Coaxing Out My Curls

[sweetaj]

I am trying to work with my hair's natural texture rather than heat styling, and I'm wondering if anyone has some great tips for coaxing out the curls!

I would add a picture, but I don't have enough posts yet.

My hair is currently a little longer than chin length. I have really nice waves/curls on the underneath section of hair, but the crown area wants to be straight.

I still wash my hair every morning with shampoo (Pantene). I towel dry and add argan oil and Tigi Curls Rock. I scrunch it up with a t-shirt and let it airdry.

Is there anything I could do differently to help my crown area? Is the shampoo maybe drying out that section too much? I thought about doing CO tomorrow to try it out.

I will try anything!

AJ

[aisha.christine]

I know a lot of people with curly hair use the curly girl method. Have you tried looking into this?

[sweetaj]

I know a lot of people with curly hair use the curly girl method. Have you tried looking into this?

I actually just read an article on that. From what I got out of it, I need to CO, use gel, and scrunch. Unfortunately I can't plop because my hair is too short. Besides for the CO, this is basically what I've been trying this week.

Thanks!

[Aqua Gal]

Ah, the crown flop...welcome to the wavy club.

That's an ongoing battle for many of us. For me, The CG routine helped a lot. Especially clipping up the crown sections while they air dried. It took a good six weeks before my wave pattern strengthened. However, scrunching, gel and simple cone free products and oil really helped.

You may be surprised at how the wave tightens up. I had a lot of fun wearing my waves for a while.

Now, I mostly smooth out my waves for updos and slick them down with cones to mimic straighter hair, but I've definitely been in your shoes. Firm hold gel is your friend!

[sweetaj]

Ah, the crown flop...welcome to the wavy club.

That's an ongoing battle for many of us. For me, The CG routine helped a lot. Especially clipping up the crown sections while they air dried. It took a good six weeks before my wave pattern strengthened. However, scrunching, gel and simple cone free products and oil really helped.

You may be surprised at how the wave tightens up. I had a lot of fun wearing my waves for a while.

Now, I mostly smooth out my waves for updos and slick them down with cones to mimic straighter hair, but I've definitely been in your shoes. Firm hold gel is your friend!

Oh good, I'm not alone! I will definitely try the CG method. All I know is my hair has looked very awkward this week, but I refuse to use my straightener on it!

Thanks!

[ElusiveMuse]

I don't use the CG method, but when I use cone-free shampoo and conditioner my hair curls dramatically better than when I use cones. However, this was not always the case and I think that when my hair was more damaged from heat styling, it simply wasn't as easy to coax out the curl from my canopy layer. Now, I don't need gel or anything. In fact, any product messes with my curls! The main thing for me was cone-free and no touching or brushing.

[Kira94]

Your hair sounds very similar to mine. For me the key was definitely conditioner only and then a bit of gel and scrunching. :) The clipping up top helps as well, as my hair tends to go flat up there.
Good luck! :)

[Medusa]

My crown is flat too. I've noticed since I dumped the cones, my curls never looked better. I use a cone free styling product (Jessicurl's rockin' ringlets styling potion) and scrunch. I also started using a t-shirt to dry my hair, and I CWC using diluted shampoo - CO left my hair too greasy. My crown is still flatter than the rest of my hair, but it's really helped a lot. I do cheat every once in awhile and use a diffuser on low heat when I want my curls to pop.

[julliams]

Firstly if you are a wavy, you may need some length for your curl to develop. If you imagine an "S" shape curl, for a wavy, it's a much longer "S" so it takes more length to make a complete curl.

Secondly, all the products you have mentioned are chock full of silicones. I am not against cones but for my texture, they flatten the curl out as they build up. I went from wavy to almost straight when I started using Kerastase.

Here are two photos showing what happened. The first is after using a products with heavy cones over a period of about a month. It would dry this way naturally and I thought my curls were simply growing out. The second picture is how my hair air dried after clarifying and using a non-coney conditioner. (Ignore the colour difference - one is taken outside on a cloudy day and the other is indoors with lighting and flash)

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1026/4608351980_0a3b4c4231_m.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3374/4615011086_8e56bfb322_m.jpg

Pantene is renowned for being really coney. Take a look at the argan oil you are using. Are the first few ingredients cones? If its 100% pure argan oil, then it's ok but the store bought ones are mainly silicones. Also the tigi will have its share of them.

Finally, it is totally possible that the hair at your crown is straighter than the hair at the nape of your neck. I have a section of my hair that is totally straight - poker straight but it's underneath in the middle. My hair there is so soft and smooth. I remember first discovering it when I was in my early teens so it's always been like this.

So, from my experience, clarify first (Pantene does actually make a really good one). Then use a low or no-cone conditioner and purchase a low sulphate shampoo for use next time, use them and then once you have towel dried, just scrunch some leave in into your hair with a t-shirt as you have been doing and leave it to air dry without touching it (this is really important). It might not happen right away, your hair will 'have to get used to it'. But certainly as it gets longer, it's going to want to curl more and more (to a point). I clarify once every couple of weeks even when I'm using cone-free products.

Oh, and get lots of moisture into your hair. Try doing a moisture treatment (like slather your hair in cone-free conditioner mixed with a little honey and clear aloe gel - SMT - and leave it on your hair for an hour) once a week for a period of a few months to try to infuse moisture back into your hair. Heat styling will have taken alot out of your hair plus all those coney products are stopping moisture from getting in. I found this made a huge difference to my hair but it really did take several months to see the effects.

[Crysania]

you could make a few braids on the upper part only ,when its still damp
or use a few rollers

[Inching Along]

Really good advice from Julliams! I need to start getting some extra moisture into my hair now that we're entering the colder, drier season here.

I have found the Live Curly Live Free site (http://livecurlylivefree.com/) very helpful. In fact, I need to read it over again! This really helps my hair: Bending and putting my head upside down after my final rinse in the shower to apply the final bit of conditioner to my sopping wet hair (which I leave in), then using my T-shirt to scrunch out the extra water. Then I get out of the shower and do other things, and once I've put my shirt on, I scrunch out more water with the shirt, then scrunch with my hands (haven't gotten into using gel yet), and then, holding the canopy scrunched, stand up and put my head upright, then let go of the canopy. Then I clip up sections along my part and my crown. (That's all a combination of Live Curly Live Free and Curly Girl.)

I hope you enjoy your curl journey!

[Inching Along]

I should add that I don't wear the T-shirt that I use to dry my hair, LOL! :)

[coffinhert]

The crown of my hair is straighter than the bottom layer. The bottom layer will curl into ringlets, while the top is only a little wavy.

One piece of advice is keep up with microtrims if your hair starts feeling dry at the ends. I just microtrimmed and my ends have os much more slip now, the hair can slide into its curl. I think before it was getting stuck.