Rag curl disaster!!!

[lora410]

Ok I tried rag curls last night and they came out nice and curly by my ends were stickign like velcro. I had to super oil them and comb gently but still got a lot of breakage. What did I do wrong? I made sure my hair was detangled before curling them up.

[spidermom]

My policy is to never comb through curls. Without seeing how you did it, I can't tell you what you did wrong.

[lora410]

My policy is to never comb through curls. Without seeing how you did it, I can't tell you what you did wrong.
I fingercombed to seprate the ringlets. My ends just stuck out and looked ratty.

[Torrin Paige]

One of the best ways to prevent your ends from getting wonky like that is to invest in a box of perm papers or end papers. Like these: http://www.amazon.com/Graham-Jumbo-Papers-Perms-1000ct/dp/B001J9R93W . It really helps to keep your hair from tangling around the curlers and just generally getting jacked up. I never curl my hair without them.

[Svenja]

What did you have in your hair before curling them?

[lora410]

What did you have in your hair before curling them?

There was nothing in my hair

[restourceful]

I agree with Torrin about perm papers. You can make your ends lie flat in the papers without getting all twisty in the curlers and having stragglers hanging out.

[joiekimochi]

Sorry for the threadjack, but how did you manage to actually get your hair curled into the rags in the first place? I've been standing before my mirror for 2 hours with a bunch of old cut-up nylon pantyhose trying to twist ONE section onto a piece of nylon but there's NO WAY I could do it. My hair just keeps slipping out, or ends up being straight while the nylon is twisted around the section.

[Kristin]

I would put a little bit of leave-in conditioner or light oil on the ends before rolling your hair. In the sock curl video on YouTube, the girl leaves the ends of her hair out, which I actually like. Makes it more wavy and less Shirley Temple. ;)

[Lassie]

i cant tell you what you did wrong...only that the exact same thing happened to me every time i tried them.....
pin curls work marginally better......
but my recently discovered curlformers are the bee's knees.....no tangles, perfectly formed curls even curls, no damage..
beside's that the other natural method that has worked well for me is a technique i read on here (not sure who it is or what it is called - maybe someone else will) But you get damp hair and put it all in a pony tail on the top of your head (literally the very top of your head) then divide you hair in to 6-8 sections, and wrap around those soft foam curlers. sleep in them (no issues with comfort as the mound is on the top of your head) and then in the morning you will have beautiful cacasding curls...

[EtherealOde]

I have to agree also about the perm papers, I learned about that here too. It actually makes it a lot easier to put the curls in because the ends go in nicely. Before I do curls I put some homemade fox's conditioner on the ends, it helps keep the ends smooth and soft.

*edit here*
I should have included the link to the recipe, just in case you haven't seen it yet. This stuff is amazing, I use it all the time.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=4586

[Sara_1987]

Well, I sock curl, but I guess it's almost the same.

I do not curl my hair starting from the tip and then rolling up. Instead I put the sock in the middle of the length of my hair and then I wrap the hair itself around it.
I also don't try very hard to get the ends curled up as well. I leave a bit out at the tip.

Hopefully this helps. I have socks in my hair right now!

[Laylah]

I second torrin paige on the perm papers. I don't do rag curls, but I used foam rollers (same concept), and I always wrap the ends in little pieces of tissue paper or cloth. Before curling, I also add something for slip (oil) and shea butter on the ends. Hope that helps!

[Carolyn]

I'm guessing your ends were bent from the way you rolled your hair. You have to either use end papers or be very careful to smooth the ends as you roll. What I do is section off the lock to be rolled, lay the roller/rag curler or whatever about mid way or as far as I can reach on to the lock of hair and roll the bottom length around the roller. Then I roll it the rest of the way up to my scalp and secure it. I don't get a lot of funky ends this way.

[lora410]

Sorry for the threadjack, but how did you manage to actually get your hair curled into the rags in the first place? I've been standing before my mirror for 2 hours with a bunch of old cut-up nylon pantyhose trying to twist ONE section onto a piece of nylon but there's NO WAY I could do it. My hair just keeps slipping out, or ends up being straight while the nylon is twisted around the section.

I used a sock and just curled it like a rolller.

[jasper]

I think it sounds like your ends were rolled too tightly. A thicker rag might help, and also watching how you roll the ends, leaving them out while you roll the main length and then rolling them over the thickness of the hair on the rag.

[Demetrue]

I always use a piece of paper towel or toilet paper as an "end paper" and place the sock/rag higher up on my hair, then curl the bottom up around it several times, keeping the ends tucked in the paper, then curl the whole thing up around where I curled the ends.

[Ivy~Rose]

My rags are long and thick so that I can fold the rag over my ends, and then roll up. I haven't had a problem with tangled ends.

[Ksenia]

If you did what I did when I had my pincurl disaster, the hair was twisted too tight - were the ends like tight corkscrews, looser Shirley Temple-esque ringlets, or wavy? I found that I have to just roll the hair up without twisting it at all, otherwise the hair just hangs straight down as before but now twisted about itself. It's a nightmare to try to straighten that out on long hair. Leaving the last few inches outside of the roll helps too.