long hair gets wavy?

[meleelazee]

Ok im new,
but anyway
i notice almost all long hair is wavy or curly, not that thats a bad thing [i have naturally curly hair] but i just wanted to know is that why really long hair tends to curl up more than short?

[chopandchange]

Hello! Welcome.

It's not true that "all long hair" is curly. In fact the reverse is often true, because the longer our hair gets, the heavier it is, and the weight often drags down the curl pattern, making it straighter.

Perhaps you are thinking of braid or bun waves? A lot of people who have long hair wear it in braids or buns to protect it from getting tangled. When they take it out of the braid/bun, it's become wavy as a result. Often, people on this forum will take their hair out of a bun/braid to take a photo of their length, and the waves will still be there. Perhaps this is what you are thinking of.

[triumphator!]

I know my hair's body wave isn't really apparent until my hair has some length to it, so some people have secretly wavy hair that they don't know about until it grows out :)

[Spike]

I’m thinking, especially around this forum, that it may reflect better moisturized hair AND the lack of hot tools to make hair pin-straight–no blow-frying, no hot irons. We tend to value long, well-cared for hair, so we learn how to make the most of the texture nature hands out to us rather than making out hair conform to whatever texture is hot this week.

Remember the actress Lisa Kudrow on the TV show _Friends_? In the show, her character had pin-straight blonde hair. But in the last shot of the opening credits, with all the actors sitting around a fountain (i.e., a very HUMID environment) she had lovely 2b/2c s-waves. But, this was a time when straight hair meant 1a--and only 1a. Anything else was "frizzy," which meant "bad."

[Spike]

I know my hair's body wave isn't really apparent until my hair has some length to it, so some people have secretly wavy hair that they don't know about until it grows out :)


Yeah--I have 1a hair until the length gets to my jaw or so. At shoulder, the body wave kicks in, and around bra strap I become 2a/2b wavy.

[birthmarkie]

My hair also goes from straight on top to a body wave in between to "wurls" at the tips, which are at BSL+/waist. My top, middle, and under-growth also differ. So it's not necessarily length alone but what part of your head the hair is coming from and how you care for it. I think many people who grow to a certain length find it pointless to straighten their hair and learn how to take care of waves they may have not known they had. Environment, lifestyle, and hair care routines have a big impact on the appearance of hair's texture and patterns. And simply that hair is variable. The more of it, the more variable. It's part of the unknown that makes growing fun. :)

[PiroskaCicu]

My hair is pretty straight until it gets to about shoulder length- the waves start to come out then. The longer it gets for me, the wavier. Right now it's only a little bit- but when I had near waist length hair the wave was much more apparent.

[jasper]

With me it is at least partly about how I handle it as it dries. When I have had short hair, I could brush or comb it out before dry and/ or dry it with a blow drier, which was all it would take to make it straight.

At this length, I can't do that and more often than not I am going to bun or braid it before dry, adding to the wavies.

[Beatrice]

Updos and braids definitely have something to do with it. I was at the mall this evening, and felt the clip on my peacock twist coming out. Eventually I just let the whole thing down. You would have sworn I'd curled my hair. Left to its own devices, my wave is much more subtle.

Not all, but a large number of "straight-haired" people are flat ironing every day or blow drying their hair straight. If a person has absolutely no fly-aways or frizzed baby hairs, chances are they're heat-styling. My mom's hair is basically stick-straight, but even she has some baby hairs that flip out.

I also agree that hair tends to show wave as it gets longer. Sometimes the weight of the length drags it out, sometimes it doesn't. It just depends on the thickness of the individual strands, how much wear-and-tear you've accumulated, and probably other factors I'm not even aware of.

[LadyLately]

I hope desperately that my hair develops a proper wave as it grows. My hair's always been straight and I've permed in the past.

[Delila]

It takes most of my waves a good bit of length to develop a full S curve. (Mine hast to be almost to my shoulders, something like 9" length)

My sister's hair has less wave than mine, (we don't have the same wave type), and hers doesn't make a full S until it's well below her shoulders.

[cdmorefield]

My hair was straight and short before I had kids. Now after having kids and growing it out it is wavy. I miss my straight hair :(

[jackiesjottings]

My hair was straight when it was long before, but this time, getting so close to classic, there is a definite wave to it, even when just left (I do braid at night). I think it is partly trying to use natural products which makes it a bit boofy (which I like). I think it is also because my silver hairs are coarser, so as my hair goes silver it is getting thicker and with a different texture. I washed it earlier and it has dried with a slight wave to it. It has more body than when it was long before and I think the natural products and going silver are part of that too.

[Priska]

My hair has better and clearer wavy pattern now when it's long (it's longer than it looks in the picture), especially when it has dried after shower but is still well moisturized. Especially the under hair is wavy. I'm thinking if I should stop brushing my hair when it's dry and start curly girl method... I think it looks better when it's wavy than when it's brushed straight.

