A question for wavy girls!!

[sarahthegemini]

A question for wavies: After washing, how can I prevent stringy clumps? Often one side of my hair is fine but the other has stringy clumps which overall make that section look quite messy especially a day or two after washing. I don't use any styling products, I don't like the way they make my hair feel so I just use some leave in conditioner. Any tips to encourage thicker clumps? It's usually just 4 or 5 thin clumps whilst the rest looks fine. TIA!!

Eta: Forgot to add, I apply my conditioner on soaking wet hair. The stringy clumps usually occur on my right side but can occur on the left side too. The clumps aren't greasy but b/c of the stringyness, they can (as well as look messy) also look dirtier than the rest of my hair after a day or two.

[allycat]

Don't neglect the guys at LHC! :)

Sometimes when I'm finger combing my damp hair, i will make the clumps a little bigger and twirl them together while they dry. Kind of hard to explain, but does that make sense? Just carefully make bigger clumps, and then just twirl them a bit as they dry to make larger waves. I don't know if that would help.

[Kherome]

Conditioner works best if you get the majority of the water out of the hair, then apply it, IME.

[sarahthegemini]

Don't neglect the guys at LHC! :)

Sometimes when I'm finger combing my damp hair, i will make the clumps a little bigger and twirl them together while they dry. Kind of hard to explain, but does that make sense? Just carefully make bigger clumps, and then just twirl them a bit as they dry to make larger waves. I don't know if that would help.

My bad, I don't know why I disregarded the males of LHC :o In theory that would work but the reason it wouldn't work for me is b/c my entire head of hair looks stringy until it dries, so it would be impossible to determine what strands will still look stringy once dry. Does that make sense? My hair is such a pain in the rear!


Conditioner works best if you get the majority of the water out of the hair, then apply it, IME.

I'll give that a try next time I wash! :)

[Weewah]

I find the less I touch my hair after the shower, the better my hair clumps together. This is how you can get your waves to stick together without using gel. You detangle in the shower, add whatever leave in and make sure you're completely detangled, and do one last quick rinse to make all of your hair stick together. Then after the shower very gently squeeze excess water out being careful not to break up the hair. Then with your hair towel, gently pat your hair upwards with open palms to help encourage the waves. Then don't touch as you let it air dry.

If you use gel it'll be easier to make the waves clump together without worrying about not touching it as much. Just squeeze the gel upwards into your wet hair, and do the same towel thing as above. The gel will form a cast around each wave as your hair dries.

I hope this helps, my hair gets stringy too.

[Chamomile betty]

After I apply my leave in's and gell I wrap my hair in a cotten tshirt. This seems to help take the extra wettness out so my hair does not get stringy. You will just need to try out some new methods and/or products to see what works.

[Crumpet]

I agree with all of the comments here. Dang it! And I thought my newly-acquired wavy wisdom would come in handy (finally!). Good luck and let us know how it goes!

[Ambystoma]

I have modified this drying method: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=100736 to be just one large ringlet I drape over my shoulder that gets a wide tooth combing first, but that's because I want to relax the wave - if you want to keep it wavier you can use more sections and it's not necessary to comb it out first. Also, definitely try and avoid handling it as it dries since the more you break up the shape, the messier/frizzier/more unevenly clumped it gets. Here are some pics from when I was MBL trying out the technique - I used 4 ringlets here:

This is about 70% dry:
http://i.imgur.com/jwIhT.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/6E1Z7.jpg?1

and here it is dry and combed, tidy but still wavy:
http://i.imgur.com/2Fmom.jpg?2

Hope this helps!

[jupiterinleo]

Sometimes when I'm finger combing my damp hair, i will make the clumps a little bigger and twirl them together while they dry. Kind of hard to explain, but does that make sense? Just carefully make bigger clumps, and then just twirl them a bit as they dry to make larger waves. I don't know if that would help.

