Curling waist-length, really fine hair without it frizzing? Is this possible?

[DarleneH]

I'm at my wits' end. When you have hair like spider silk, the things that work for other people just don't for you. For example, doing it all up in a donut and expecting it to be beautiful, tumbling waves when you take it down is setting yourself up for disappointment. When it's all lumped together like that, I think the fineness of it causes it to stick together worse from styling product, and that coarser/thicker stranded hair is able to fall apart more even with styling product. If you can get it to separate at all without destroying what curl you just tried to put in it, then it's frizzy to no end. And those porcupine-like velcro rollers are an abomination. I may next try getting a bunch of non-velcro rollers (I think they're called magnetic rollers, but I'm not sure why), and duck bill clips to hold them in place for a while, and see how that goes. And I'm sure part of my issue is the length, as it's longer than what most people deal with. In the interest of thorough explaining my problem, humidity might've been some of the issue yesterday that drove me to finally asking for help here.

Do any of you have product recommendations and curling methods that work best for hair that is more like spider silk than normal human hair?? Anything at all to try to get full waves and no frizz? Am I just going to have to invest in another hot roller set, which I haven't had in years and years?

[lapushka]

Funny. I was just going to suggest hot rollers, throughout your entire explanation, then I go to the last paragraph and you mention it yourself. LOL. I think that might be the better option.

My mom's hair is as fine as mine is. She uses those rollers with bristle brushes in them. But the key is to moisturize really well before doing a roller set (wet set).

These are the rollers I'm talking about:
https://www.amazon.com/MEDIUM-ROLLERS-Hair-Curlers-Bristles/dp/B0087WY9KA

Get bigger ones for waist length, though, if you are thinking about this; and again, moisturize well. My mom usually does the curl enhancing smoothie by Shea Moisture, then some gel on top, for hold.

It comes out with 0 frizz.

[Crystawni]

DarleneH, does your hair have any curl in it, or is it straight? And how voluminous is it? Sometimes you're fighting a battle of the finies + texture and weight, which can end up giving you sore arms (from manipulation) and not much else.

As Lapushka mentioned, moisture really is the key.

Most hair products are too much for my finies, even the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie (I'm new to it, so still trying to find a way to make it work). I was living in a humid environment for years, too, and found limpness and frizz were a constant. What I find works best is using a cheap Moroccan hair mask that has either macadamia oil extract or argan oil as a leave-in on damp hair (nothing with butters, is waxy or too heavy), and Fruit of the Earth 100% Aloe Vera gel works for some kind of taming and hold without weight and glue-stickiness if used on damp hair. To trap in the moisture and smooth the frizzies once my hair is dry, I use a drop/smear of Argan oil, Garnier Fructis Miraculous Oil, or L'Oreal Extraordinary Oil. My hair is curly/wavy, but I find bun curls from twisted bun styles (where the ponytail of the bun is twisted before wrapping, e.g. cinnabun) are the only things that give me bouncy curls, especially if I've bunned for hours with damp hair (but it takes daaaaays to dry if I do that, and irritates my scalp). For waves, plaits/braids work, especially if left in overnight and again done with damp hair and the above products. But I still find everything drops soon enough, and curlers (and curling/straightening irons) of any kind are an ouchy no-no waste of time. My hair is too fine and weighty (overloaded), yet floaty/webby at the same time. It has its own path that I've learnt to embrace, or, as I have coils, I hit them with a spritz of water (and cupping in my palm, then no manipulation) to let them reform when I want the cascading blanket to get some bounce on.

[lapushka]

DarleneH, does your hair have any curl in it, or is it straight? And how voluminous is it? Sometimes you're fighting a battle of the finies + texture and weight, which can end up giving you sore arms (from manipulation) and not much else.

As Lapushka mentioned, moisture really is the key.

Most hair products are too much for my finies, even the Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie (I'm new to it, so still trying to find a way to make it work). I was living in a humid environment for years, too, and found limpness and frizz were a constant. What I find works best is using a cheap Moroccan hair mask that has either macadamia oil extract or argan oil as a leave-in on damp hair (nothing with butters, is waxy or too heavy), and Fruit of the Earth 100% Aloe Vera gel works for some kind of taming and hold without weight and glue-stickiness if used on damp hair. To trap in the moisture and smooth the frizzies once my hair is dry, I use a drop/smear of Argan oil, Garnier Fructis Miraculous Oil, or L'Oreal Extraordinary Oil. My hair is curly/wavy, but I find bun curls from twisted bun styles (where the ponytail of the bun is twisted before wrapping, e.g. cinnabun) are the only things that give me bouncy curls, especially if I've bunned for hours with damp hair (but it takes daaaaays to dry if I do that, and irritates my scalp). For waves, plaits/braids work, especially if left in overnight and again done with damp hair and the above products. But I still find everything drops soon enough, and curlers (and curling/straightening irons) of any kind are an ouchy no-no waste of time. My hair is too fine and weighty (overloaded), yet floaty/webby at the same time. It has its own path that I've learnt to embrace, or, as I have coils, I hit them with a spritz of water (and cupping in my palm, then no manipulation) to let them reform when I want the cascading blanket to get some bounce on.

