Trying to go wavy, suggestions needed!

[SpinDance]

Greetings and Salutations, LHC'ers!

I am at the point in my experimenting phase that I want to try more/other ways of handling my waves. I think I'm about 2a/b, from what the old (now missing) photos showed and the written descriptions. As the overall condition of my hair has improved more waves are easily visible, and I'm slowly getting less frizz and more organized wave in my locks. I read the Curly Girl book, and have browsed both here and on some of the curly sites looking for info.

I have only air dried for years and transitioned a while ago to doing mainly CO washing. Since finding LHC my overall condition is improving and I'm getting more moisture into my hair, so I'm getting less poof. I have found I need to wet/wash my hair more often when I do CO or it gets really greasy. My ends tend to be dry and have been dyed. I'm on a long term project to thicken the ends, but that will probably take a couple more years, if it works at all. I think it will, and it's getting better, but only time will tell.

I used to give up on my stringy/thin ends and comb/finger comb my hair as it was drying, which of course disarranges the wave/lock structure and results in poof in the middle, with non-stringy, but still thin, ends. I've started doing more of the curly stuff, scrunching in conditioner, rinsing carefully to support the waves and plopping. I think it's helping to define the waves. However, the method relies in part on gel or something to cast/set the waves/curls, and this has me baffled.

I don't use cones and I've stopped with proteins as well. Any of you curlies/wavies out there have any suggestions? Please? I am in southwestern Ohio. What is easily available locally to help 'cast' the waves?

Here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=7759&pictureid=107579)is a picture from last week. It was taken in the evening so there are shadows right under the ends. Should I even try to bring out my waves at this point, or should I just wait until my ends (hopefully) thicken and try then? I'm comfortable just putting it back up and forgetting about it for a while but the idea of waves is appealing.

Thanks in advance for suggestions!

[Madora]

Braiding damp hair has given me wonderful waves (over the years, of course)! Here's a pic (from back in the 1980s):

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=6554&pictureid=87275

[SpinDance]

Wow, Madora, your hair is beautiful! I envy your thick ends.

My hair will easily take braid waves. In fact, if I damp braid I'll get too much of a good thing and end up with very obvious braided waves. My goal is to try to improve the natural wave structure rather than impose an artificial one.

[Madora]

That is an admirable goal. I'm sorry I can't give you any other advice. I'd say to wear your hair up to protect what you have.

The longer your hair becomes, the more the waves will elongate..unless your hair is very, very curly.

[SpinDance]

Stopped at Target yesterday and picked up some Garnier Fructis Pure Clean gel and Aussi's Aussome mouse which I tried on my wet hair this morning. Put a bit of the gel on then plopped while I got breakfast, then put some mousse in still damp hair right before I left for work. It seemed to help set the waves as I'd hoped, but it looked really piecey, with thin locks, my usual problem. Not as much fluffing/disarranging of the locks as without the products.

I can't decide if I'm not that happy with the way it looks because it is different, or I just want a thicker hemline. Because I didn't like the way it looked that well, I finger combed then used my wide tooth wooden comb on it to soften the sharply defined locks. I can't get pictures, but it is a bit better now. There is wave from about my ears down, even on the ends, and there is still shine all the way to the ends.

Any of you wavies with ideas or suggestions please chime in!

[Siiri]

I'm not a real wavy, but my hair got wavier when I stopped dyeing it. I was using a permanent hair colour, so it was very drying. Do you still dye your hair? Other than that, I think the water you wash your hair with can affect your curl pattern, I'm working in another town this summer, and the water here doesn't seem to be as drying, so my hair is shinier and less poofy.

There was a thread about lemon rinses here somewhere, the OP had really curly hair and the rinse seemed to make it less poofy. I'll try to find it..

