Haircut / Layers advice for uneven curls

[Domino]

Hello fellow hair lovers!

Recently I have been quite bored with my hair and now I am thinking about getting a haircut next week. Nothing major, it just needs some shaping up. It is still the same as in my avatar, slightly longer maybe at around BSL.

The thing is, I have several curl patterns in my hair and I cannot figure out a proper haircut. The crown and the bangs area are 2c/3a, underneath the crown is 2b and below the ears it is all 1b at most. I really want to even it all up but not going shorter and without having a serious taper when I braid. I want some face framing layers, as in the picture below. But aside from that, I am quite lost whether to get layers all over or some face framing ones.
http://images.beautyriot.com/photos/kate-beckinsale-updo-romantic-curly-tousled-formal-brunette.jpg

Overall, I want it to look similar to this one below because it has volume, it is not thinned out at the ends, has some choppy layers (I think). But as I've said before, I have very uneven textures.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bQ0SqifjNcg/TKEEXbBcvlI/AAAAAAAAdlo/omc2gsHycdQ/s1600/kate-beckinsale-blonde-hair-2.jpg

Any advice?

Thank you so much in advance!

[Tabihito]

Your hair sounds very similar to mine; around my temples and bangs, it's 3a, and then the curls gradually get looser until the back is a 2b/c. Nothing seems to encourage the back part to be curlier, so I've pretty much accepted that I have multiple curl patterns. What I've found to work best is to have very long layers, with none of them being any shorter than six inches above the longest bits. Also, gel is your friend. Gel and, if you can manage it without bad frizzing, plopping.

If your crown is that much curlier than the underpart, short layers might serve only to emphasize the difference.

[Domino]

Thank you for your reply :)

I am currently thinking about getting some very, very long layers. Maybe 2''-3'' of difference at most. I use gel on a daily basis but the under layer never seems to curl. Heck, I even tried to get a perm on those straight bits and they were still straight. I will also try plopping again, thanks for reminding me.

Any other ideas are totally welcome :disco:

[spidermom]

That second picture that you like so much? Styling. Hot rollers or curling iron or something. I'm going to start styling mine more often; there's no other way to get that smooth uniformity. I'm really getting disgusted with the way mine frizzes and the hairs zag around in all different directions. Styling; that's the ticket!

[Domino]

Spidermom, I've spent literally the whole day on youtube looking for styling methods to get that waves without heat! So far I haven't found any that would give those results on me. Once I decide on a proper hair cut I will go buy some huge rollers :D

[novemberfoxtrot]

My underlayer is super straight too. I always remind the stylist to pay attention when they cut the last layer so it doesn't spring up and leave me with this silly straight bottom layer sticking out.

When my hair was shorter I used to twirl my hair around my finger while it was wet so I'd have lots and lots of ropes that loosened as they dried. that helped with clumping.

[torrilin]

There's no cut that will magically fix multiple curl patterns. Cutting your hair isn't going to change your wavelength :D.

I don't have full on curl, and in fact my hair barely is even wavy. But the pattern I do have is super duper amazingly uniform so that everything lines up pretty well. This means even at my waviest, my hair looks really straight. No lumps or bumps or jiggles, it looks like my hair is meant to be just one lock that was barely crimped by the world's largest and flattest wave plate crimper. People who have a more varied wave pattern wind up looking like their hair is curlier even when they're the same type as me. They get more volume from the same amount of wave. More different clumps too.

So a varied wave or curl pattern isn't bad in and of itself. Different levels of curl are just something that happens when you don't have hair that acts like it's all one lock and one wave pattern. And having the wave pattern change in such a uniform way over your head is probably quite easy to work with.

Both the pictures you show are heat styled tho. This isn't really going to give the same effect as my hair, because mine winds up looking straighter due to the evenness of the pattern. And it won't give the same effect as yours, because the curl structure is more uniform too. In your position, I'd probably find a local curl friendly stylist and schedule a consultation or two. Not a cut, just a "is this even a realistic look" session where the stylist helps you play around with your hair and no scissors touch anything and you get lessons on getting your hair as is closer to looks you like. Once you find someone who is willing to work with you that way, then you can have them help you get a cut that will make the styles you like easier on your hair. It'd wind up being more like paying for regular hairstyling lessons than like getting regular hair cuts.

Not every hair stylist is willing to work that way, but the ones who do are really fantastic.

[spidermom]

Spidermom, I've spent literally the whole day on youtube looking for styling methods to get that waves without heat! So far I haven't found any that would give those results on me. Once I decide on a proper hair cut I will go buy some huge rollers :D

I'm planning to buy a bonnet hair dryer and a package of magnetic rollers to try. I'm so unhappy with the grizzled/frazzled results of air drying that I can't stand it anymore!

