How to straighten 2c hair 'naturally'?

[rhubarbarin]

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted a hair thread on LHC...

I recently cut thick bangs into my super-dry, fluffy, BSL 2c/M/barely ii hair. I love them, and I use a mini flatiron to style them, which I'm fine with. However, I've been wanting to wear my hair down more with my bangs, and it is fairly curly when air-dried, particularly the parts framing my face, which I don't like the look of so much. I want to relax the curls and waves for a more classic 60s/beach-hair look, but I've never really used conventional haircare methods so don't know the first thing about how! Plus my hair is thin and fragile, I absolutely will not damage my length with a flatiron or hot blow drying (besides any blow-drying in the past has resulted in Bride of Frankenstein hair). And for whatever reason, I absolutely cannot dry it bunned or braided or piled on top of my head and reduce curl that way; it gets all crazy-looking and 'bent' and can't be worn down afterwards.

So, curly/wavy ladies of LHC, how do you make your hair looser/straighter without damaging it? Give me your techniques and products!

More pertinent info: I CO wash only, coconut oil my ends regularly, do not use silicone products as my hair is so dry, and currently use 'natural' oil-based conditioners and gels as leave-ins, usually those designed for dry curly hair. I do not own a brush, comb, or blow-dryer (I'm thinking of getting one with a diffuser as I just moved somewhere with very cold winters) :laugh: I am willing to change all of these things, I just don't know where to start.

[MidnightMoon]

I always wait for it to dry, comb and braid. The next day I spend the morning wearing it in a bun and by the time I take it down it looks wavy with quite straight parts.
I wear a bun daily and it makes my hair look quite straight. If I wear it loose for a couple of hours it gets knotty and a bit wavier but still very different from my original wave/curl.
I don't know if that's an option for you because you can't just instantly achieve the look but if you dont mind wearing it up it could be an option.
Also, oiling from the ears down with a few olive oil drops helps keep it calm.

[minxe]

I'm a 2a, though now that I've been regularly CO washing I'm getting some tighter waves and ringlets. I like the sixties look as well :) I've had success with brushed out pin curls. They don't require heat, just some bobby pins. When my hair is damp, I twirl really large sections of hair, maybe around six, and pin them flat to my head. When they're dry, I carefully finger comb them out and go over them with a brush. You could also try setting your hair in rollers! The resulting look isn't really curly at all, just kind of soft and sleek, since you brush out the curl.

[TheLuckyLurker]

Something I just tried is banding. After washing, when your hair is damp, put it in a banded ponytail (also known as a caterpillar). Depending on how thick your hair is, you might need to make more than one. I did this with two, and by the next day not only was my hair completely dry, but it's almost straight. I usually braid it and get waves from that. I have 3b hair (stats in my signature), so it should work for you. The trick is to keep all the ponytail holders fairly close together; I used 8 or 9 on each one. And keep them on until your hair is completely dry. Hope that helps :).

[PraiseCheeses]

I have 2c/3a fine hair and straighten it by first letting it dry until it's just damp, then combing it with a wide-tooth comb into a ponytail on the very top of my head (finger-combing also works), and then making a very loose nautilus-type or lazy-wrap type bun on the top of my head. I might take it down and redo it a couple times to expose different parts to the air, and sometimes I'll sleep with the bun right on top of my forehead for root volume. :lol: That might mess up your bangs in your case, however. My result is 1b/1c ish with some body waves and usually a flip to the ends. I like it. :)

If you have to go somewhere soon after washing and can't loll about the house with a goofy bun smack on the top of your head, I get very similar results (albeit less volume at the roots) from a mid-height wrapped bun, which is a bit more presentable for public consumption.

[Springlets]

My hair is naturally 3a, edging towards 3b on a humid day. For a long time now, I have preferred a straighter hair style for ease, so here's my routine: I comb my hair as soon as I get out of the shower and every now and then as it dries, I let my hair dry mostly hanging down and free, and only towards the end of the drying process do I put my hair in a ponytail and/or band it down the length. When it is very close to dry, I cinnamon bun it, as well as after wash day, when I feel my hair's style needs to be 'set' again, I just cinnabun it for a few hours, and it smooths it into place. I had similar problems as you did when I would try braiding or bunning it from the beginning where in my hair would take like a day and a half to dry. The process can be speeded up if you let your hair dry in the sun a bit.

I usually just put my hair into a single ponytail and you can see the results in my signature pic and avatar pic (the top is straight like my avatar, with waves on the bottom like in the sig). It's perfect for me, but if you want a straighter style, I suggest putting more bands in during the middle drying process. HTH!

[rhubarbarin]

Thanks so much for the help, everyone! Now I have lots to try. I am only working at night right now so I never have to 'wash and go', thankfully.

[Firefox7275]

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted a hair thread on LHC...