--

This is the thread I was talking about, there are other similar too, just search "lemon rinse"
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=53745

[spidermom]

I use gel to help my waves/curls clump. In my mind, mousse is more for volume. (but that's just my murky mind maybe)

I usually finger-comb the gel through wet hair and finish by rubbing more gel between palms and then running my palms down the surface of my hair to discourage the fluffies.

[SpinDance]

Thank you, spidermom! About how much gel do you end up using? I'm new to this "product" stuff.

[SoulOfTheSea]

To help my wave I make rope-braided pigtails when I go to bed. All I do is detangle it with my BBB, or a comb, and then lightly mist it with water and put some aloe vera gel. Then I rope-braid it and sleep with it. When I wake up, I put some jojoba oil in it, and I have soft shiny waves!

[Katze]

I like to dry my hair in the lazy wrap bun (it's the only bun I can do, and a longhaired friend showed me how). Braids and other buns give me kinks - that bun enhances my natural lazy spiral curls.

Other than that CO, no 'cones, and WO, as well as plopping, give me wavier hair. I also like to fingercomb and twirl my curls/waves with a mixture of a light leave-in conditioner and strong hair gel.

Product is definitely my friend, and my hair is less consistently wavy than yours, I'd think - I am actually something like a 1b-2b/2c but that type isn't available.

[Mina17]

I'm trying to do the same thing: encourage my waves while discouraging poofiness. I'm wondering what to look for in a hair gel. I had assumed gels would cause buildup since I CO, and I was afraid they would be dry my hair. What are some good ones besides AVG?

[RebeccaG]

I find in the interests of time and ease the best thing is to wash (I'm experimenting with co washing but that's just me) let it air for as long as possible and then bun it for the day, at night I BBB, lightly oil with Jojoba and braid. This way on day 2 it has settled down and I get really nice waves.

I love my hair when it's in its 'natural' air dried un touched state but unless it's really sunny (and that happens about 2 days a year here) and I can sit outside to let it dry it takes hours that I just don't have!

So my routine at the moment is day 1- co wash (no gels) air dry as long as possible then bun. Day 2- down, Day 3- some sort of braid and back to day 1.

When I started curly girl at just below SL and it worked really well, I did use gel back then and rinsed everyday but usually had to finish drying with a diffuser. I'm just below bsl now and rinsing everyday is just too much hassle so I'm happy enough with this routine for now and it's definitely making my hair happier :cheese:

[RebeccaG]

I'm trying to do the same thing: encourage my waves while discouraging poofiness. I'm wondering what to look for in a hair gel. I had assumed gels would cause buildup since I CO, and I was afraid they would be dry my hair. What are some good ones besides AVG?

Try a lemon rinse (1 teaspoon of freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice in 500ml of water) works wonders on poofiness! Argan oil as a sealant afterwards helps a lot as well- better than any gel I have tried. If you do want to stick with gel I had good results with Mop Top and I tired A LOT of gels!!

[SpinDance]

I'm not a real wavy, but my hair got wavier when I stopped dyeing it. I was using a permanent hair colour, so it was very drying. Do you still dye your hair? Other than that, I think the water you wash your hair with can affect your curl pattern, I'm working in another town this summer, and the water here doesn't seem to be as drying, so my hair is shinier and less poofy.

There was a thread about lemon rinses here somewhere, the OP had really curly hair and the rinse seemed to make it less poofy. I'll try to find it..

--

This is the thread I was talking about, there are other similar too, just search "lemon rinse"
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=53745

Siiri, thank you for the suggestions and link. I haven't had my hair dyed for 2 years this month. It was dyed for 3.5 years with semi-permanent dye. The ends do have some residual dye on them. I can tell because my silvers aren't, they're sort of goldish, and the dark hairs are sort of redder than the new growth. :/

I've always had some wave, but this is the first time I've really tried to bring it out. If I comb it while it's drying it will straighten out, especially on the last 10 inches or so, and look more like poofy straight(ish) hair. Since I've gotten more moisture through oils & CO it isn't as poofy, and the waves are becoming more defined. In fact, I noticed today that some locks are actually becoming pretty clearly defined, so I think things are moving in the right direction.