I do this too sometimes, when I care about having waves. You could also start gently scrunching your ends when you get out of the shower.

Also, could the culprit be the way you squeegee your hair dry? Maybe those clumps form when you pull your hair over the same shoulder each time and from the way to toss it back towards your back.

[sarahthegemini]

I have modified this drying method: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...d.php?t=100736 to be just one large ringlet I drape over my shoulder that gets a wide tooth combing first, but that's because I want to relax the wave - if you want to keep it wavier you can use more sections and it's not necessary to comb it out first. Also, definitely try and avoid handling it as it dries since the more you break up the shape, the messier/frizzier/more unevenly clumped it gets. Here are some pics from when I was MBL trying out the technique - I used 4 ringlets here:

This is about 70% dry:
http://i.imgur.com/jwIhT.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/6E1Z7.jpg?1

and here it is dry and combed, tidy but still wavy:
http://i.imgur.com/2Fmom.jpg?2

Hope this helps!

Thank you for the idea, the link doesn't appear to be working, is it the method by curly cap? I'll be giving your modified version a try as your hair looks lovely :)


I do this too sometimes, when I care about having waves. You could also start gently scrunching your ends when you get out of the shower.

Also, could the culprit be the way you squeegee your hair dry? Maybe those clumps form when you pull your hair over the same shoulder each time and from the way to toss it back towards your back.

That's definitely something to consider, that hadn't even crossed my mind! Thanks guys!

[lapushka]

I use the WCC method (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=119314) for washing and the LOC method (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=118167) for styling. It's awesome. I now always get a ringlet on my left side because it encourages the waves so much!

[sarahthegemini]

I do this too sometimes, when I care about having waves. You could also start gently scrunching your ends when you get out of the shower.

Also, could the culprit be the way you squeegee your hair dry? Maybe those clumps form when you pull your hair over the same shoulder each time and from the way to toss it back towards your back.

UPDATE I have (for the past few washes) split my hair into two sections when applying the LI (one over each shoulder) as oposed to pulling it all over one shoulder and tossing it back and I've had NO stringy/thin clumps! Thank you so much for bringing that as a possibility to my attention :)

[UP Lisa]

My hair always wants to be in clumps, and trying to get them apart is damaging. I have to use a SOFT brush on my hair, but it is too soft to separate the clumps. So it just looks stringy. Good thing I wear it up all the time.

[blace]

Don't neglect the guys at LHC! :)

Sometimes when I'm finger combing my damp hair, i will make the clumps a little bigger and twirl them together while they dry. Kind of hard to explain, but does that make sense? Just carefully make bigger clumps, and then just twirl them a bit as they dry to make larger waves. I don't know if that would help.

Everything that he said! I used to scrunch my hair after finger combing but twirling everything together gives me so much smoother results. I usually start with two sections (left and right) and then gradually break those up to 4 or 6 as my hair begins to dry. Sometimes I'll lightly re-wet through the process if everything begins to look a bit stringy.

[jupiterinleo]

UPDATE I have (for the past few washes) split my hair into two sections when applying the LI (one over each shoulder) as oposed to pulling it all over one shoulder and tossing it back and I've had NO stringy/thin clumps! Thank you so much for bringing that as a possibility to my attention :)

Yay! Glad I could help.

[jrmviola]

I used to get a dry patch of hair at the back of my nape that was dry and light colored. I Eventually figured out that it was due to the way i applied my conditioner that it was consistently never getting anything. Maybe if you really looked at the way you "mess with" your hair (esp when wet), you can see if that helps you do what you want to make it more/less clumpy.... ? maybe could be the thinner bits are falling between your fingers and the bigger clumps get all the "messed with" (just for an example, i dont actuallly know much about the curly girl method...)

[oatmealpie]

Thank you for the idea, the link doesn't appear to be working, is it the method by curly cap? I'll be giving your modified version a try as your hair looks lovely :)


Here's the link: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=100736