need more “all-over” manipulation of the curl.
Specific Curly Hair Problems:
My curly hair is coarse, dry and unruly, and I need it to calm down. What can I do?
This is a pretty standard problem hair type, and frankly, aside from the usual “high-moisture” routine in hair care, the best solution is the application of fruit oil to help soften the hair and smooth the curls into some semblance of control. I recommend Argan Oil.
Argan Oil can be found in a preparation at your local beauty supply store and can be used as a hair dressing and as a periodic hot oil treatment. For your regular use, apply a liberal amount to the palms and spread it over the fingers then work it carefully through damp hair. This can be done before using a diffused dryer and can serve as a protective treatment for the hair. Simply dry the hair to a “mostly-dry” state, but not fully dry.
To use the oil as a hot oil treatment, you can immerse the bottle in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes until the oil is warmed, then apply the oil to the hair and scalp, and cover with a plastic cap. Allow the oil to remain for 30 minutes and then rinse the hair with warm water. If you feel the hair is too “oily” after, you can shampoo as normal. The result should be soft, smooth curls. Just try to allow the hair to dry naturally after the hot oil treatment to ensure the maximum benefit of the treatment.
My curly hair seems to get knotted heavily at the ends, so that even a wide-tooth comb will not pass through easily. How to I stop this from happening?
Well, my first recommendation is that you look carefully at the ends of your hair for signs of split ends. Many curly-haired individuals find that their hair is prone to split ends which because of the random direction of the curls easily get snagged upon the ends of the hairs next to them. The result is a high instance of tangles and snarls at the ends of the hair that only serve to damage the hair further.
To treat this, you first need a trim. Contrary to the claims made by many hair care products, NO product will “restore” split ends. The best that you can hope for is a “repair” of the split ends, which is akin to using glue to mend broken pottery. It is still broken, but it looks whole. To be rid of split ends they have to be removed. The way to remove them is by trimming the hair.
Once the split ends are removed, the next step is making sure to PREVENT them in the future. Use the above mentioned oil treatment and hair dressing applications of Argan Oil (or another smoothing product as you desire) and then remember that your hair is a natural fiber.
Imagine taking a silk blouse and raking a brush down the front of it 50 to 100 times every day. You’d expect to start seeing it fray and look haggard after a couple of days, right? Of course you would. Well, the hair is just as delicate and yet, we often brush and comb our hair with wonton force, never thinking that we could be doing more harm than good.
You only need to brush or comb the hair until it is free of tangles. Excessive brushing and combing can actually damage the hair by putting added stress on the ends of the hair which roughs up the fibers causing fraying and splitting of the ends.
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