WHY so much frizz??

[gi2121]

I don't understand. My hair is slightly wavy (bone straight as a child, for some strange reason it decided to change its way :rolleyes:) and I have a ton of frizzies all around my head, creating the dreaded "halo". But it's not baby hairs, it's "regular" hair that just frizzes and sticks out. I thought this was just a curly hair thing.
Both when I S&D and CO, that happens. It gets better on the second day, when the hair begins to be oily, but never disapears completely (unless I don't wash my hair until it turns a ball of grease).
Could it be that my hair is wavier than I think it is and I'm not following the right routine? Or is my hair just a freak? Any suggestions?? This stupid halo drives me nuts :mad:.

[Heidi_234]

I think you are wavier than you assume. I've seen a lot of people complain about frizz galore discover that they actually have curly hair. If I brush my hair out when it dries and bun it, it's fairly straight looking but frizzy.

[spidermom]

I've got a combination of straight hairs, wavy hairs, and curly hairs, and the curly hairs give me quite a halo. Using some kind of gel helps the curly hairs to clump together rather than each hair going its own way. I also use some kind of styling putty, pomade, or wax to smooth down my halo for up-dos.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c79/spidermom/firstday.jpg (this is without anything to control frizz)

[Arctic_Mama]

I have terrible halo frizz, corkscrew 3a curls that grow out and straighten under the weight of my hair as they lengthen. I either pin them back with bobby pins or just ignore them!

[gi2121]

Arctic_Mama: my frizzies are not whole curls but separate hairs that frizz each their own way :mad:.

spidermom: i think my halo is similar to yours (but my waves are larger, in the sense that bigger portions of hair "wave" together, though my hair is much shorter - shoulder length - which helps the wave I guess)... I thought about using some kind of product too but a) my hair is very oily and I'm afraid products might make things worse and b) I'm currently in a CO routine and I'm not sure CO can remove product effectively enough...

Heidi_234: what do I have to do to confirm if it's wavier or not? What are the basics, I mean? No brushing when dry, I got it; and when it's wet, what should I do? Just comb it? (I'm sorry, I never searched information on this matter as I always thought I was a "straightish" kind of girl).

[julliams]

I had bone straight hair as a child too. When I got to high school, something happened which I now know to be hormones and I thought I had had frizzy hair that needed to be tamed. So I blowdried it straight and used a straightening iron to "make it behave" for most of my life until I read "Curly Girl" by Lorraine Massey. I realised I actually had wavy hair. It was a real "der" moment - like, how could I not have known this?

Try this.

1. Wash your hair as normal and make sure you use a good deal of conditioner.
2. Wash out with cold water and then just squeeze with a towel to get most of the water out.
3. Run either a small bit of gel or some other leave in in through your hair from ears down (I like to smooth some over the top to control my halo).
4. Lean over to the side and "plop" your hair into the same towel or you can use an old T-shirt. Once the hair reaches the towel, scrunch your hands and hold for a couple of seconds.
5. Repeat this step all the way around your head so that all the hair is done.
6. STEP AWAY FROM THE HAIR - do not touch until dry. This is the deal-breaker right here. If you keep running your hands through it you won't get the same result. It will look like there isn't much curl there but just leave it and peek periodically. Once it's dry, if you have waves, they will be there. Try this method for a couple of weeks and you may even find that the curls define even more by the end of the month.

This is the method I used to get my hair to be like it is in my siggy. Normally my hair isn't quite so curly and I wear it straighter because I find I like to be able to brush it. But when I'm going out and need a surefire way for my hair to look great, I do the above and make sure I wash at least 1 and a half hours before I need it to be dry. I live in Australia so it does dry a little faster during the warmer months.

Enjoy!

[julliams]

I just needed to add - if you are like me and go through your hair, find the wirey ones, play with them and pull them out, you need to stop as they will just grow another wirey one in it's place and this one will now be short and stick straight up until it gets longer and has enough weight to pull itself down. That's what I attribute some of my halo to.

I look at my shed hair often and usually it's the baby fine ones, not the wirey ones (grrr). Occasionally I do get a wirey hair that has shed on it's own but this honestly does not happen that often. I sometimes wonder if this means that the wirey hairs are stronger or newer. Or it might mean that all my finer hair are being replaced by the stronger wirey ones (I kind of hope not).

Anyway, not much I can do about that. Best to learn to manage it and bring out the best in it rather than try to make it something it's not. Something I've learnt after many years of doing the latter.

[gi2121]

julliams: thanks a lot!! I'll be trying your method and see how it goes. In fact, though I washed my hair yesterday, I think I'll wash it again today instead of tomorrow :D (patience is not one of my qualities).

[Aditi]

How about applying a good leave-in serum to take care of the frizz, i have wavy hair and serum works good for me :)

[Athena's Owl]

I can't give you any truly useful information because I don't know where you live and I don't know what products you're using and Idon't know how you wash and style your hair normally. I may as well toss a dart at a chart of random answers for all the usefulness I can muster.

