Can you help my "Chameleon hair" curl?

[piffyanne]

Sorry, I gotta warn you in advance this got pretty long.

I've brushed (NOT combed) all my life, and always thought my hair was slightly wavy (see what it's listed as right now), but while browsing a couple forums recently, I realized my hair's permanent "halo" of frizz sounds a lot like what curlies/wurlies get when they don't let their hair swirl as it wishes to. Because I suspect my hair is two different types based on what I do with it, I'm calling it "Chameleon hair."

I read elsewhere that if you "scrunch" your hair with conditioner in it, if you're a wurler, it'll squiggle properly (forgive the un-technical terms, I'm new to the terminology, never having needed it before).

In 2008, I "scrunched" with conditioner and it went all wurly, and I wore it to an art gallery that way. The picture here shows the mostly-straight, somewhat wavy hair I thought I had, and the wurly hair I suspect is in here somewhere:
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/392688_10150409858312282_632327281_8794307_1186155 75_n.jpg
Someone on here says my "hidden" hairtype may be 2c?

Today, as an experiment to see if the wurl still exists, I finger-detangled in the shower and plopped when I got out. Once that towel was sufficiently soaked, I carefully switched towels and re-plopped, and then switched again when the third one was saturated with water. (I swear my hair holds more water than EVER came out of the shower head. It's just crazy how long it takes to dry!) Because my hair was STILL wet (!) I left it up in the towel for another 45 minutes to an hour, instead of the 15 minutes suggested. I took it out about 15 minutes before it was totally dry.

After all that, my hair looked like this:
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/377206_10150412090052282_632327281_8801169_1252761 077_n.jpg
I'm calling this piece "A Pitiable Attempt." I measured before and after I did this, and I only lost 2 inches of length!

I looked at the ingredients in the shampoo and conditioner I used, and combined they must have about every cone under the sun, and the shampoo's got the laureth sulfate thing happening, too. >hmmmm... cone-free products added to Christmas wish list< The leave-in I use is Redken "Smooth Down" detangling cream, and since I've joined this forum and know more about what I'm looking for, I'm fairly sure my hair's been looking duller since I started using it, so that might be where the build up is mostly coming from.

HELP! Did I do wrong to change the plopping towel (you all say don't disturb the forming curl!), was it my taking it out before it was TOTALLY dry, will it get curlier once I'm cone-free, or is it going to get curlier once I've been regularly plopping longer? Do you think my hair has changed since 2008, and it's a different texture, or am I still a wurler deep down?

>Frustrated tears<

[Quixii]

I expect you've still got your wurl. It may in deed by stretched out some since your hair looks quite a bit longer.
What happens if you get out of the shower and don't touch it, at all? No plopping, brushing, combing, bunning, etc.

[AchtungCurly]

I agree that it may be the length stretching the wurls.

But when I went cone-free, my hair progressed over the course of several months. My before was frizzy, then I got rid of cones and became a 2a wavy, then the odd ringlet appeared, and then I ended up a 2c/3a. Your hair might just need time to adjust, like mine did. (My hair also curls more as it gets longer.)

Maybe while you're practicing patience while your hair is adjusting, you can experiment with plopping time. I can't plop until 100&#37; dry - about 45 minutes is the max I can do before my hair ends up looking goofy. Some people can't plop at all. Some only do the 15 minutes.

Hang in there!

[Knotted]

piffyanne, I can't help your curls, but I do love your hair! :)

[mneh]

Piffyanne it gets curlier with practice and time, believe me :) Like AchtungCurly my hair got curlier with time (and length strangely, but that won't be an issue for you ;)) and when discovering the products/styling techniques that work best for my hair.

One thing I would say is that your hair might be a bit long to plop successfully, air drying or diffusing lightly might produce better results. My hair doesn't like plopping and I get better results with a combo of air drying + diffusing. Perhaps CO-washing might help too, curly hair is often lacking the moisture it needs to curl.

Here's the info I used when I first went wurly:

http://livecurlylivefree.com/curly&#37;20hair%20basics.htm

The LHC threads for wavy/wurly hair, for wurly/curly hair, and for Co-washing are useful too.

[Anje]

I think you're right about 2c. Your hair texture looks a lot like Spidermom's, right down to the variability.

[SlightlySoprano]

I agree with not touching it and seeing what happens. What I like to do is comb it out with conditioner, rinse, comb it out once more then leave it be to dry. Also, going cone free definitely increased my wurl but YMMV. Everybody's hair is different. I also found that when I first figured out that I had wurls, my hair had a minor adjustment period because it was so used to being brushed straight, so it took me about 3 weeks of no brushing straight to have my hair be really curly

[Kaelee]

Man, I'm a little envious! hehe Your hair is beautiful!!!

My hair is straight. As a stick. I keep thinking there's maybe...some...tiny...wave in there somewhere. But even my new hairs stick STRAIGHT up. I'm starting trying various things to see if I can get it to curl even a little naturally though.

[HintOfMint]

I think I have a little less natural curl than you but basically that's what my hair does. I can brush/comb it and make it more on the straight side, and the frizz only lasts for a day after I wash it. After that, it calms down. I can coax my hair into a 1C if I want.

It's definitely a learning curve to wear your hair as wavy as nature permits, I still haven't mastered it, so most of the time, I comb out the waves and damp bun (which is the equivalent of putting my hair in rollers with the deliberate wave I get as opposed to my natural wave). I also have a very uneven curl/wave pattern. I also like to play with my hair, which isn't conducive to keeping curly/wavy hair nice. I'll be watching this thread for ideas (and like minded Chameleon heads!)

[spidermom]

I think you're right about 2c. Your hair texture looks a lot like Spidermom's, right down to the variability.

It does indeed.

If the option were available, I think I'd type mine 1C/2C. I can hold up a section of hair just about anywhere on my head, and there will be curly hairs, wavy hairs, and dead straight hairs.

I get my best curls from washing/conditioning before bed, then puddling my hair into the space above my pillow. I wedge another pillow between the bed frame and the mattress so that my hair can't slip over the edge and hang. In the morning, I swing my hair back and forth in the air to get everything flowing in the same direction, and I will have curlies all over the place.

Once I comb it, it goes pretty straight.

[chelshireling]

You might have a similar thing that happened to me. At apl I was a 3a, definatly, with lots of ringlets, as it got longer(waist/hip) the curls pulled out and not most of its 2c with some wierd straight pieces and still some 3a curls. Sometimes curls just can't hold throughout all that length. I find when i treat my hair curly (CO, a little aloe for gel, then scrunch and plop, NO brushing/combing excpet to detangle in the shower), its curly. But your hair is goregous, in the first curly picture it reminds me of pam from the office.
Aslo just a tip, if you was your hair at night, plop then go to sleep, after 8 hours if should be almost all dry, mine's usually a bit damp, and I've heard plopping with a towel can cause frizz, I use a silk/ cotton scarf, but a long sleeve t-shirt works too. good luck:D