Do I Have Curly Hair & Just Not Know It?

Does your hair have a slight wave to it once it has air dried after a shower? Does your hair air dry with some wave but a lot of frizz? Do you resemble Farrah Fawcett if you brush out your hair when it’s dry? If any of your answers to these questions are a “yes,” then you most likely have curly or wavy hair that you are not aware of! Keep reading to find out if you have curly hair and how it has gone undiscovered for all of this time!

 

One of the hardest pills to swallow in the world of beauty is that we do not have the ability to control our natural hair type. The determining factor to how your hair dries, the shape of the hair follicle, the thickness of the hair, and how it regulates the oils from the scalp lies in your genes. It is quite possible for an individual to figure out that they have curly hair much later in life if all of their immediate family members have stick straight hair. The secret to figuring out if you yourself have curly hair relies primarily on your daily hair care routine.

An individual’s daily hair routine varies depending on how much time and effort an individual wants to set forth in order to achieve the best hair results possible. For those who would like great results without strenuous effort, look no further! There are four simple ways that you can adjust your current hair routine in order to bring out those long lost curls and reduce frizz overall! These four tasks include the way in which you dry your hair after getting out of the shower, the type of brush you use when your hair is wet, what type of fabric you are sleeping on at night, and how you are styling your hair.

 

1. The first simple task that you can change in your daily routine to greatly impact how your hair curls is the way in which you dry your hair after freshly coming out of the shower. After surveying the people who are in my personal circle, I have found that across the board, it is very common for individuals to carry the same drying technique from their childhood into their adult life. Different drying techniques include the flip your head upside down and rub a towel as fast as you can across your head or the “no fluffing” technique of not running a towel through your hair but rather wrapping it up in a towel. Between these two extremes of drying your hair with a towel, there is one technique that has proven to be very effective. If you are a gal or guy that prefers at least 50% of your hair to be towel dried before brushing, this is the solution for you. After you have turned off the water in your shower and are approaching the hair-drying step of your towel drying process, flip your hair upside down and gently scrunch the ends of your hair with the towel, as if you were styling curls in a scrunched manner with product. This way of towel drying hair keeps frizz to a minimum while keeping the structural integrity of the curl. For those that do not mind putting more time into drying their hair after a shower typically do not towel dry at all, but rather brush out his or her wet hair, put a heat protectant in their hair, and use a diffuser attachment on a blow dryer.

 

2. The second quick and simple task to achieve great waves or curls is making sure that the type of brush being used is optimal for a curly or wavy hair pattern. In Cosmopolitan’s, “14 Best Brushes for Curly Hair for Detangling and Styling,” Beth Gillette outlines fourteen different brushes that are optimal for curly hair. From personal experience, the brushes that yield the best results from this list are the Denman brush or one of the detangling brushes as the bristles of the brush separate hair well and better prepare it for styling than how a paddle brush with bulbous ended bristles that are very close together would.

3. While it might seem frivolous at first, what type of material that you sleep on truly does impact your hair! If you are looking to improve the texture and shape of your waves or curls, implement this simple task below to see great results with minimal effort. In order to keep frizz to a minimum and to keep the shape of the curls or waves intact, simply changing your pillowcase from cotton to a satin or eucalyptus TENCEL™ lyocell will do the trick. Both TENCEL™ and satin reduce friction on the hair cuticle, do not strip the hair of any of its natural oils or hydration, and the probability of hair breakage is low as there is less friction created by the silky smooth material than that of cotton material. Although both eucalyptus TENCEL™ lyocell and satin reduce friction on the hair follicle, the eucalyptus TENCEL™ lyocell pillowcases have greater health and environmental benefits compared to that of satin. The three key differences between the two are that the eucalyptus TENCEL™ lyocell pillowcases are sustainability created earning the Bio-based certification by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), there is an immediate softness effect after the first wash, and the fabric’s sheen has a longer lifespan than that of satin. It is a known fact that satin typically loses shine over time and consumers need to implement different home soaking remedy solutions to revive the sheen, but that is not the case with eucalyptus TENCEL™ lyocell! These benefits are likewise favorable for reducing overall frizz and defining the natural curl or wave of the hair because with the specific material retaining its shine and becoming softer with each wash, it also becomes softer and more gentle on the hair cuticle with each wash!

 

 

4. Lastly, the way in which you are styling your hair will greatly impact the type of curls that will be yielded once dried. Choosing the “correct” way to style curls and waves poses a daunting task as there are numerous different techniques that are showcased online and on social media. With this being said, this step will take some trial and error but there is a simple guideline that individuals with different curl and wave patterns can both follow. This process following the washing includes combing through with a curl friendly brush, applying a curl cream either lightweight or a heavier cream depending on your hair type, and either scrunching or hand coiling the hair until you like the way the waves or curls sit, and let dry!

 

With these four steps and some consistency, you will have frizz free curls or waves in no time!