The water in my area, Southwestern Ohio, is very hard, but we got a water softener which does help. I doubt I'd have been able to go CO without it. I'll do CWC now and again with a diluted shampoo when I get too greasy, but otherwise have been doing CO most of the time.


To help my wave I make rope-braided pigtails when I go to bed. All I do is detangle it with my BBB, or a comb, and then lightly mist it with water and put some aloe vera gel. Then I rope-braid it and sleep with it. When I wake up, I put some jojoba oil in it, and I have soft shiny waves!

Thank you, SoulOfTheSea, rope braids are on my list. I'm not very good at them yet.


I like to dry my hair in the lazy wrap bun (it's the only bun I can do, and a longhaired friend showed me how). Braids and other buns give me kinks - that bun enhances my natural lazy spiral curls.

Other than that CO, no 'cones, and WO, as well as plopping, give me wavier hair. I also like to fingercomb and twirl my curls/waves with a mixture of a light leave-in conditioner and strong hair gel.

Product is definitely my friend, and my hair is less consistently wavy than yours, I'd think - I am actually something like a 1b-2b/2c but that type isn't available.

My hair definitely takes waves/curls from being in buns, even my ends, which end up in nice, big spirals. I've been cone-free for months now, since I figured out my hair doesn't like cones nearly as well as it likes oils, and I've been doing CO washing for quite some time as well. I'm trying plopping, with mixed success, but I'm new to all this, so it's probably user error!

Do you have any suggestions for gel?



I'm trying to do the same thing: encourage my waves while discouraging poofiness. I'm wondering what to look for in a hair gel. I had assumed gels would cause buildup since I CO, and I was afraid they would be dry my hair. What are some good ones besides AVG?

I hope someone can answer this, too, because my hair doesn't seem to like AVG as gel, not at all. It feels nasty. :( It likes it in SMT, so maybe I need to use it with something else?



...When I started curly girl at just below SL and it worked really well, I did use gel back then and rinsed everyday but usually had to finish drying with a diffuser. I'm just below bsl now and rinsing everyday is just too much hassle so I'm happy enough with this routine for now and it's definitely making my hair happier :cheese:
RebeccaG, when you rinse do you put in more gel/product to help define the waves? I don't use a dryer, I always air dry. Takes several hours, but I'm OK to go to the office damp (not front office, thankfully).

As I've gotten more moisture & oils in moderation I've had much less poof which is part of why I'm trying this, I think. I can see the waves more clearly and when I leave them alone they don't poof so much.

Thank you for the recommendation of Mop Top, I'll look into that.

[xoxophelia]

I find in the interests of time and ease the best thing is to wash (I'm experimenting with co washing but that's just me) let it air for as long as possible and then bun it for the day, at night I BBB, lightly oil with Jojoba and braid. This way on day 2 it has settled down and I get really nice waves.


I love my hair when it's in its 'natural' air dried un touched state but unless it's really sunny (and that happens about 2 days a year here) and I can sit outside to let it dry it takes hours that I just don't have!


So my routine at the moment is day 1- co wash (no gels) air dry as long as possible then bun. Day 2- down, Day 3- some sort of braid and back to day 1.


When I started curly girl at just below SL and it worked really well, I did use gel back then and rinsed everyday but usually had to finish drying with a diffuser. I'm just below bsl now and rinsing everyday is just too much hassle so I'm happy enough with this routine for now and it's definitely making my hair happier


This sounds like good advice to me. My hair when untouched also takes far too long to dry (fully up to 6 hours -_-'). And then there is the problem that the waves become messy in the end anyways.

I like to wear braid waves sometimes but I do mine with two french braids that results in tighter waves than I would want on a regular basis. What sort of braid do you do?