[julliams]

Let us know how you go. If you haven't already, take a before and after photo so that you can see for yourself how much difference there is and whether you prefer it.

[Tutti_Frutti]

I'm experiencing the exact same thing.. halo-alarm! :-( I'll keep following this thread.

[gi2121]

So...
I followed julliams' steps and did some research also on sites based on the curly girl method... So I did exactly like julliams explained, except I kept the t-shirt on my head for about 15 minutes (instead of just scrunching), what they call "plopping", and THEN I added some spray from the ears down (that I just made this morning: distilled water, some conditionner, some aloe vera gel and some canola oil) and scrunched a bit, then I left it alone until it dried. And OH MY GOD... I do have some wave here!!!! No proper curl, but definitely waves. I should add that my haircut is a layered one and I understand it helps a great deal, but still, I never thought I had it in me :cheese:. There's less frizz, too. That is completely incredible.
I still have some halo but somehow it just seems to make more sense and to "fit" better with the wavy hair, if I'm making any sense. I strongly encourage people with my kind of hair to try this!!
For Athena's Owl who needed more infos: I live in Portugal (why is it relevant, because of the weather? if so, 18 ºC and some humidity is a typical april weather here), I'm on a CO routine (with a cheap brazilian conditionner called bio-shine), I usually wash, towel dry, comb and later brush, oil the ends. Pretty simple. My hair is medium, not baby fine but not coarse either (sorry, I don't master the number/ letters terminlogy), with little volume, and like I said, "straightish". But as I discovered today, with a definite wavy potential :D.
Thanks for your help everybody! I'm sorry I don't have pictures, I'll try to take some in the next days to show you the difference.

[Athena's Owl]

*nod* you are probably going to benefit from tracking your dew points. I put a post up in my blog to keep track of when I can use what. I'm going to try humectants today because it's gotten warm enough to try it - this week at least!

[Delila]

I've been quite happy with George Michael's InStar spray lately, it seems to tame my wayward strands very nicely without creating problems for my fine hair and oily scalp. It's water soluble, so I'm assuming it's easy to remove.

I've got their new Frizz Away product, but honestly haven't used it very often yet, so I can't really say how well I like it. (No bad hair days seemed to result, I do know that much)

My problem really, is that each strand is quite fine. Combine that with my oily scalp, and my hair gets overwhelmed very easily, so I have to be careful what products I use.

[LoveMyMutt]

I never realized I was a wavy, I thought I was a straightie with inexplicably unruly/frizzy hair.

Finally a curly friend explained it to me, and I discovered my halo of frizz was due to my poor hair being parched for moisture. I wasn't conditioning it nearly enough, because I thought that since my hair was fine in texture (but thick in density) conditioners would make it greasy.

I also stopped using all sulfates and silicones, switched to CO washing and started doing regular protein treatments.

Since I have really hard water, I found that a weekly ACV rinse (1 tbs ACV in a cup of water) really helps with the frizz also. That is more often than is usually recommended but if I don't do it my hair starts getting very dull and fuzzy. I imagine it has to do with our hard water.

[MOOBUG]

where would I find info on the "curly method"? I have a similar frizzy issue and its starts about a third of the way down my hair. Could this be due to layering though?

[lovelylaura]

I never realized I was a wavy, I thought I was a straightie with inexplicably unruly/frizzy hair.

Finally a curly friend explained it to me, and I discovered my halo of frizz was due to my poor hair being parched for moisture. I wasn't conditioning it nearly enough, because I thought that since my hair was fine in texture (but thick in density) conditioners would make it greasy.

I also stopped using all sulfates and silicones, switched to CO washing and started doing regular protein treatments.

Since I have really hard water, I found that a weekly ACV rinse (1 tbs ACV in a cup of water) really helps with the frizz also. That is more often than is usually recommended but if I don't do it my hair starts getting very dull and fuzzy. I imagine it has to do with our hard water.


I was shocked to read this, I have done the same thing! I came to the community because I was getting so sick of my fuzz (mostly on the underneath of my hair) that I literally could not manage my hair at all. Fuzz in the morning, and grease by the end of the day- shampooing every day. I now CO every few days and have also stopped using cones, and I do looooove ACV rinses. What are you using for protein treatments? I don't really know if my hair likes protein yet. Also what do you CO with? Your hair appears a lot more wavy than mine though... my hair is just weird! I feel like I have to comb it because it gets so knotted...

[Katze]

I am another 'frizzy straightie' and find much of this advice helps a LOT. WO washing is really good for my hair but I do need to clarify regularly since I also have fine hair and a scalp that tends towards buildup.

It sounds like your hair is indeed curlier than you might think! A lot of people I see in real life with wavy or curly hair have massive frizz, and I can tell by looking at them that more moisture would definitely help.

Good luck discovering your waves or curls.