Drying curly / wavy hair

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I want to promote my curl pattern and fight frizz!
how do you guys dry your hair?
Plopping?
Air drying?
Diffusing?
Do all 3???
Ive actually seen a youtuber that does this. She uses a mesh wig cap to kind of “plop” her hair on top of her head, so it’s being air dryed and “plopped”.
Then after like an hour or two she will diffuse once the hair is like 80% dry.

Her curls are amazing.
so do any of you curlies and wavies dry your hair in a certain way?
or with certain things?

[paulownia]

Plopping never worked for me. Any styling method involving not combing results in my hair being a hot mess. I might as well wash it again;)
I comb my hair while still wet after the wash, apply some leave-in (not always, it depends how my hair feels, sometimes I skip leave-in) I scrunch in some mousse or gel and let my hair air dry.
Diffusing works pretty good, I do it when I really need get my hair dry fast. But it's not often.

[littlestarface]

I think your talking about penny, I follow her ways too. I love how she shows to smooth it and then scrunch it.

[Alibran]

Before looking at drying methods, the two things that make the biggest difference to curl pattern are moisture/protein balance and layers.

The better moisturised your hair is, the more it will curl, which sounds counter-intuitive because well moisturised hair is heavier, and you'd think it would pull the curl out, but it doesn't. I think there's some kind of science to it, and there might be a post about it on the science-y hair blog, but this is something I've just known for a long time, so I don't remember where the knowledge came from.

Hair that is low in protein will look stringy and limp. Hair that is high in protein will look frizzy and dry.

To check the moisture/protein balance of your hair, take a single, dry hair and stretch it between your fingers and thumbs.

- If it stretches a little, then immediately shrinks back when you release it, your moisture/protein balance is just right. Continue with your current routine and products.
- If it stretches and doesn't shrink back when you release it, it's low in protein. Add protein treatments to your routine, or switch to products containing (more) protein.
- If it breaks rather than stretching, it's low in moisture and/or high in protein. Add moisture treatments to your routine, and consider switching to products containing less protein

Layers are obvious - once hair gets longer, it pulls out the curl nearer the root, so layers show more curl - but that's down to personal choice.

As for drying, I start the 'styling' process when I'm still under the shower. I flip my head upside down under the water (hair is clean and rinsed by this time) so the water is pouring through my hair. Then I turn off the water, grab a handful of leave in, and start scrunching it into my sopping wet hair. (Whether this will work for you depends on your hair. Mine takes moisture better when it's wet, so I add moisture when it's as wet as possible.) Use as much leave in as your hair will allow without drying greasy and limp. I keep scrunching until my hair stops dripping, then scrunch in whatever other stuff I'm putting in it (some coconut oil, and usually a CG-friendly gel or mousse in summer) Then I lightly finger comb (still upside down) to smooth out the scrunched mess I've made and wrap it in a towel.

After about 10 minutes (as long as it takes until I'm dressed - I don't time it), I get my dryer ready, and flip my head upside down again and remove the towel. I diffuse on medium heat until my hair is dry enough that it won't start dripping again as the water works its way out of the roots. My method is:

- With the dryer off, I gather some ends of hair into the diffuser (trying to avoid touching it with my hands), and move the dryer toward my head, gathering in the length until its all gathered against my head.
- Turn the dryer on and hold it there for up to a minute (or less, if it starts to feel uncomfortably warm).
- Turn off the dryer before letting the hair drop.
- Repeat with another section of hair.

It takes about 20 - 30 minutes to get my hair dry enough that I'm happy to air dry the rest of the way. I give my head a shake (still upside down) to make sure all the hair I gathered up has dropped down again, then flip my head up so it falls down my back. Then I leave it alone until it's dry.

[lapushka]

I normally towel dry for 20/30 min., then airdry in clips, one clip to each side, then the rest "log rolled up loosely" (so, also the length) for 2-4H and then I blast a diffuser through it for 5 min. since that is all it takes to get the roots fully dry.

This week I air dried, though, so full air dry up in clips for the remainder of the day. Some parts of my hair (where the clips had been and where the hair was "bunched up" a bit) were still dampish when I went to bed. I did change the "style" and clipped differently halfway through. I half thought to put the diffuser through, but it wasn't that damp at all, so I went to bed.