[RebeccaG]

Back when I was APL ish I would scrunch the gel in after the wash and towel dry as per the curly girl book but I think if my hair had been in better condition (I used to have bleach highlights- what was I thinking!) I wouldn't have needed the gel.

[RebeccaG]

This sounds like good advice to me. My hair when untouched also takes far too long to dry (fully up to 6 hours -_-'). And then there is the problem that the waves become messy in the end anyways.

I like to wear braid waves sometimes but I do mine with two french braids that results in tighter waves than I would want on a regular basis. What sort of braid do you do?


If I want to wear it down the next day it's just one french braid, if it's going to be up the next day just a plain english braid. One braid makes it look very similar to my natural wave pattern. I think getting over the 'my hair MUST be it's natural self' thing has been a big thing for me, I certainly spend much less time fretting over it now and more time enjoying it. The nicest thing with my current routine is that I get to play with my hair a bit, brush it, comb it, run my fingers through it without worrying about wrecking the curl pattern and making it poof :cheese:

[Idjit]

Your hair sounds a lot like mine, SpinDance. I am mostly CG with an occasional sulfate free shampoo. I have tried so many different gels, using LA Looks Sports Gel most of the time but after a while all I would get is really thin, stringy curls so I started trying curl creams but the only one that really worked for me is Noodlehead which has dimethicone in it, which doesn't work too well with CG.

Right now, the best thing that's working for me is FOTE Aloe Vera Gel mixed with a little apricot oil. I take a little bit of it (less than a finger tip), spread it between my palms and then finger comb it through the front (since the back looks the same no matter what I do, it's the front I have to worry about poofing) and then lean over and scrunch another finger tip through.

I usually plop twice with a flour sack towel. Once when I get out of the shower so I'm not dripping all over the place while I'm getting dressed and then again after I have product in.

[SpinDance]

Idjit, do you mix up the AVG and apricot oil in advance, or in your hand? I may have some apricot oil, or maybe almond, can't remember. Thanks for the suggestion of double plopping. I've been trying plopping this week, but hadn't done it twice.

I'm sort of afraid that I'll need to wait until the thin ends are eventually trimmed away and hopefully I get a thicker hemline for this to work very well. I'm half tempted to cut back a bit to see if that changes things enough to make CG stuff work better, but I'm not sure I want to loose that much length. I just got to TB and I'd have to take off 2-5 inches to get rid of the thinnest ends. Decisions, decisions!

[buttercupmcgee]

Your waves look lovely to me! My hair is wavy also, but much shorter, so that lends some ease in defining the spirals. My two tricks are to not comb or even touch it after I've gotten out of the shower. (I part it with my fingers and wrap it in a microfiber towel.) And, I use a bit of mousse. That helps the waves hold. If I refresh with mouse and water during the day, the waves really boing back up.

Also--the CO may weigh it down. I was CO'ing for a while and once I went back to CWC my waves and volume returned.

[SpinDance]

Thank you, buttercupmcgee! I never had much wave or curl until my hair got fairly long, probably because I combed it when wet. I'm now seeing some waves up around my ears, and the locks fall in very long, loose spirals. Not ringlets, just long spirals with some in long, loose waves. The interval between waves/spirals seems to be longer in the older, longer hair, and shorter towards the top.

My oldest hair was braided nearly every day long before it was colored. I have a theory that the repeated mechanical damage, along with the 3.5 years of dye and not knowing as much about what my hair likes/dislikes are all part of my issues. It took over a year of slow, careful LHC technique experiments to improve the condition enough that I now have shine all the way to the ends, for example.

I do try not to touch it while its drying, but I do have to move it from side to side so it doesn't get caught on things or leaned upon. I'll try a bit of mousse by itself and see if that helps things.

