Best braid to loosen curls

[sonianevermind]

I have tight 3b/c curls that I'd like to loosen up once in a while without using heat. I've been looking around on the net but to no avail, I could only find information about curling straight hair. So are there any curlies who have succesfully created braid waves on their hair and if you have could you maybe post some pictures ? Thanks in advance ^^

[Unicorn]

@sonianevermind, braid waves work for curly hair also. To make loose waves, comb (finger comb?)through and redo a few times while the hair is drying. This makes for a looser wave. It's worth doing the basic braid wave first to see how tight a curl/wave this gives to your hair. When I had loose hair, I used to rebraid about once every 2 hours, with the final braiding done when the hair was barely damp. This loosed my curls effectively, to make them soft waves.

Unicorn

[lapushka]

Why not do twist outs (tiny ropebraids all over)? I think they can be wonderfully effective. Mind you, I don't have 3 hair.

[samanthaj08]

Mine aren't quite as tight as yours.. only in the 2b/2c area, but I do a couple of tight braids for a bit then twist it all really tight until it coils around itself and leave that for some time. It straightens it out to the point of being a very slight wave.

[cranberrymoonz]

I recommend double dutch braids, because it gives a nice distribution of braid waves througout the hair. Worth a try:)

[Yozhik]

Hmm...maybe rope braids? (I guess I'm seconding the twist outs idea)
When I used to make twin rope braids, they'd give me very loose waves with curls at the ends.

[TiaKitty]

I use rope braids and bantu knots for my curly girl daughter. I use a big bantu knot on top of my head at night, and it smooths out my wurlies.

[chen bao jun]

I find twist outs to be not worth the trouble for 3c hair, which loosens up very effectively with a lot less work than that.
When my hair is damp after washing with leave in conditioner already applied, I just do 4 or 5 larger dutch braids (cornrows if you will) and leave them in my hair until its dry.
Voila, much looser curls.
I do 3 little braids in my bangs and get a kind of Greek effect in front. Like the cretan wall paintings.
If I want my hair to keep curling, I use some homemade flax gel, because the braids are so effective that my hair will straighten out completely if I do this 2 or 3 days in a row, which is fine for updoes, but not for wearing out (if you like your curls).
I can also get the same effect by just crownbraiding a dutch braid around my head when its wet. I can wear that a couple of days and when I take it down, loose waves/curls.
But as I said, it doesn't keep for more than a day. At night, if I don't rebraid, it tangles and if I do, it gets even looser with the result that 'the curl is gone' (as I state above).

[chen bao jun]

Not a lot of info out there about 3c hair, I find.
I've had to do trial and error.
I find that my hair behaves very differently from types 3a and 3b (I may have some 3b in there, but when its mixed with 3c it behaves differently) so that I can't really do pure curly girl, the classic stuff as written up by Lorraine Massey.
But my hair also behaves really differently from type 4 hair and the things recommended for that hair type (braid outs, twists out) are at best pointless and at worst give me greasy stringy looking hair.
The best resource I've found so far is Teri LaFLesh with the tightly curly method. She recommends this for many different hair types but it works particularly well for 3c and especially for those 3cs who spent a lifetime with frizz that was being treated as if it was type 4 hair. IN the black community especially people can usually see that 3b is not type 4 but they often think 3c is type 4. Old-style people thought it 'needed' to be relaxed (with the usual disastrous results of relaxing ANYBODY) and the new naturalistas recommend a lot of techniques which are pointless or just simply don't work or look nice. I have had type 4's give me all kinds of well meant but really bad advice. Several times I have been told that my hair is clearly 'heat-damaged' when it doesn't react as type 4 hair would to certain things--and I haven't had heat near my hair for many years! I like reading the natural hair boards for the feeling of support and solidarity and sometimes I read useful things, but you really have to be careful, I find.
also, the hair typing system is not set in stone. Another thing to be aware of is that many, many people call themselves '3c' and their hair is not necessarily like mine. I have seen people with much looser curls claiming this label as well as people with much tighter. for all I know, they may be right! and I may have the wrong label. but I like to look at the person's photos before even trying their advice.
(of course I can't post photos here yet, due to technological ignorance, so you might also like to be careful about taking MY advice.)

[CurlyCap]

3b/3c here.

I don't know how I feel about braids loosening my curl pattern.

Yes, English braids and ropes will break the curl pattern and result in a looser "curl" or waves. However, the broken curls are much more prone to frizz or to being angered by some handling. So I don't particularly enjoy the result of braiding my hair or twisting it to loosen it. I prefer to wear my hair down and resiliency of the style is important to me. My hair is already semi-unpredictable; I don't want to give up what predictability I can get!

However, I have found that sleeping on slightly damp hair will result in squashed curls, which form more of an Z-pattern than a corkscrew. To do this, I just don't flip my hair over my pillow. A few hours after waking up, the Z-pattern can loosen into S-waves that retain clumping. For me, it's a happy medium.

[Natalia]

I have zero experience with this as I don't have curls but I imagine a fishtail braid would be good at reducing curl pattern.

[sonianevermind]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll definitely try the rope braid and Dutch braid when I have some time as those seem to be the most popular choices. My hair is pretty thick so would 2 braids be enough or would 4 braids be better?



Not a lot of info out there about 3c hair, I find.
I've had to do trial and error.
I find that my hair behaves very differently from types 3a and 3b (I may have some 3b in there, but when its mixed with 3c it behaves differently) so that I can't really do pure curly girl, the classic stuff as written up by Lorraine Massey.
But my hair also behaves really differently from type 4 hair and the things recommended for that hair type (braid outs, twists out) are at best pointless and at worst give me greasy stringy looking hair.
The best resource I've found so far is Teri LaFLesh with the tightly curly method. She recommends this for many different hair types but it works particularly well for 3c and especially for those 3cs who spent a lifetime with frizz that was being treated as if it was type 4 hair. IN the black community especially people can usually see that 3b is not type 4 but they often think 3c is type 4. Old-style people thought it 'needed' to be relaxed (with the usual disastrous results of relaxing ANYBODY) and the new naturalistas recommend a lot of techniques which are pointless or just simply don't work or look nice. I have had type 4's give me all kinds of well meant but really bad advice. Several times I have been told that my hair is clearly 'heat-damaged' when it doesn't react as type 4 hair would to certain things--and I haven't had heat near my hair for many years! I like reading the natural hair boards for the feeling of support and solidarity and sometimes I read useful things, but you really have to be careful, I find.
also, the hair typing system is not set in stone. Another thing to be aware of is that many, many people call themselves '3c' and their hair is not necessarily like mine. I have seen people with much looser curls claiming this label as well as people with much tighter. for all I know, they may be right! and I may have the wrong label. but I like to look at the person's photos before even trying their advice.
(of course I can't post photos here yet, due to technological ignorance, so you might also like to be careful about taking MY advice.)

Last year I tried the CG method but it made my hair fall out like crazy so I quit but the Tightly Curly method looks like it might actually work, I'm a bit sceptical about leaving conditioner in my hair though...

[chen bao jun]

Last year I tried the CG method but it made my hair fall out like crazy so I quit but the Tightly Curly method looks like it might actually work, I'm a bit sceptical about leaving conditioner in my hair though...
Yeah, I was sceptical, too but once I tried it I was sorry that i hadn't before.
There are recommended conditioners on the site, many have cones but she also recommends some conefree for those who want to go that. the conditioners recommended all have a lot of 'slip'. I use somewhat less product that she recommends, but you can see what works for you.