I think thanks for this goes to LHC... 🙂 I like my hair wavy.

https://img.aijaa.com/m/00942/15157376.jpg (https://aijaa.com/FSG4Yv)

(Sorry about the dirty mirror... 😬 I do wash it often but it gets like that so quickly)

I'm also wondering if mineral oil gets the hair wavy 🤔 Must do some googling about that.
---edit---

This picture shows my hair length better but you can't see waves there because the uppest layer of my hair goes flat so quickly.
https://img.aijaa.com/t/00626/15157384.t.jpg (https://aijaa.com/IYSlIg)

[Bat]

My hair has better and clearer wavy pattern now when it's long (it's longer than it looks in the picture), especially when it has dried after shower but is still well moisturized. Especially the under hair is wavy. I'm thinking if I should stop brushing my hair when it's dry and start curly girl method... I think it looks better when it's wavy than when it's brushed straight.

I think thanks for this goes to LHC... 🙂 I like my hair wavy.

https://img.aijaa.com/m/00942/15157376.jpg (https://aijaa.com/FSG4Yv)

(Sorry about the dirty mirror... 😬 I do wash it often but it gets like that so quickly)

I'm also wondering if mineral oil gets the hair wavy 🤔 Must do some googling about that.
---edit---

This picture shows my hair length better but you can't see waves there because the uppest layer of my hair goes flat so quickly.
https://img.aijaa.com/t/00626/15157384.t.jpg (https://aijaa.com/IYSlIg)

Looks like 1c/2a to me have you ever tried to do a typing photo? It might help find styling products

[Priska]

I must find out what typing photo is...

[MusicalSpoons]

I must find out what typing photo is...

Instructions from the hair typing thread:

Wash your hair as you usually do. You do not need to use other products, clarify or change your regular routine. The hair type which really matters is the one you are dealing with day to day and not so much the one you could have if you just clarified. Of course your true natural hair type will come out most when your hair is absolutely clean from all product leftovers and it's also neat to know how much different routines alter ones hair type, but clarifying is not a necessary requirement to type your hair.

Let your hair air dry with the least amount of detangling you can manage to do. Detangling before washing and while your hair is still wet is totally fine, just avoid doing it (as much as reasonably possible) during the time it is air drying. Finger combing, combing and brushing during that time will change the structure of your hair you are just trying to discover.
https://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=116252

[Priska]

Thank you!

[Dark40]

As my hair is getting longer it reverses from curly to wavy. Even though my natural hair texture is between wavy/curly. But I'n hoping as it gets longer that it be more wavy than curly. Because to me, when it's curly when it dries it always had a tendency to draw up to a shorter length other than the length it stretched out while it's straight/chemically relaxed.

[cowgirllong]

My hair has changed over time. It used to be pretty straight, but as I get older, the waviness increases. It might partly be due to better hair care or longer length, I really couldn't say for sure. Maybe over time our hair changes, too.

[Maiden Fair]

Ok im new,
but anyway
i notice almost all long hair is wavy or curly, not that thats a bad thing [i have naturally curly hair] but i just wanted to know is that why really long hair tends to curl up more than short?

I think part of it is that a lot of really long-haired people don't style it with heat and curling and repeated brushing, all of which tend to disrupt your hair's natural texture. I'm pretty sure that a majority of people have natural wave in their hair but modern styling trends prevent it from being seen. Many people with super long hair aren't interested in modern styling trends, so they don't use as many modern styling methods, and then the natural texture shows through.

For myself, I've also noticed that although the weight drags my waves out a little, they are also somewhat more pronounced and more stubborn at a longer length simply because the S-shape is able to be completed more often as my hair gets longer. When I keep my hair between BSL and shoulder, there are usually only little flippy bits that just look like I didn't style it properly, but now that it's past hip, I have definite defined waves through the whole length, even up near my temples some days. :shrug:

[barnet_fair]

My hair looked wavy to me for the first time somewhere between BSL and WL. At shorter lengths it was straight and silky and wouldn't hold a curl. Length and age could both be factors. My hair is now barely but undeniably wavy, and likes to form clumps.

[Priska]

I'm soooo happy to see some very loose but clear waves in my lengths! And they came just by themselves, I made no braids or anything to get them! And now my hairs do the same trick together and go forwards and backwards in same place, forming waves.. Oh how happy I can get from those tiniest things... And I must thank LHC so thank you all... :heartbeat Before my hair was so dry that it was impossible to form any waves from there, my hair was a bush. I also had no faith in that it could grow so long. My hair surprised me!

[Kingsdaughter]

My hair was stick straight when I was young, but when I was 16 it started to change and has slowly become more wavy. Now I am 21, and my hair has a definite wave if I don't touch it at all after my shower. If I brush it, the wave falls out and all but the very end becomes straight. My hair is longer now than when I was younger, but the change could also have been puberty or something else. I am not sure if length affects waviness. I always thought longer hair straightened somewhat because of the weight pulling down.