Losing Waves After Washing, Help?

[NikitaJane]

Hi everyone,

I feel like I've been posting here a lot lately, I hope I'm not becoming a nuisance!

Since posting here shortly after joining, I learned that my hair is 2a in texture (see my avatar and profile photo) and that's the way it looks just after washing and air drying overnight.

But if I leave it to air dry during the day, or if I comb it once it's dry (which it often needs, otherwise it just looks messy) then my waves fall out, and by the end of the day my hair is a lot straighter and it doesn't look very nice.

Do any other 2a's have this problem? If so, is there anything that can be done about it?

My hair care routine is in my profile just in case that makes a difference.

Thanks in advance :)

[Jo Ann]

Try to avoid combing/brushing your hair when it's dry. Brushing and combing will cause your waves to lose their definition and shape. Fingercombing won't take most of the wave out. If I want to keep my waves, I don't comb or brush my hair for a couple of days after it's washed.

You can also try LOC/LCO (https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=118167) and avoid doing anything after you put in the products and comb them through.

[Hasse]

The only way I can keep my waves for longer than a day is when I diffuse them dry instead of air drying.

[lithostoic]

You could spritz it with some leave-in conditioner or water after you brush it :) This helps me.

[lapushka]

The thing is... You can't comb or brush or they will be gone, or virtually gone. That's the thing with waves or curls, you can't dry brush, you need to do all that wet. I wet detangle post towel drying, then apply styling products.

Try finger detangling (separating strands to get sheds out, not "combing through with fingers").

Or yes, use a misting bottle like lithostoic is saying!

[Hasse]

Aloe vera gel helps too to preserve waves, IIRC.

[Glitch]

Try to avoid combing/brushing your hair when it's dry.

Bingo! My waves peace out right away when I brush or comb them, leaving with me a strange straight-ish, wavy-ish "but not really" look. OP, you say it looks messy without combing, which I can relate to since I've experienced that a lot, so I really recommend trying out scrunching :D It transforms the randomness/messiness of the waves into a really nice/more defined wavy pattern and there's no more need to comb out anything. I tried scrunching for the first time without really knowing what I was doing, and somehow still ended up with really pretty waves and whirls, so it can really be done! <3

[lithostoic]

Well, I empathize with OP in that my hair looks messy and stringy when left unbrushed. Scrunching makes it worse for me. It also gets really tangly. Some of us NEED to brush our hair. That's why I do it the way I do it :)

[littlestarface]

With our hair type the only way it will look good is if we comb it while its wet with conditioner scrunch it and just let it air dry overnight. The next day its gonna be straighter stringy unless your willing to go through it again is to just accept that hair is just not gonna look good anymore. That's the torture of being a wavy, which is why I cant understand why someone would want to be a wavy at all :rollin:

[Glitch]

Well, I empathize with OP in that my hair looks messy and stringy when left unbrushed. Scrunching makes it worse for me. It also gets really tangly. Some of us NEED to brush our hair. That's why I do it the way I do it :)

Oh wow, sorry to hear! My hair is pretty stringy as well unless I scrunch it, so I guess it depends on multiple factors. Your hair really pretty btw, so whatever you're doing, keep at it ;)

[nycelle]

With our hair type the only way it will look good is if we comb it while its wet with conditioner scrunch it and just let it air dry overnight. The next day its gonna be straighter stringy unless your willing to go through it again is to just accept that hair is just not gonna look good anymore. That's the torture of being a wavy, which is why I cant understand why someone would want to be a wavy at all :rollin:

Yep, pretty much what litterstarface said.

I'm a 2a/2b right after I wash. By the next day I'm a 1c at the most. Nothing I can do unless I want to restart the entire process of re-wet, add conditioner and scrunch yet again. Not worth it for me.

But I am experimenting right now to see if there's a way to make the waves last longer. So far, it's eluded me though.

[lithostoic]

Oh wow, sorry to hear! My hair is pretty stringy as well unless I scrunch it, so I guess it depends on multiple factors. Your hair really pretty btw, so whatever you're doing, keep at it ;)

Aw thank you!

[ravenskey]

I comb and brush my hair because I just don't have the time or patience to finger comb but I've found that running some almond oil through my hair afterwards redefines my waves really well.