Help me get curls

[Gardezbien]

Ok. I love to sleep. I can't do that well in curlers or rags.

Talk me me out of a perm - cause it will dry me out and I will loose my BSL hair for sure.

On day two it's dry and nasty straight. A frizzy straight. And sometimes even in summer I get static despite living in a humid summer area.

But it when it's wet.. It's very curly and wavy. Is there anything I can use to lock that smoothness and curl in?!

I feel so confident when it's boingy and curly.
But when it hangs straight .. I feel like batty Hatty from Cincinnati.

Maybe be its my style?
Maybe I need a style. ( I went back in November and she styled it.. But she flat ironed it. Looked great when I left but was never able to reproduce it and do NOT want to use heat on my hair.)

I will try to upload pictures if that will help.

[Gardezbien]

Ps.. I really need some ideas that I will feel comfortable and confident with.

I hate the standard pony.

[endersworld]

What kind of rag curls have you tried? I've found that torrinpaige's method works really well, and it's not too hard to sleep in if you position the curls well! I normally do 4 (in front of both ears, and in the back corners of my head) and that makes it pretty easy to sleep on no matter how I lay. The curls last for days.

[Anje]

If it's curly and wavy wet, I'll bet you can coax it into staying that way! No rollers or anything, just altering how you handle it and maybe some leave-ins.

Mind you, I'm going off stuff I've read -- my hair isn't wavy enough to really get this sort of thing to work. You'll want to check out some curly hair tutorials, like the book Curly Girl and the associated Naturally Curly website.

The basic thing if you want your wavy/curly hair to stay that way, is that you're going to want to wash it, comb it out in the shower full of conditioner, maybe work some gel or leave-ins through it, and then DON'T TOUCH IT. (OK, if you want to tie a T-shirt around it to help it dry, that's probably OK. If you sort of dive at the T-shirt so your hair piles up into curls before you tie it on [aka "plopping" your hair], you can encourage a bit more.) Let it airdry or diffuse it so that those damp waves stay put, and then don't comb/brush them out. If you need to put your hair up, don't comb it first. If it's a bit flat the next day, spritz it with water and try to encourage the waves to happen again, reactivating the gel in the process. Still don't comb it -- you want it to stay clumpy.

Usually, more and heavier conditioning is good for encouraging curls. They thrive on moisture. Comb your hair when it's saturated in conditioner, minimize your handling otherwise to keep frizz at bay. That's pretty much all there is to it, if your hair has some curl to it already.

[Gardezbien]

Ender - I'll look into that.. Torrinspaige ...... I have tried rags from tee shirts .. Some twisty thing , making curls with no rollers ( cocoon curls) . Those foam things with wire in them. I'll try the positioning. Maybe I am just doing it wrong.

Anje - yes Plopping does work. It worked much better before I let the stlylist cut in layers :(
Spritzing does not seem to help.. But it could be that I am simply NOT using enough product in the first place.
I'll try both these things and see what happens.

Thanks !

[FallingDarkness]

Hey, I've found that doing two rope braids (starting at the scalp tho) is effective for getting curls. Just braid when your hair is still slightly damp, untwist in the morning, and tada!

[Laur]

Another not-quite-curly here. So I found that following the curly girl method (no brushing or combing, lots of conditioner, a fairly strong-hold gel, plopping and then diffusing on low heat with the tops clipped up or upside-down) really REALLY helped my hair. Also, using a tiny bit of oil - and I do mean a TINY bit - as a leave-in before I put the gel in my hair. I do use a really moisturizing sulfate free shampoo, because my scalp is too oily for a true curly routine, but only on my scalp, and I use the CWC method.

Experiment with different techniques for a few weeks before you give up on something, and if you can, try an SMT or other highly moisturizing treatment 1-2 times a week for awhile. If your hair is like mine was, it is going to need a lot of moisture.

It also took awhile for my hair to really "bounce back" and get enough moisture in it to be sproingy - and even then I still have weird stringy hair days. It's the nature of this hair texture. That said, my hair type is hard to determine (I did the "hair type test" where you let your hair air dry without combing or touching it... and just got weird vaguely-wavy frizz), but on a good hair day, this is what it looks like without too much prompting: https://www.flickr.com/photos/justoneanna/24423094742/in/dateposted-public/ - fairly straight on top, wavy throughout, with little spirals at the bottom.

[Entangled]

Seconding Torrinpaige's rag curls. Instead of wrapping hair on itty bitty rags, you wrap the hair around a long rag, so it gives the effect of barrel-curled hair.

ETA:
Here's the tutorial:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ZgOhopgL8

[Phanaferous]

For ease of sleeping in rag curls or flexi-rods (those foam tubes with wires in them), you can put them in the bottom half of your length only. That way when you lay your head down, you can be comfy because your crown hair is not in the curler.

I have no advice for naturally wavy hair, but when I do use rag/ bandana/ flexi-rod curls, I add a half drop of argan oil blend to each section before wrapping it. It seems to help the curl stay for a day or two.

[lapushka]

I'll link the tutorial by Torrin here directly. I just love this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0NMLSUICp4

[Nadine <3]

When I use rollers I put a pony tail on the top of my head with a scrunchie (loosely so you don't make dents in your hair. Those don't look nice) the spray the pony till it's damp and roll chunks of hair in rollers or flexi rods, or rags. Just don't use something to small. This method works with large curls, but you will have a horrible fro if you use small rollers. I know because I tried it and it was horrible lol

Anyways, putting them up on top of your head makes a sort of beehive bun thing out of rollers that you can easily sleep in because all the rollers and hair are piled above you on the pillow.

[Gardezbien]

Loving this. Thank you. I tried Torrins method and it worked ok.. Still did not sleep terribly comfy. But I found if I flip over and basically make two unicorn horns LOL then it works! Lots of volume

[Gardezbien]

When I use rollers I put a pony tail on the top of my head with a scrunchie (loosely so you don't make dents in your hair. Those don't look nice) the spray the pony till it's damp and roll chunks of hair in rollers or flexi rods, or rags. Just don't use something to small. This method works with large curls, but you will have a horrible fro if you use small rollers. I know because I tried it and it was horrible lol

Anyways, putting them up on top of your head makes a sort of beehive bun thing out of rollers that you can easily sleep in because all the rollers and hair are piled above you on the pillow.

This is an awesome idea ! Thank you!