Type 1 hair actually wavy?

[CaitlinMarie93]

So to start off, I have hair typed myself as 1b/1c. I get barely there waves if I leave my hair dry completely without touching it but when I comb it out, it goes stick straight. Whilst in the shower today, I decided to scrunch my hair just for the fun of it and lo and behold, a magical spiral appeared. Not a strange looking wave like I am used to seeing as it dries, but an actual spiral. So, I got out of the shower and continued to scrunch. I pictured beautiful wurls, so romantic and shiny. But to my dismay, when it dried it went extremely frizzy and became an awkward wavy and tangled mess. So this leads me into a series of questions:
1. Is there a way for me to keep the beautiful spirally wurls as it dries? Or will the spirals only show up when soaked with water?
2. If it is possible to keep the wurls as my hair dries, how can I keep it from going frizzy?
3. And lastly, is it normal for a type 1 hair to get such waves when scrunching wet hair? Have I typed myself wrong?

Can't wait to hear some responses and sorry for such a wordy post :D

[DancingQueen]

I think when you scrunch, it is pretty normal the hair go frizzy; and the more wavy/curly the hair is, the more frizz and tangles. If you want to have waves or wurls, you can always let it airdry in big rollers, that should make it nice, smooth and wavy. (the bigger the roller, the more wavy). :)

[jeanniet]

When you typed your hair, did you do it with hair that had been clarified and air dried, with no other product in it? You may have more wave than you thought. Scrunching doesn't make hair frizzy per se--that's how most curlies style their hair, and they wouldn't do it if it made frizzies worse!--but it could cause frizz if you overdid it, or used a terrycloth towel, or any number of things. Could you give more details? What you had in your hair, how you dried it, and so forth.

I don't know about type 1 hair, but scrunching loosely wavy hair can enhance the wave quite a bit. Using gel or mousse generally will help the wave to hold better, longer, and with less frizz.

[kidari]

I'm in between straight and wavy I think...?? So personally I have to either style it straight or style it wavy or curly. This means if I want it straight, I use tons of coney products and gently brush it straight when it's almost completely dry at the last stages of air drying or blow dry it with a brush on a warm/cool setting after it's been mostly air dried. If it comes out more poofy than I'd like, then right at the end while my hair is still warm from the dryer I brush it up into a cinnamon bun high on top of my head for volume and a slight wave or low at the nape of my neck for beachy waves for at least 15-30 minutes before letting it loose... the longer you have it in the bun, the more defined and long lasting the results. If you mist it damp and keep it in for hours the results last the longest. Not using any products and simply air drying gives me the most gross looking hair. Parts of it is straight and limp, parts of it is frizzy, parts of it is kinky wavy in an ugly way... so I do heat-free wet sets of numerous kinds for the look I'm after. The advantage of being in between straight and wavy is that it's so easy to make your hair straight and if you curl it, your hair will hold the curl very easily. However, the unfortunate part is that you have to make your hair go straight or curly or else it looks unkempt in it's natural state. You can't win I guess. I wish I could simply scrunch but my hair doesn't have enough of a wave pattern for that to work. However, certain shampoos and conditioners and coney products or after using demi-permanent dyes my hair tends to air dry more uniformly straight.

[torrilin]

You're typed wrong.


I get barely there waves if I leave my hair dry completely without touching it but when I comb it out, it goes stick straight.

There's your misconception. A lot of folks with 2c and 3a hair can get their hair to look stick straight with nothing more than a comb. It's *normal* for hair to look straighter after combing. Combs and hair typing do not mix :). So about all we can say about your hair type right now is it's not straight (so not a 1 anything) and it's not super curly (not a type 4 anything).

As far as keeping the spirals... that's a bit complicated. You may be able to work out a routine that lets you have long curly hair. But for a lot of curly folks, their curls are not protective enough for really long hair by themselves, so they rely on updos just like straighties, and they don't get to enjoy full on curls as often as they might otherwise like. Others decide to cut or maintain a shorter length that lets them enjoy the curls.

However you end up, a lot of curl friendly staples are also long hair friendly staples. Lots of moisture is a curly staple. Gently squeezing the water out of hair and then air drying is a curly staple. Avoiding brushes too. Minimal fiddling with dry hair, because dry hair is brittle and breaks easily. There's lots more techniques that can be really helpful whether your hair is straight or curly. In your shoes, I'd investigate curl friendly technique and just explore what works for your hair. It can be a pretty long process to work out what gives you best results, and IMO it's hard to get an accurate type on most hair when it's dried out and not curling well.

