Hair type changed! Help a new 2a/b??

[HairFanson]

Hi there!
I recently moved from an extreme dry climate, to one with lovely sea air and after being a 1a/b literally my entire life, I am suddenly dealing with serious 2a/b wavy "craziness" :confused:.

Clearly, everything I "know" about caring for my hair is irrelevant because it is extremely unhappy without heat! I avoid heat styling as I do bleach my hair (gently and by a professional- love OLAPLEX!)

I've started plopping at night, and forget blowdry/diffusing because I have a TON of hair and my arms are not up to that!

I've been mostly co-washing forever, and only use Jojoba and Argan oil on my hair (coconut oil makes my hair brittle and crunchy).

I have no idea how to care for and style this new texture! The back is definitely a 2b, with a few ringlets in the very bottom. The top/Front is a 1c-2a kind of straightish and not at all cohesive with the rest of my head. :confused::mad:

Any tips? Ideas? Products? Methods to control the madness? LOL

Greatly appreciated. :p

[MadHouseWitch]

Things my DD does
braids at night, washes at night is she is going to wash
doesn't wash daily
coconut oil
and she has henna ends

BUT hers is more a 2a I'm thinking maybe a 1c she braids A LOT so that may be her big help there!
then again she's never had to try to have pretty hair *sigh*

[Wusel]

I'd leave it like it is. This "head-craziness" sounds pretty to me. :)
Just some oil, that would be it for me if I were you.:)

[Arctic]

How exciting!

I'd advice you to first and foremost to start a hair blog. There you can write down your challenges, product experimenting and things that work or don't work. Over time you will start to see patterns, and will learn to understand your new hair on a deeper level that no internet stranger can do for you.

Second advice is: patiece. It takes time to get used to the new type. It took me couple of years and mentally even more.

Do you suffer from frizz?
Define maddness. Do you have any particular problems?
Do you wear your hair down a lot? Up?

For the little info you already gave, it actually sounds like your hair is pretty happy :) Having different textures in one head is normal, so there might not be much other than wet setting the straigter parts, or just let them be. If you don't have any particular problems, I think you might just need to get used to it.

[Anya15]

It's totally normal I think. My hair went from 2a/2b to 1c and then back to 2b/2c in the span of eight-ten months. :hmm:

I think your hair is happy. Like Arctic said, you can start a hair blog and keep track of your experiments with different products. If you want to define your waves maybe you can use some styling products.

[HairFanson]

Thanks everyone!

I did some experimenting and have almost found wavy-nirvana, LOL

Moisture, Moisture and more Moisture! I've started putting a leave in conditioner in after washing, and then I put it up at night (Plopping, I guess it's called).
Lo and behold, those front sections aren't quite as straight as the rest, but they were more dry and this was affecting the wave pattern. Who knew?

Also, I learned to use my curling iron to define some areas that get a little weird, I just clamp on at the root, release, flip over and clamp the next section, and repeat to the tip. Holding for about 2 seconds and following the natural pattern. This blends in those odd pieces that seem to have less wave or have been smushed in the plopping process.

So far, it's been nice only having to spend about 5 minutes tidying up my hair, and I'm hoping that it will grow better since I'm not fighting my hair anymore. Frizz is almost non-existent since I'm not breaking my wave pattern.

I will think about keeping a blog, I'm just not sure how long I would remember to actually update it, I suck at things like that! LOL