I use a couple dollops, finger "pokes" worth, put the dab in the palm of my hand, spread it around and then scrunch it in. Sometimes dabbing once is enough, sometimes I go in for a second time. Mid-lengths down only. This is for classic length. Maybe try that? I don't know what you have all tried before, but you can't use a lot of this product! Especially for F hair!

[spidermom]

I get good curl from sponge rollers. For me, the key is to let the curls fall as they may when you take the rollers out - don't try to comb or brush through them, else super-duper frizz for days.

I also like hot rollers for special occasions but the curl doesn't last as long, and I'm wary of heat, although somewhat comfortable with the fact that I can handle hot rollers with my fingers unlike a curling iron. I won't use one of those!

[lapushka]

My mom's "bristle brush rollers" have a good lasting curl to them. Her hair is APL to APL+ and it holds for more than a week. Now, granted, she has very dry hair, so it doesn't sag as easily.

She did a set today, in fact. For the Holidays. So that is saying something about the lasting power. ;)

[school of fish]

I just saw this thread now.

I have the cobweb hair and know the struggle! Not only is it spider silky and very fine tangly, it's also curl resistant and will not hold any curl with any product in, bar none - I can literally watch it all fall out within minutes of unrolling.

I did discover a way to curl succesfully though and it lies in the way the hair is rolled - it has to be corkscrew spiraled, not rolled on top of itself like in a traditional curler set. Discovering this was a game changer for me.

I use bendy rollers/flexi rods - but rag curls rolled down the length of a strip might be another method. The resulting curl pattern plays nice with the cobweb texture, and it looks just as nice as the curl relaxes out. I roll it dry, then spritz with water and let it dry completely before taking out the rods - bone dry, any amount of water left in will undo all the work. When dried properly the hold from the water spritz is impressive - weird but that's just how my hair rolls!

Hope that can be of some help! :)

[DarleneH]

DarleneH, does your hair have any curl in it, or is it straight? And how voluminous is it? Sometimes you're fighting a battle of the finies + texture and weight, which can end up giving you sore arms (from manipulation) and not much else..

Ok, here's what's so strange: my hair actually has some wave to it. If I do the whole Curly Girl and plopping and scrunching thing, it ends up with waves, but they're not voluminous. They're more hanging close to my head. But when I try to do something that actually adds waves, it just seems to go straight! It's like making an effort destroys the natural bits I want to keep, when I'm trying to enhance them. I'm trying to get it to be both voluminous and wavy, but maybe I'm asking too much.

Thanks, guys. I'm going to look for the products you mentioned, and try the corkscrew spiral setting that "school of fish" detailed.


Odd note: how on Earth did this end up in the "Recipes" forum?? Did I accidentally put this here, or was it moved here for some strange reason? I thought I put it in the Mane forum, and I had a confused time finding it when I came back to check replies.

[Crystawni]

I just saw this thread now.

I have the cobweb hair and know the struggle! Not only is it spider silky and very fine tangly, it's also curl resistant and will not hold any curl with any product in, bar none - I can literally watch it all fall out within minutes of unrolling.

I did discover a way to curl succesfully though and it lies in the way the hair is rolled - it has to be corkscrew spiraled, not rolled on top of itself like in a traditional curler set. Discovering this was a game changer for me.

I use bendy rollers/flexi rods - but rag curls rolled down the length of a strip might be another method. The resulting curl pattern plays nice with the cobweb texture, and it looks just as nice as the curl relaxes out. I roll it dry, then spritz with water and let it dry completely before taking out the rods - bone dry, any amount of water left in will undo all the work. When dried properly the hold from the water spritz is impressive - weird but that's just how my hair rolls!