[GoddessLocks]

to help out my waves I use mousse. I put some biosilk or garnier oil in my damp hair, then put in the mousse and kind of scrunch it up/ run my fingers through it and let it air dry. Then, I dont brush or touch it all day, and I get great definition without it being crunchy or anything like that. They key is to use the right amount of mousse. Ive been doing it for YEARS like since I was 14 I think. It just makes my hair look put together. A particular one I have been loving is the Pantene mousse for curly hair. works very well with my hair. I bought some of the Aussie one to try after my pantene runs out - just for the awesome smell lol, so we will see how that one works. But anyways, mousse works for me, and seems to give my waves more shape and curl.

ETA: Oh and in my siggy - thats second day hair with no product in, just brushed... But on the day I put the mousse in, the waves/curls are more defined.

[Idjit]

I forgot to add that mousse just dries my hair out and the Pure Clean gel made it feel really gross.

I mix the aloe and oil in advance. I use the proportions Gladtobemom posted here. http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6508

You can use any oil you like. Apricot is the first I've tried that doesn't make it greasy if I accidentally use too much.
I just mix it up in a little bowl and then put it in an old lip gloss tub. It works great as a face moisturizer as well.

[SpinDance]

Thank you, Idjit. I'm afraid of mousse or gel drying my hair, especially as it tends to be dry anyway. I'll check that link.

Thank you, also, GoddessLocks. Are the products you are using cone-free?

[Idjit]

Gel shouldn't dry out your hair as long as it's alcohol free. Have you thought of making your own?

Flaxseed gel is something that's talked a lot about on nc.com and is fairly easy and cheap to make. I've used it with good results but I think I just prefer the softer, more natural look. My hair starts to look weird when I try to style it too much. That's just me though.

[SpinDance]

I forgot to add that mousse just dries my hair out and the Pure Clean gel made it feel really gross.

I mix the aloe and oil in advance. I use the proportions Gladtobemom posted here. http://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6508

You can use any oil you like. Apricot is the first I've tried that doesn't make it greasy if I accidentally use too much.
I just mix it up in a little bowl and then put it in an old lip gloss tub. It works great as a face moisturizer as well.


Idjit, thank you very much for suggesting the AVG/oil mix and sharing this link.

I'd given up on the curly girl stuff yesterday so had washed it in the morning, combed it while drying and wore it up in a bun most of the day. In the evening I did a 5 mm trim of the very ends, which I've been doing every week or so for months now.

I mixed up some Frizz Buster Gel made with coconut oil, applied to my ends and lengths and it felt really nice. I used some on my hands and arms as a lotion, too. It's hard to describe how this feels on my skin, sort of refreshing and cool. It worked great and felt very nice. I put my hair back up in a bun for the evening. When I took it back down to make my sleeping bun it still looked quite nice, not at all oily even though the amount of oil in the mix would normally have left me an oil slick.

This morning it still looked really nice. Mostly smooth from having been combed and bunned, but not oily or greasy. On a normal day I would have just left it and probably worn it up all day, but I wanted to try the Frizz Buster Gel as a wave enhancer. I put some on then plopped while having breakfast and getting ready for work.

It is staying clumped and is pretty wavy. I'm still getting used to how it looks. Much wavier than I've been in the past, and the clumping looks really strange on me. I think it's working, I'm just not used to seeing my hair like this. It looks a bit darker than usual, I think because the hair is staying clumped better. It is also shinier. The waves look smoother, and there are a lot more of them than I'd have expected, all along the length.

I can feel that there is the gel in it, just a little, but the hair feels soft and is very shiny (at least for me!). I need to get pictures, and I need to get used to seeing my hair like this.

[xoxophelia]

If I want to wear it down the next day it's just one french braid, if it's going to be up the next day just a plain english braid. One braid makes it look very similar to my natural wave pattern. I think getting over the 'my hair MUST be it's natural self' thing has been a big thing for me, I certainly spend much less time fretting over it now and more time enjoying it. The nicest thing with my current routine is that I get to play with my hair a bit, brush it, comb it, run my fingers through it without worrying about wrecking the curl pattern and making it poof



I always thought perhaps one french braid would give weird waves when down or too much volume. I will definitely try it out though.. Perhaps it will even look more natural :)

[Idjit]

I'm glad it worked for you SpinDance! Keep doing it and I'm sure you'll grow to love your clumpy waves.