[Margarita]

I let it air-dry, putting always first mousse and scrunch a bit as well as finger-combing. I dont use any heat tools anymore! :D

[Emma Rose]

I usually just airdry, or if I’m feeling fancy I’ll put my hair up in twists and let it dry that way, I get lovely tight curls doing that

[Reservechic]

i have only ever tried two methods when it comes to drying my hair- diffusing and air drying. I Bly tried diffusing my curly hair once and it resulted in giving me very noticeable shrinkage to my curls and I felt like it was sucking moisture out of my hair, a. It too much for my liking. Not all blow dryers are made alike of course, and I honestly don't even remember the quality of the blow dryer that I used to diffuse my hair with, so it could have been the diffuser that I was using along with my not actually knowing how to correctly diffuse my hair in the first place.

I did a few months back purchase a very high quality blow dryer with attachments, which does include a diffuser, so I do plan to give diffusing my hair dry another try definitely before the year is out. However, I do plan to watch videos on how to correctly diffuse my hair dry, so that I end up doing it correctly this second go around.

When it comes to air drying my curly hair, I first will say that my hair doesn't have a very defined curl pattern naturally. When it comes to frizz, well, I don't have major issues with frizz, unless I happen to use a product that is not a good match for my hair. Otherwise, I don't have any major issues with frizz. Throughout my hair wash day routine, I never remove any water from my hair, as I like to keep my hair wet as I move from cleansing my hair (I currently co-wash my hair) all the way through styling it. On wash day, when I apply my styling product go my hair (which currently is a moisturizing styling cream), I apply it onto very soaking wet hair, as I don't remove any of the water from my hair, and I apply product in small sections to my hair, detangling as I go along, with my Denman brush, and then lastly I just let my hair air dry. Currently, it takes my hair between 4-5 hours to be 100% dry. Which is why, I mainly prefer to wash my hair very early in the morning most times, and while my hair is air drying I never touch it. I have learned to only put my hands in my hair when it is needed. Otherwise over manipulation of my hair with my fingers or playing with my hair too much with my fingers must surely will result in my hair showing signs of frizz to it.

No, I've never plopped my hair dry. As, it's just never been an option that I know that my hair would honestly like. Now, my curl pattern is definitely on the looser side, plus my hair is fine textured, of high porosity, and of low density. Most products don't give me super defined curls, they just naturally enhance the existing curl pattern that I already have. The only products that give my curls more of a really defined look are certain styling gels that I have tried. However, my hair can't handle having styling gel used on it on a very frequent basis, because they eventually start to cause my hair to feel drier over time. Which is why, I am more partial to using creams in my hair to style my hair with. They keep my naturally curly hair well moisturized, shiny, soft, nicely defined (but no they don't give my curls the appearance of a super defined, tighter curlier look to them-which I am totally fine with), I don't have to worry about split ends or problems with tangles either., and I hardly have any shedding. Plus, the cream that I currently use now in my hair, I can actually use that all year round in my hair with no problems, even though it does have glycerin in it.

Is the CG Method supposed to noticeably promote much greater curl enhancement to naturally textured hair? Just asking because I have been exclusively on the CG Method for a few months now, and I haven't noticed greater curl enhancement to my hair, but once again, my hair is fine textured and my curls naturally fall limp.

[lapushka]

I happen to think that a lot depends on your own hair, and the texture it has. You can't create much more than what you have, no matter what method, that is what I've learned after all these years.

I didn't see a difference between air drying & diffusing yesterday. Air dried for the first time in a long long time and it wasn't dry at about 1AM when I washed it at 10/11AM, so you can see how long it takes.

I can no longer plop with this length as it will undoubtably dry in knots and mats. It is FTL so the method I use (clipping up to dry) works the best for my purposes.

You just have to experiment a bit with it and see what method you like.

[spidermom]

I like to keep things simple. Lately I've been getting good results from washing, conditioning, then wrapping my hair in a flannel pillowcase long enough to get rid of the drip. Then I bend forward with my hair falling toward the floor and work a thumbnail-size blob of curl cream through the length, comb, then flip back upright and comb again, then air dry. This has really been helping my waves and curls to clump together rather than separating out into single hairs floating around my head, creating a cloud of shapeless frizz.