Hope that can be of some help! :)

Yup! Working with the spirals (I let mine roughly circle into my cupped palm and bounce/scrunch them up towards my scalp in groups) seems to be my best bet, too. I've never had the patience to coil each one individually, and some coil clumps like to change course, but I've found my hair has a clumping/coiling pattern that's been consistent throughout my entire lengthening journey. And I'll second the bit I bolded! Sensitive hair is sensitive! :p


Ok, here's what's so strange: my hair actually has some wave to it. If I do the whole Curly Girl and plopping and scrunching thing, it ends up with waves, but they're not voluminous. They're more hanging close to my head. But when I try to do something that actually adds waves, it just seems to go straight! It's like making an effort destroys the natural bits I want to keep, when I'm trying to enhance them. I'm trying to get it to be both voluminous and wavy, but maybe I'm asking too much.

Thanks, guys. I'm going to look for the products you mentioned, and try the corkscrew spiral setting that "school of fish" detailed.


Odd note: how on Earth did this end up in the "Recipes" forum?? Did I accidentally put this here, or was it moved here for some strange reason? I thought I put it in the Mane forum, and I had a confused time finding it when I came back to check replies.

I think it's the nature of the beast to lack oomph. Mine has no strength, for want of a better word. It prefers to be flyaway. Hair gel and/or mousse back in the 80s, with the strongest hold hairspray from a pressurised spritzer (helmet head anyone?) was the only recipe that gave my hairstyle any staying power. Kind of. But it was stiff and yuck to touch, felt dirty (itchy, even), and any coils were thin and straggly (instead of full and voluminous). Buuuuut, I'm eager to see how you get on with fishie's method! I have a feeling that will be a winner for you!

BTW, I reported the first post to the mods so they can relocate the thread for you. Oh, look, we're all in the Mane forum now. Thanks, modly person in the background! :flowers:


I use a couple dollops, finger "pokes" worth, put the dab in the palm of my hand, spread it around and then scrunch it in. Sometimes dabbing once is enough, sometimes I go in for a second time. Mid-lengths down only. This is for classic length. Maybe try that? I don't know what you have all tried before, but you can't use a lot of this product! Especially for F hair!

Next time I try it, I'm thinking of adding a dollop to my water bottle and spritzing it on. Any more, product wise, and it's too much. Wimpy hair. Bah.

[DarleneH]

You guys sent me down a rabbit hole of looking for tips on doing a spiral set! I have some of those long bendy rods but I thought I'd see what else was out there (and maybe something I could actually sleep on), and after much watching and researching I found this video that looks like something easy to to try:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8o9oExf39k

And a weird type of roller that keeps the strands separate and prevents sticking together: https://www.amazon.com/Magic-Curlers-Styling-curlers-Hairstyles/dp/B08B4SXYJ3/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

I'm trying the robe tie technique in the first video and if that doesn't work out I may purchase the weird rollers. And I can still try the spiraling on the bendy rods too, it'll just have to be not overnight. When I used those previously, I've wrapped the hair on top of itself instead of spiraling it all down the rod, so I was probably using them wrong.

[SnowSpot]

I'm at my wits' end. When you have hair like spider silk, the things that work for other people just don't for you. For example, doing it all up in a donut and expecting it to be beautiful, tumbling waves when you take it down is setting yourself up for disappointment. When it's all lumped together like that, I think the fineness of it causes it to stick together worse from styling product, and that coarser/thicker stranded hair is able to fall apart more even with styling product. If you can get it to separate at all without destroying what curl you just tried to put in it, then it's frizzy to no end. And those porcupine-like velcro rollers are an abomination. I may next try getting a bunch of non-velcro rollers (I think they're called magnetic rollers, but I'm not sure why), and duck bill clips to hold them in place for a while, and see how that goes. And I'm sure part of my issue is the length, as it's longer than what most people deal with. In the interest of thorough explaining my problem, humidity might've been some of the issue yesterday that drove me to finally asking for help here.

Do any of you have product recommendations and curling methods that work best for hair that is more like spider silk than normal human hair?? Anything at all to try to get full waves and no frizz? Am I just going to have to invest in another hot roller set, which I haven't had in years and years?

You've already gotten so many good replies, that's nice. I too have waist length, very thin and quite tangly strands. My natural texture is 1b so there are some clumps - just enough to make it tangle... I don't have much experience with waves, but I too was going to say that the key is the moisture. If my hair is properly moisturised before braiding, it ends up with beautifully smooth braid waves. I think it's the same with rolls. I like to moisturise with a dilute ACV/water mix, it makes the result softer/less frizzy, and it tangles less when combing out the waves.