[SpinDance]

Idjit, I have read about the flaxseed gel and thought about trying it. Of course I was too impatient to try to find flaxseed thus the trip to the store. Does it have a lot more hold than the Frizz Buster Gel? I don't think I really need more hold, although I really must learn to keep my fool hands out of my hair. :/ I keep wanting to bring it around to the front to look at it.

It hadn't occurred to me to actually try to 'style' it, I've just been doing things along the curly girl lines, CO, scrunching in conditioner, supporting the waves when rinsing, scrunching out water after washing and then plopping. My sole attempt at 'style' is to try to get the front locks to sort of part off center to soften the front a little, not have a center part. This is mostly to hide the cowlick, which has turned out to be a couple nice waves in the front!

The look with clumps of long, loose, spirals and waves is very different for me, but a friend told me it looks nice. I love that this is so fast and easy. Please forgive my insecurities about this and accept my sincere thanks for your recommendations. Working in an office in a rather conservative area I don't want to look like a wild woman. I don't care about that when I'm at home, but in the office is a whole other matter. O.o

[Idjit]

For me, the frizz buster gel has zero hold. I use it to control the poof, without it I have a very fluffy mess.

FSG, to me, has a lot of hold. It dries very crunchy and kind of 'sets' the curls like you were saying in your original post. But all of the crunch scrunches out and leaves a very nice, soft look. I get more definition and curl with FSG. (I think I need to make some more..I'm talking myself into it!)

I like it because you can customize it in any way you need to and it can be very moisturizing. You could even add some aloe and oil right into it if you wanted. I just recently started experimenting with aloe and apricot oil so I haven't tried it yet. I did try olive oil in there but it's way too heavy for me and coconut oil gives me tangles.

I'm realizing more and more that everyone's has their own definitions and interpretations of things.

When I say 'style' I really just mean scrunching in product. When I don't style it means I get of the shower, take off the towel, comb my hair and then maybe smooth some of the frizz buster gel (I call it goo) through the outside. I'm very low maintenance.

[SpinDance]

Hmm, sounds like I need to continue experimenting. I'm interpreting the lock/clumping/stringishness formation that I'm getting with the Frizz Buster Gel as hold because it is pretty well staying in the groupings/locks, which it didn't do as well without it.

Do you comb it after the FSG has dried and set, or just scrunch to break the cast? I have only tried it with the coconut oil so far, but then my hair tends to like coconut oil. I've got some almond that I will try at some point, and I have a blend of shea butter, coconut oil and a body oil blend that I often use on my skin that I may try, too. I'm wondering if Panacea would do well in this, too.

When you don't scrunch and just put it on to smooth things, do you comb/pick/finger comb as needed during the day, or just leave it alone to keep your wave structure intact? The results I had last night applied to fairly smooth, previously bunned, dry hair were really nice.

[Idjit]

If I comb my hair when its wet and then don't re-scrunch it, it will dry mostly straight with maybe a random wave or two so the days I don't scrunch, I will brush occasionally throughout the day just because it makes my hair feel nice.

That's why I like to comb my hair when it is wet. Somehow it makes everything lie flat. But then I don't have waves and sometimes my hair will just look really messy no matter what.

But any other day, if I want to keep the waves I don't brush till I'm ready to wash, otherwise I will have poof. When I use any kind of gel that gives me crunch, when it is completely dry, I will bend over at the waist and then put my fingers into the hair at the scalp and shake it to loosen it all up. Otherwise it tends to be flat on top. Then I might scrunch the length if I need to.