[Firefox7275]

So to start off, I have hair typed myself as 1b/1c. I get barely there waves if I leave my hair dry completely without touching it but when I comb it out, it goes stick straight. Whilst in the shower today, I decided to scrunch my hair just for the fun of it and lo and behold, a magical spiral appeared. Not a strange looking wave like I am used to seeing as it dries, but an actual spiral. So, I got out of the shower and continued to scrunch. I pictured beautiful wurls, so romantic and shiny. But to my dismay, when it dried it went extremely frizzy and became an awkward wavy and tangled mess. So this leads me into a series of questions:
1. Is there a way for me to keep the beautiful spirally wurls as it dries? Or will the spirals only show up when soaked with water?
2. If it is possible to keep the wurls as my hair dries, how can I keep it from going frizzy?
3. And lastly, is it normal for a type 1 hair to get such waves when scrunching wet hair? Have I typed myself wrong?

Can't wait to hear some responses and sorry for such a wordy post :D

1. and 2. Curly Girl method, come over to NaturallyCurly forums or the Wavy Hair Community on Facebook!
3. Nope, you are probably a proper wavy. Many of us 2s have no idea we are wavy/curly, we spend years thinking we have slight kinks or poofy 'straight' hair.

Don't keep scrunching, touching hair whilst it dries breaks up the curl and creates frizz. CG method has you applying a pile of conditioner and styler to dripping hair, either 'plop' or super gently scrunch out the excess water with a microfibre towel or flour sack towel, then diffuse or air dry no touching. Condition, condition and condition some more. No brushes or combs, no straying fingers, no terry cotton towel turbans.

Product choice and ingredients are important for wavies and curlies: certain ingredients are not recommended (sulphates, silicones, soaps, some polyquats), also consider your hair properties (is it porous or damaged, fine or coarse?), and local climate (humectants are often a disaster in very high or very low dew points). Ingredients that can help boost waves include coconut oil, honey, hydrolysed protein and magnesium sulphate (epsom salts) not all together tho! The first three are long hair friendly, mag sulph can be drying on some hair types if overused so exercise caution. Some find flaxseed gel or okra gel are curl/ definition enhancers and again long/ healthy hair friendly.

[alexis917]

Sounds like you're definitely in the 2 range!

[CaitlinMarie93]

Thank you all for your input! It has definitely helped greatly. I think it is time for me to do another typing photo to see if more waves pop through :) In other news, I measured my hair today and I am exactly one inch away from hip! Hooray! :happydance:

[hypersensitive]

Type 1's can never get wurls so easily like that. It takes way more coercion for us straighties to get any kind of curl. You are probably typed wrong. I type myself as 1b and I what I would give to be able do what you did here.

[spidermom]

At shorter lengths, I could bring out curls by using a gel and twirling strands around my fingers occasionally as it air dried. You could try that.

At hip length and beyond, I see my curls rarely. I used to be a wavy, almost curly at shorter lengths. Now I'm a wavy, almost straight.

[lapushka]

I'm hoping you can post a hair typing picture soon, so we can type you. Sounds interesting how you get wurls, but they fall out and go messy when dry.

[torrilin]

The wurls sort of falling out when dry seems fairly common, especially if you've got family that dislikes curly hair. My sister in law is a 3a or so, gorgeous spirally curls, but when I first met her, her hair always looked straight as can be. Hip length hair, minimal conditioner and lots of brushing to "get the tangles out" helped make sure her hair looked very straight. When I first met her, her hair rarely looked even as curly as Spidermom's sig pic. Also, like a lot of curlies, the 3a is an average. Some areas have a strong wave pattern that dislikes straightening and tries to corkscrew very hard, others are looser. She's even got a couple locks that try to form corkscrews even tho her hair is scraped flat "mean lady bun" style. The vast majority aren't that stubborn tho.

After about a year of transitioning to more curl friendly methods, she decided to chop her hair to shoulder. Long enough for a ponytail, short enough that she could wear her hair curly every day and keep the curls nice. She usually doesn't go for max curl tho, since her shoulder length cut would become chin length if she did.