How to Style Curly Hair
Curly hair is beautiful, but it can take skill to care for.
The difference between having a bad hair day or a good hair day with your curls starts with your hair care routine. For healthy-looking curls, you’ll want to find the right products, care techniques, and hairstyles. Below are some of our favorite tips that will help you style curly hair.
Find Your Curly Hair Type
Hair curls are unique. Knowing your curl pattern allows you to understand your hair’s unique features, buy better products, and identify how to style or color curly hair.
Do you have inconsistent curls? If you are trying to determine your curl type and think one curl is a 4B and another is 4C, just choose your tightest curl pattern.
Determine Your Hair Porosity
Your hair porosity is your curl’s ability to absorb moisture, oils, and more. To determine your curl porosity, clip a stray strand of hair after cleaning and drop it into a full glass of room-temperature water. If your hair has high porosity, it will sink to the bottom.
Low-porosity hair will float while balanced porosity curls will hover anywhere in the water. Having low porosity curls means your hair cuticle is tight and hard to penetrate, so you should use lightweight products for the curls to look their best.
For high-porosity hair, you need to use oils, proteins, and butter to keep your curls moisturized and healthy.
Do Wash Day Right
When you shampoo, use products designed for curly hair. It’ll help define and detangle your hair. Not sure what products are right for you? Take our Curl Quiz for your personalized hair care routine.
Style When Hair is Wet
Want to style curly hair? Wet styling is a vital part of curly hair care. Water will loosen your curls and reset your natural curl pattern, allowing you to style each curl to your liking.
What’s more, choose styling products for curly hair that are formulated to work on damp hair. They’ll penetrate deep into the hair fibers to smooth, define, and condition your hair for softer curls.
Scrunch Your Curls
Looking to separate each of your curls into gorgeous ringlets? It may be time to try scrunching. Cup your locks in your palm, squeezing to work your styling products carefully into each strand. This method adds volume and extra definition to your curls without causing damage to your hair.
Comb Your Hair From the Bottom Up
Try starting from the bottom going up when combing curly hair.
It allows you to gently detangle, protecting your hair from damage. You can also try using a wide-tooth comb when detangling. Apart from reducing hair breakage, it doesn’t disrupt your natural curl pattern.
Refresh Curls with a Curling Iron
Sometimes your curls may become saggy or unruly. To perk them up, you should opt for a curling iron that’s almost the same diameter as your curls.
It will help you effectively deal with part of your hair that is hard to twist, an annoying cowlick, or in case you want to tighten up or loosen your curl pattern. When buying a curling iron, you can choose one that fits your curl pattern or help you shape a new pattern.
Use a Diffuser
While heat styling tools can permanently wreck your curl pattern or cause damage, using a diffuser is good for your curly hair. You need to attach a diffuser attachment to a blow-dryer before you start drying your hair.
The diffuser spreads the heat flow evenly, ensuring your curls hold their shape. You can also give your hair more volume by placing small sections of your hair on top of the diffuser attachment and blow-drying it upside down. Make sure to turn the heat to a lower setting when blow-drying.
Get Regular Trims
Having split ends is never cute. They can make your hair frizzy and cause you to lose length. If you want your curls looking bouncy and fresh, you should get a trim every six to eight weeks. For a perfect trim, visit a trained hairstylist.
Deep Condition Often
Curls love moisture. Apart from using daily conditioner for curly hair and leave-in conditioning products, you may want to use a conditioning hair mask weekly. It can help repair surface damage to your curly hair, reducing frizzes for healthy-looking hair.
Fix Flat Roots on Curly Hair
The weight of water in the hair can drag down the roots making them flat. To eliminate ultra-flat roots in your curly hair and give it more volume, you can use hair clips. You should also consider plopping using a T-shirt or microfiber towel.
Grab a Headband
Short on time to style your curly hair? A headband can be a lifesaver. You can use it to pull your hair back while it’s damp. It helps flatten your hair at the crown, leaving curls at your hair’s ends. When you pull the headband off later, you will have a gorgeous body of hair falling back.
Try Pineappling Overnight
Before you go to sleep, loosely gather your hair at the highest point of the head. This will protect your curl pattern and maintain natural volume. You’ll also have less bedhead.
Sleep on a Silk Pillowcase
If you want your curly hair to look smoother and shiny the next day, try sleeping on a silk pillowcase. It prevents frizzes and tangling when you toss and turn at night. You can also tie your hair in a silk scarf.
Style Curly Hair Beautifully
Want to style curly hair? Look no further than All About Curls styling products. Our products will make your hair soft, shiny, voluminous, and healthy. Take the guesswork out of developing a hair care routine with our All About Curls Quiz! Our salon expert developed quiz will deliver personalized recommendations for your curls.