[DarleneH]

I watched more videos on those Curlformers mentioned previously and saw some struggle with them. I kept watching and researching spiral set possibilities and found this that looks more promising. Order placed! Any of you used these?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-9pM2t_r4

https://www.ebay.com/p/9021682180?iid=253266195083&var=552402562611#UserReviews

[school of fish]

I watched more videos on those Curlformers mentioned previously and saw some struggle with them. I kept watching and researching spiral set possibilities and found this that looks more promising. Order placed! Any of you used these?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi-9pM2t_r4

https://www.ebay.com/p/9021682180?iid=253266195083&var=552402562611#UserReviews

Oh those look intriguing!! I'd pretty much given up looking into any other curl methods since my bendy rods have been the only thing that have given me any success but I just may have to give these a try!!!

Thank you for sharing - looking forward to hearing how they work for you :D

[Chromis]

My hair is not as fine, but it suree does like to frizz! My Mom had an obsession with trying to get my hair to curl when I was younger and all the foam rollers, rod thingies, and whatnot always frizzed like mad before just falling out anyhow.

As an adult when I have played with this I had much better luck with rag curls. Pin curls are another option too if your hair is a more feasible length for it. The faux-pincurls I have tried did give quite a lot of volume when taken out and didn't frizz.

[shelomit]

My mother has extremely, extremely fine hair. The best way she's found to put some curl into it is to put in rag curls. She puts them in as soon as she gets home from work the day she wants to wear them--wets down her hair--puts the rags in--puts on a warm knit cap--and then takes the rags out as late as possible the next day. The curls hold okay for a special occasion, but certainly not as fast as they do in my more textured hair.

I should note, though, that we live in an extremely low-humidity climate. That probably has something to do with keeping the frizz down : /

[SwanFeathers]

I think a little frizz is inescapable with fine hair. I use spiral rag curls (NOT the shirly temple kind) with just a touch of leave in. I can usually get several days worth of curls from a wet set, but I do this infrequently because my frail hair hates it.

[Bat]

As someone who has coarse hair mines always a frizzy mess at the roots a frizz control stuff does nothing

[school of fish]

Just thought I'd add a little detail about the spiral wrapping I do with the flexi-rods (I also remember doing similar wrapping with rag curls as a teenager).

My signature pic at the bottom of this post shows the result. This was done with 4 rods, 10"/25cm long and 0.75"/2cm in diametre. I parted the hair down the centre, then parted each side lengthwise once again for 4 equal sections. For each section I laid a roller vertically close to the roots and then wrapped the section downward in a spiral, keeping a touch of space between each wrap. I secured the ends with a mini claw clip and then twisted the roller into a kind of doughnut shape to secure close to my head.

To take them out - one by one I carefully untwisted the doughnut, removed the clip and let the coil slide down the end of the roller. To seperate the sections I flipped my head gently forward and back to shake out the curls. Any brushing or combing will make it frizz so at most I might gently seperate stubborn sections lightly with my fingers - not usually necessary though.

I've also done this many times with just 2 of these rollers but the curls have a bit less definition. I'm sure additional rollers would give added dimension and spiral effect. I personally don't much enjoy styling or fussing with my hair so the 4 rollers are enough for me to get a curl I like while spending minimal time and effort setting it.

You can get different effects with different sectioning, different barrel sizes on the rollers, etc.

[DarleneH]

Thank you for the super helpful detail, school of fish!! After reading your reply, I just took a measuring tape to my bendy rods and they're the exact size as yours. What I had been doing in the past was piling my hair on top of hair as I was wrapping, so what you described is definitely different (wrap in a downward spiral, bit of space between each wrap) and is probably what I need to do. I wouldn't have thought to add a mini claw clip to hold the ends down, so I hope I have some large enough to do that on these curlers.

I don't really enjoy styling or fussing with my hair either, and this is for the rare occasion I want it a little spiffier looking. :) The plush ones I mentioned above ordering haven't come in yet, so I'll be trying your technique and these when they get here, along with some of the products the other girls mentioned. Thanks, bunches!

[school of fish]

Thank you for the super helpful detail, school of fish!! After reading your reply, I just took a measuring tape to my bendy rods and they're the exact size as yours. What I had been doing in the past was piling my hair on top of hair as I was wrapping, so what you described is definitely different (wrap in a downward spiral, bit of space between each wrap) and is probably what I need to do. I wouldn't have thought to add a mini claw clip to hold the ends down, so I hope I have some large enough to do that on these curlers.

I don't really enjoy styling or fussing with my hair either, and this is for the rare occasion I want it a little spiffier looking. :) The plush ones I mentioned above ordering haven't come in yet, so I'll be trying your technique and these when they get here, along with some of the products the other girls mentioned. Thanks, bunches!

Wonderful! Crossing my fingers for your success - hopefully you'll find the magic formula with one or a combo of the suggestions throughout the thread :D