I recently cut thick bangs into my super-dry, fluffy, BSL 2c/M/barely ii hair. I love them, and I use a mini flatiron to style them, which I'm fine with. However, I've been wanting to wear my hair down more with my bangs, and it is fairly curly when air-dried, particularly the parts framing my face, which I don't like the look of so much. I want to relax the curls and waves for a more classic 60s/beach-hair look, but I've never really used conventional haircare methods so don't know the first thing about how! Plus my hair is thin and fragile, I absolutely will not damage my length with a flatiron or hot blow drying (besides any blow-drying in the past has resulted in Bride of Frankenstein hair). And for whatever reason, I absolutely cannot dry it bunned or braided or piled on top of my head and reduce curl that way; it gets all crazy-looking and 'bent' and can't be worn down afterwards.

So, curly/wavy ladies of LHC, how do you make your hair looser/straighter without damaging it? Give me your techniques and products!

More pertinent info: I CO wash only, coconut oil my ends regularly, do not use silicone products as my hair is so dry, and currently use 'natural' oil-based conditioners and gels as leave-ins, usually those designed for dry curly hair. I do not own a brush, comb, or blow-dryer (I'm thinking of getting one with a diffuser as I just moved somewhere with very cold winters) :laugh: I am willing to change all of these things, I just don't know where to start.

Anything that stretches your waves/ curls will be damaging, probably not an issue occasionally but might be regularly given you say you have fragile hair. Wet wrapping is one option, various tutorials on YouTube. My hair is still only armpit, I follow part of the Curly Girl method (conditioner only, leave in conditioner smoothed onto very wet hair) then towel turban in microfibre, paddle brush and tie back wet - either a ponio/ scrunchie in a ponytail (slightly twist the tail, sometimes a second band on the length) or a beak clip in a 'figure 8' type twist, air dry. For me the key is not to take it down and rebrush when damp, that leads to unmanageable pouf, get the entire head section as dry as possible before taking it out for the remaining damp parts under the twist to dry. I usually put it partially back up again until fully dry to reduce pouf, just a different looser up do.

You do get some bends with my method that is inevitable, taking it down at the right point is key to limiting that. Likely you get way less bends with wet wrapping but it's more time consuming and difficult to get dry for very thick or long hair. Leave in conditioner after the towel turban is a disaster, that always means pouf, it has to be before.

[jrmviola]

My sister is my hair oposite, she has fine poofy fuzzy curly hair and alot of it, and until recently it was tailbone length. She uses Tresseme for curly hair and the way she tamed it when it was down was to overload the hair with conditioner. Like use massive amounts (several handfuls.) She combed in shower and usually braided it in a simple braide, but the more weight of conditioner you have, the straighter you hair should be even without any braids. Thats my experience from watching her do her hair...

[tiny squirrel]

2a here. One option are the Giant magnetic rollers. With the big ones you don't get curls, but sleek straight volume. It can be time consuming though, and there is a bit of a learning curve with them. If you decide to try it I advise investing in a box of Giant good quality alligator clips. The little pin curl clips that come in the Conair curler set always snag in my hair. Also, if you roll your hair you get the additional plus of walking around your house looking like this: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMuUXYAO_fzf-2GGS6uDkyjlnnMuBUXeMQOpjNVF4PxzIgEmju

[lapushka]

This one might be helpful to you, even though I guess her hair is curly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKn3WzlrlM

[rhubarbarin]

Thanks for the video, it was helpful to see those techniques in live action.

I've been experimenting a big. Brushing/combing is definitely a no-no for my hair. I have all the body of curly hair, despite being only a wavy, plus my ends are thin and floaty. Combing my hair out turns it into a huge cloud - a wavy cloud, even when it's full of product to weigh down, but still a cloud. No good.

Going to try banding and wrapping now. I think I need to focus on creating 'clumps', I just need to make them big wavy clumps.

[Neecola]

Thanks for the video, it was helpful to see those techniques in live action.

I've been experimenting a big. Brushing/combing is definitely a no-no for my hair. I have all the body of curly hair, despite being only a wavy, plus my ends are thin and floaty. Combing my hair out turns it into a huge cloud - a wavy cloud, even when it's full of product to weigh down, but still a cloud. No good.

Going to try banding and wrapping now. I think I need to focus on creating 'clumps', I just need to make them big wavy clumps.

Any luck rhubarbarin?

[Neecola]

Well, I tried the caterpillar trick using two pigtails last night before bed and suffice it to say it didn't work for me. :rollin: My hair was super frizzy -- maybe I rolled around too much in my sleep. I did do them on top of my head so I had nice root volume for the bun I made today.

[melusine963]

This one might be helpful to you, even though I guess her hair is curly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaKn3WzlrlM

Thank you for sharing this tutorial. I had sadly resigned myself to never having straight hair again (since I've pretty much sworn off heat styling), but I might just give this a try.