This could be a Pit thread except I’m not *that * irate over it.
I have long, thin curly hair. If I may say so , it’s quite beautiful, and the reason is I take care of it.
Now I grew up in the 80s, and when you grew up in the 80s you had two options with curly hair. Turn it into a Michael Bolton look-alike (not that he was around back then), or cut it really short.
Luckily we don’t have this problem nowadays, and there are about a good hundred or so products for curly hair (as opposed to the thousands for straight hair).
But why is it every time I go to the hair salon to get a simple half inch off they can’t comprehend what to do with my hair afterward? You do NOT need to poof it up really big, ala certain rock bands of the 80s. I grow it long specifically so I will have some control, so the last six inches of it curls ferociously and the rest falls into heavy waves. I do not need it touching the person in the next cubicle over!
So I started having them French braid it each time. Judging from the looks I get, French braiding is out of style. I don’t care, do it anyway. So in desperation of not having anything to poof…
they poof the bangs up real good. So I end up desperately flattening them down until I can get home and take a shower.
What I have to do is basically be very inisistent on certain things. I have thick curly hair, so I always have to specify no blow-drying. This usually keeps them from futzing around with it too much- just specify no blow-drying adn maybe a little mousse to hold the frizz away. I am proud to say that as a result it’s been nine years since a blow dryer has gone anywhere near my head- and no post-salon mall hair.
I do have big hair–also naturally curly and long, but probably not as fine as yours. What products have you found really work on curly hair? When it’s not humid, I have great hair, but when it is…POOF!
No, seriously. They have Pantene 2-in-1 shampoo & conditioner for curly hair. Then they have Pantene mousse for curly hair. And Pantene Curl Lock hairspray.
It really does work…it doesn’t weight the curls down and make them straight. When it’s humid, the mousse almost always helps AS LONG AS I NEVER EVER TOUCH IT. I can’t touch it at all after it’s dry.
My problem is my hair is massively curly once you get past my ears. Like tight ringlets, looks like a pig’s tail, pull it, let it go and it’ll poke you in the eye curly. And it’s thin. So I have to blow dry atleast the scalp so it’s not stuck down to my head at the top and then poofy w/curls on the bottom. Bleah.
I haven’t head a hair cut in six years because the last time I went, she chopped off six inches of hair and teased it AND gave me bangs I didn’t ask for. I looked like an chirstmas tree. I mean what is so frikken hard about styling curly hair? Slap some gel in it use a difusser and don’t use a brush or comb while you dry. Do they listen. NO.
I find that using a diffuser helps to eliminate frizz. Also, no rubbing your hair dry, combing, etc. so as to break up the clumps of strands; someone here said no fussing and that’s the truth. Ouidad salon caters to curly hair types and has a website (ouidad.com?) with good tips. I’ve never used their products, but their techniques have helped me a great deal.
Paul Mitchell makes a spray for combating humidity frizz and it helps me somewhat, but it’s no miracle. The best I’ve figured out for my hair, which is super thick and curls into spirals, is to spray with John Frieda’s curl definer and then a bit of gel from the same line. Then dry it with a defuser attachment while bending over, to give it a bit of volume at the roots.
Of course, I long ago stopped trying to fight the poofy factor and have settled for non-frizzy controlled chaos.
I’ve got you beat! For the exact same reasons (plus they always liked to cut it in layers, which, when it curls makes a nice peak on the top of my head), I haven’t had my hair professionally cut in over 10 years. I mostly just pull it back in a barrette or French braid it (okay, so it’s not stylish, but it’s easy).
You should move to Miami, then. I didn’t encounter a hairstylist there who had any idea how to do anything but the “super straight, pull the bejeezus out of it” style that cost an extra 20 bucks–I asked one for a regular blow-dry one time, and she looked at me like I was speaking Greek. I said, forget it, just leave it wet.
I tame my wavy-curly hair with anti-frizz products. I especially like Secret Weapon Flawless Finishing Creme by John Frieda. Takes the pouf right down.
I sorta miss Jovi hair, it worked really well for me.
Wavy/curly, thin hair but lots of it, as opposed to the truly thick hair types, eh? I generally keep mine pretty long with a few layers cut in to help thin the body somewhat. Without layers or product I’m Rosanne Rosannadanna, seriously scary triangular stuff.
I’m way too lazy to do that straightening noise so I just concentrate on product that helps me have curls instead of frizz. Charles Worthington (London) makes this fabulous leave-in conditioner called “Results” it’s intensive but not heavy, and despite the pretentious name it’s available at my local drugstore chain. Once or twice a week I glop that on and it feels much softer and healthier. L’Oreal leave-in detangling mist for the rest of the week, there’s not a rinse-out shower conditioner made that enables my hair to be combable when wet. L’Oreal’s Springing Curls mousse concentrated mostly on the ends and a touch of smoothing serum gloss’n’shine if I’m feeling all special.
[Slight hijack]
I like having curls, hated it growing up until I learned about wave-specific techniques and product and have been suitably grateful ever since. Yes, I understand that stick-straight shiny 70s hair is currently fashionable, so what? I could spend lots of time torturing my hair and frying it, or I can just be untrendy, big whoop.
I appreciate nice comments on my hair, and always say something vaguely nice when ladies at work give me the “I’d have to spend a zillion dollars to get my straight fine hair to look that way” comment/accusation thing. Hey, grass is always greener, and I’m sorry you haven’t adjusted to whatcha got, but damn, do you have to comment every time you see me?! I’d have to spend X time/money/effort to get mine to look like yours too, only I’m not in hair-denial apparently. Go be happy it’s straight hair fashion time and lay off, tyvm.
Heh. I don’t have curly hair; mine’s ruler-straight. Having said that, I’ll also say that it’s so thick and heavy that if it’s longer than about six inches, it won’t hold a perm. At ALL. And if it is that short, then it holds a perm so well that I look like a poodle on a Bad Hair Day, no matter what size rollers they use.
It’s damn near impossible to make it POOF, even with massive application of gel, mousse, spray, and hairdryer.
And yet somehow…somehow I always managed to get the ONE person at the “beauty shop” that took my hair as a personal challenge, and despite requests of “NO BLOW DRYING” and “please don’t style it, just cut it and let me go”, she’d blow dry and pouf, and gel and mousse and spray and dry and mousse and then spin me around and…
Ohmygosh.
So my mom would pay them, and I’d run home and wash everything out.
Now that I’m old enough to find my OWN place and pay for my own haircuts, I have finally found one that will do exactly what I ask. Just a trim, cut it short-with-no-styling, no blowdrying, whatever.
But then again, now I generally don’t get it cut and I just yank it back into a ponytail every day.
, it’s quite beautiful, and the reason is I take care of it.
looks I get, French braiding is out of style. I don’t care, do it anyway. So in desperation of not having anything to poof…