[*Wednesday*]

I'm wavy and air dry, I'm lazy. When winter comes and I plan on an occasion to wear it down, I'll sleep with sponge rollers (with damp almost dry hair) for large smooth curls.

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I happen to think that a lot depends on your own hair, and the texture it has. You can't create much more than what you have, no matter what method, that is what I've learned after all these years.

I didn't see a difference between air drying & diffusing yesterday. Air dried for the first time in a long long time and it wasn't dry at about 1AM when I washed it at 10/11AM, so you can see how long it takes.

I can no longer plop with this length as it will undoubtably dry in knots and mats. It is FTL so the method I use (clipping up to dry) works the best for my purposes.

You just have to experiment a bit with it and see what method you like.

My issue is I hate feeling wet hair touching me.
Lol it’s weird but I really don’t like it at all.

I just notice a huge difference in my curl pattern when I
- dry with a micro fiber turban
Vs
- air drying
Vs
- putting all the hair into a plastic cap and letting it kind of sit on top of my head to try (thinking of getting the wig cap just to make the drying process quicker)

The last method gave me the most defined curls
My curl pattern is starting to turn more curly than wavy in some areas
But it really depends on products too.
My curls are more defined when I use protein/devacurl than when I use moisture products

Every head is different, I don’t think there’s one right or wrong answer
Which is why I asked for everyone’s methods

[nycelle]

My routine is so basic these days. By going sulfate and silicone free, my waves have definitely improved, but the overall look is way messier than when my hair was closer to a 1b/1c. I know I can fix this by cutting in layers and such, but I don't want to.

So what I do is either lowpoo and condition (usually with protein free products), or cowash with a protein free conditioner. I rinse everything out, put my hair up in a microfiber towel for 15 minute to half an hour, take it down and let it dry naturally.
I may add a leave-in, or a curl enhancer, or absolutely nothing. It just depends on how my hair is drying.

Diffusing just doesn't work for me, never has. It causes frizz so I avoid it like the plague.
Putting my hair in Princess Leia looking twists gives me decent waves, but I don't always have the time for that either. Anyway, that's more or less it for me.

The only consistent thing in my routine is being SLS and silicone free, and using very moisturizing products.

[spitfire511]

Hey Nycelle - if you don’t mind sharing (slightly OT) what products are you using that are protein free? I’m struggling finding ones I like and am pretty sure I need them!

[lithostoic]

I don't belong here at all but I just scrunch my damp, prepped hair into a big bun and leave it overnight to enhance the wave. Plopping doesn't really work for me because I think I'm done and my roots are still soaked with wet hair and bone dry ends. It doesn't dry evenly when there's something covering it. That's why I like the bun c: Just thought some more textured hair could benefit from this too!

[nycelle]

Hey Nycelle - if you don’t mind sharing (slightly OT) what products are you using that are protein free? I’m struggling finding ones I like and am pretty sure I need them!

Hey there Spitfire.

For my cowash- I use Klorane Mango Butter conditioner. Love it. It leaves my hair clean with decent moisture.

When I shampoo (lowpoo), I use either Briogeo Matcha + Apple Replenishing shampoo and the matching conditioner, or Briogeo's Rosarco Repair conditioner which is extremely moisturizing.
I switch that out with the Curlyworld Sham-free cleanser, and their Terms & Conditions conditioner.

The Briogeo shampoo and the Curlyworld conditioner do contain Panthenol, but my hair doesn't react to it the way it does to a true protein. Could be because they're low on the ingredient list though.

I get protein when I deep condition with Briogeo's Don't Despair Repair! mask. It contains hydrolyzed keratin, but it's in the middle of the ingredient list so again, not enough of it for my hair to react.

The products are expensive, but they're totally worth it to me. There has been a huge difference in my hair since I started using Briogeo back in March or April. I'm also on a ban as I have enough products to last me well into next year.

[spitfire511]

Yay!! Thank you Nycelle. I will give them a try! Supermarket stuff just isn’t getting it done these days!

[nycelle]

Yay!! Thank you Nycelle. I will give them a try! Supermarket stuff just isn’t getting it done these days!

No problem. Hope they work as well for you!