[looniac]

You should research hairdressers who really *know* curly hair. They will look at your curl pattern when it is dry and cut your hair accordingly. Otherwise, a lot of times I have had the experience of people going in and messing up my curly mop, turning it into the ever-dreaded triangle, because they didn't pay attention to the different tightnesses of my curls. :)

[Domino]

I would love to find a stylist who understands my hair. Unfortunately I am currently in the middle of nowhere, without any salons specialized in waves and curls. Even if there are a few stylists in the country, I have no way of finding them until summer. There is one hair dresser who has agreed to apply my roots-only henna on a monthly basis that I trust to give me the haircut I want if I can explain it. I will look into some local websites, but I doubt I can find a curly hair stylist.

Thank you so much :)

[jacqueline101]

I like the picture but I agree I'd look up styling methods for it. I'd try rollers and natural hair stiffening agent but not a sticky hold. The cut Id research a good stylist layers are hard to do anything with if they're done wrong. I'd also try long layers they won't change the curl you have just inhance it.

[torrilin]

I would love to find a stylist who understands my hair. Unfortunately I am currently in the middle of nowhere, without any salons specialized in waves and curls. Even if there are a few stylists in the country, I have no way of finding them until summer. There is one hair dresser who has agreed to apply my roots-only henna on a monthly basis that I trust to give me the haircut I want if I can explain it. I will look into some local websites, but I doubt I can find a curly hair stylist.

Thank you so much :)

Thing is, curly hair is pretty common. It might be that the best curly salons in your area market themselves as "black" salons or ethnic salons, but since curly hair is the norm in reality, I can assure you that even the most podunk towns have stylists who are good with curly hair. So the trick is finding a stylist who is good with curls and will work with you to help you get the look you want... and that last one is the hard part. Hot rollers, perm solution and dye are all a lot easier (for the stylist) than dealing with natural hair. They give really predictable results. Natural is rarely predictable. (which is a lot of why my wave pattern is weird)

The right stylist may not get perfect results the first time. But if they're willing to work with you and help you learn to get the results you want, it doesn't matter if they get things perfect the first time.

[CurlyCap]

I actually think the opposite of torrilin. Many stylists think they understand curly hair, but they visualize it as straight hair that just bounces. So then they cut it as they would straight hair and hope everything will work out when your hair is dry and curly. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Also, most stylists don't seem to understand how critical moisture and flexibility is to curly hair, and so product and styling advice is usually incorrect. So my caveat to my advice is that you first have a stylist who you trust or who comes highly recommended from people who do know curly hair. Don't trust novices! As for going to a "black salon", if you think you might have to go that route, I'd suggest looking for a "natural" salon that focuses on working with the hair's natural texture. Many AA community salons heavily emphasize straightening, and that should be avoided if you can about your hair's long term health.

All that said, you can get layers. And they are great for breaking up the curl, reducing the size of the "curl cloud", and adding a lot more bounce to the canopy since shorter curls tend to be a bit lighter and curlier. To get the best layered cut, go to a good stylist with your hair done "perfectly", ie whatever routine gives you the best curls and go to them with your hair completely dry. Alternatively, you could go with your hair styled normally so that they can see how your curls lay 99% of the time and work around that. The point is, you want them to see how YOUR hair curls and what curl patterns are where on your head. From there, they should be able to work with you on long/short or straight/razored or obvious/blended layers.

I agree with everyone else that the pictures you posted are of heat styled straight hair and true type 3 hair just isn't ever going to look like that without an element of straightening first. I've found that jumbo Caruso rollers are FANTASTIC for loosening curl to a wave...and they work really quickly (5 minutes). But then you'll have to figure out styles where you don't have to curl your entire head because that can become tiresome.

Hopefully helpful:
1. A tutorial on caruso rollers I did last year. I'm a 3c, but I think the same idea might apply.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=85483

2. Here are some pics from when I used to where my hair heavily layered. Back then I preferred bounce to thickness, and wanted to contain my volume a bit with layers. My hair is mostly 3b, with some tighter 3c curls around the hairline and the canopy tending to 3a when it gets longer or damaged from exposure.

I actually had my hair prettily heavily layered every 6 months. The shortest layers were about 8 inches long and the longest were waist length. I got my hair recut whenever my longest layers hit hip or BCL. As you can see, I had face framing layers that were severely thinned by the layering...but it didn't make much of a difference when the hair dried. The curls filled in the volume just fine.
http://i.imgur.com/OHBgRKa.jpg?1

When it dried it was super curly, but not big as unlayered hair and had lots of dimension. And this was LAZY day hair. So it could get much better with tricks.
http://i.imgur.com/lQ2b3q3.jpg?1
http://i.imgur.com/wDGxEug.jpg

HTH!

[Domino]

Thank you so much for your help! I finally went to the hairdresser and got a nice haircut. Surprisingly, the stylist really understood what I wanted with my hair, it was a first :p The outcome is, BSL length hair with the top layers 2 inches shorter and the straightest level is also an inch shorter. This resulted in an even length when curly-wavy and I am super happy with it! Totally recommended for uneven curlies :)
Again, thanks for all your input :)