[meganb990]

Hi SpinDance! I like to use all natural aloe vera gel it is a light amber brown/tan color I buy it at a local healthfood market the brand is Aloelife skin gel it really helps with wave/curl formation. I also like to add a tiny amount of honey into the gel and it never gets sticky on me but my hair loves it. I sometimes use Jessicurl Confident Coils solution with no problems but for some I might add the magnesium sulfate can be drying for some, the confident coils has flax seed gel in it. Good luck with bringing out your natural waves hopefully these suggestions can help!

[AnnaJamila]

Wow, Madora, your hair is beautiful! I envy your thick ends.

My hair will easily take braid waves. In fact, if I damp braid I'll get too much of a good thing and end up with very obvious braided waves. My goal is to try to improve the natural wave structure rather than impose an artificial one.

I braid my hair dry and sleep on it and get BEAUTIFUL longlasting waves that way. If I do it wet they are way too tight, maybe dry braiding would be a happy medium?

[jojo]

for me once ive washed, not touching it with a towel or a comb makes my hair more wavy and spirally but then I comb and BBB once dried so it makes my wave less pronounced and more larger S shapes.

[tinywife]

I love your fairytale ends! Do bring out the waves now, it makes them all the more beautiful.

[SpinDance]

Idjit, your hair does sound a lot like mine. If I comb it while it's drying it will be mostly straight. Sometimes though, it's just a poof, especially around my shoulders and upper back. As I've gotten more moisture into it I've gotten more shine and softness. I'm still trying different amounts of the Frizz Buster Gel, and slightly different amounts of oil in the aloe. I used less oil today and less of the FBG and it's soft, wavy but not as much as yesterday. Not as dark on the ends, either, so that has to have been the coconut oil.

meganb990, thank you for the suggestion of adding honey. I'll give that a try. I've read about Jessicurl Confident Coils but haven't tried it. It sounded like it was for more curly than wavy.

Your waves are very pretty, jojo. If I comb it, especially while damp, I don't have the lock/clump formation and the waves are stretched out or disarranged, or both. It has never really fallen into nice, even waves.

Now that I'm seeing the actual lock formations it isn't surprising all I got was poof. The intervals are different from lock to lock, so when they are disarranged they just all do their thing at different intervals, all in different directions.

At least it's now much softer than it used to be, and in much better condition.

tinywife, thank you! You made my day!

A picture taken yesterday is here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=7759&pictureid=107904).

[jojo]

Dont comb it or even touch it, those clumps or rats tails as i call them as waves in the making. once it has dried then gently comb, you will have your wave then!

[SpinDance]

Dont comb it or even touch it, those clumps or rats tails as i call them as waves in the making. once it has dried then gently comb, you will have your wave then!

I've done the not combing till dry thing a lot over the last couple of years and the middle part, say neck to waist or hip, will be fairly nicely wavy. The ends below my waist not so much. As I've been doing the scrunching thing the last week or so and paying more attention to the specific structure of different locks I think I see what is happening.

There are at least 2 things going on that I've identified so far. First is that the thinner, fairy tailed ends have a longer wave/curl interval then the upper parts. Second is that the position of the wave when it reaches the end affects how the structure of the lock looks. Thinking about how I'd trim the various locks if I was trimming according to the Curly Girl book most of my ends don't really match what I'd do. The ends are at the wrong part of the curves in many cases, which is actually making the ends act funny regardless of whether I'm trying to bring the wave out.

I've decided this is something like knitting, where one must learn to see the stitch structure in order to understand what is happening. In this case I'm finally starting to really understand my lock structure. Not sure what I'll do with this information yet. I am hoping that as these old ends get dusted off and the rest is growing under better protection that more hairs will grow longer with better condition and thus hopefully more consistent waves top to bottom.

Thus far I've not wanted to sacrifice length and I'm operating under the 2 week rule. I'm contemplating whether I'll just basically put it up and ignore it for a while then try again, or trim back sooner to see what affects that has. Decisions, decisions!