Texture troubles

**illicitlizard** · October 29th, 2023, 08:16 AM

Been a while since posting, hi everyone! I'm back because my hair is driving me insane. I solved the problem of my hair being too long for my personal comfort, and replaced it with another problem. Apart from not being able to do stick buns anymore (if anyone has suggestions, maybe buns that use 2 smaller buns?), my texture has gone haywire.

See attached pic of before and after my chop. Same routine of: wash, condition, brush out wet, and let air dry. At my current length instead of being lovely and smooth it's continually drying frizzy and uneven. How do I stop it from being unruly? I have tried blow drying and the same happens, the only solution seems to be straightening, but this is not something I'm willing to do more than for special occasions, due to the compromise in hair health it entails. I have also tried to treat it as "wavy" per reddit advice, but all that confirmed is that my hair is straight

.

Does anyone have a suggestion of what on earth I can do to encourage my hair to act smooth again? Anyone else had this issue when losing a lot of length? Thanks in advance!

Additional note: I cannot wait to regain more length and some fairytaling in the ends, I haven't had ends this thick in years and it's a massive hindrance to all updos.

**Jonas** · October 29th, 2023, 10:14 AM

This might not help but to me the second texture is nice, I like a little wave and texture and you have really beautiful thick volume that I envy… it looks like the heavy weight of the longer hair was helping straighten. I experience something like that, basically the shorter my hair is the more natural wave comes out

**luxurioushair** · October 29th, 2023, 10:26 AM

This may or may not help either!
Maybe deep condition your hair with Coconut oil, if you don't already?
In my past experiences, it prevented my hair from "shrinking" completely and caused it to stay a bit more stretched. (I don't use coconut oil anymore, I use Argan).

It seems that as your hair gets longer, it gets heavier. So maybe you have to just wait until it's heavier again, and then it might go back to its previous state.

**MusicalSpoons** · October 29th, 2023, 04:26 PM

Sorry but from the second picture those are definitely waves

it just might be that a wavy/curly care routine with leave-ins etc. aren't for you. They aren't for me, either, but my hair does still dry with half a ton of frizz (down from a ton before I made my wash routine more moisturising

) and I can't brush or comb it until the clumps release a few days after washing without it being seriously unhappy.

Suggest more conditioning, maybe CWC (even better if you can leave the first C on for a while before the wash, or the second one on for longer afterwards), maybe more moisturising conditioner if you find some that work for you, pre-poo oiling? Or maybe a dab of oil after the wash if your hair is okay with that. For me BBBing makes it *reeeeeaaallly* smooth but I could only possibly do that a week or longer after the wash, certainly not before.

Glitch had some hair wrapping techniques to get wavy hair to dry straight and smooth, maybe looking into that might help.

Or, maybe braidwaves (especially with a little oil), tried at various levels of dampness/dryness to see what works.

**Bat** · October 29th, 2023, 06:04 PM

as someone who Isn't a fan of wavy hair on myself I completely understand your concern! it looks like you are a 1c now, the only two solutions I can think of is more length to pull it down, or find a more heavy conditioner or mask to weigh it down more

**ETJ CURLS** · October 29th, 2023, 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by illicitlizard

Been a while since posting, hi everyone! I'm back because my hair is driving me insane. I solved the problem of my hair being too long for my personal comfort, and replaced it with another problem. Apart from not being able to do stick buns anymore (if anyone has suggestions, maybe buns that use 2 smaller buns?), my texture has gone haywire.

See attached pic of before and after my chop. Same routine of: wash, condition, brush out wet, and let air dry. At my current length instead of being lovely and smooth it's continually drying frizzy and uneven. How do I stop it from being unruly? I have tried blow drying and the same happens, the only solution seems to be straightening, but this is not something I'm willing to do more than for special occasions, due to the compromise in hair health it entails. I have also tried to treat it as "wavy" per reddit advice, but all that confirmed is that my hair is straight

.

Does anyone have a suggestion of what on earth I can do to encourage my hair to act smooth again? Anyone else had this issue when losing a lot of length? Thanks in advance!

Additional note: I cannot wait to regain more length and some fairytaling in the ends, I haven't had ends this thick in years and it's a massive hindrance to all updos.

How, exactly, are you blowdrying? There's a specific technique to it that will get even the curliest textures straight with the addition of the right tools and products. (I suggest watching The Blowout Professor on youtube for more tips.)

Originally Posted by MusicalSpoons

Sorry but from the second picture those are definitely waves

it just might be that a wavy/curly care routine with leave-ins etc. aren't for you. They aren't for me, either, but my hair does still dry with half a ton of frizz (down from a ton before I made my wash routine more moisturising

) and I can't brush or comb it until the clumps release a few days after washing without it being seriously unhappy.

Suggest more conditioning, maybe CWC (even better if you can leave the first C on for a while before the wash, or the second one on for longer afterwards), maybe more moisturising conditioner if you find some that work for you, pre-poo oiling? Or maybe a dab of oil after the wash if your hair is okay with that. For me BBBing makes it *reeeeeaaallly* smooth but I could only possibly do that a week or longer after the wash, certainly not before.

Glitch had some hair wrapping techniques to get wavy hair to dry straight and smooth, maybe looking into that might help.

Or, maybe braidwaves (especially with a little oil), tried at various levels of dampness/dryness to see what works.

I've seen people have great success with wrapping, so that would probably work. Roller setting could be an option too.

**illicitlizard** · October 30th, 2023, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by Jonas

This might not help but to me the second texture is nice, I like a little wave and texture and you have really beautiful thick volume that I envy… it looks like the heavy weight of the longer hair was helping straighten. I experience something like that, basically the shorter my hair is the more natural wave comes out

Ah thank you very much! I appreciate it, I think seeing the picture it isn't as awful as it feels - just not used to it! I'm hoping as I gain length it'll go "back to normal"

Originally Posted by luxurioushair

This may or may not help either!
Maybe deep condition your hair with Coconut oil, if you don't already?
In my past experiences, it prevented my hair from "shrinking" completely and caused it to stay a bit more stretched. (I don't use coconut oil anymore, I use Argan).

It seems that as your hair gets longer, it gets heavier. So maybe you have to just wait until it's heavier again, and then it might go back to its previous state.

I actually haven't tried oiling, I have some argan oil and coconut oil at home though, so I will try this! Maybe do a ROO, or oil it damp... have had decent luck with that for smoothness in the past. Thank you! It's amazing how little weight it takes to weigh down hair - I weighed the bulk of the 11" I had cut, and it only weighed 69g!

Originally Posted by MusicalSpoons

Sorry but from the second picture those are definitely waves

it just might be that a wavy/curly care routine with leave-ins etc. aren't for you. They aren't for me, either, but my hair does still dry with half a ton of frizz (down from a ton before I made my wash routine more moisturising

) and I can't brush or comb it until the clumps release a few days after washing without it being seriously unhappy.

Suggest more conditioning, maybe CWC (even better if you can leave the first C on for a while before the wash, or the second one on for longer afterwards), maybe more moisturising conditioner if you find some that work for you, pre-poo oiling? Or maybe a dab of oil after the wash if your hair is okay with that. For me BBBing makes it *reeeeeaaallly* smooth but I could only possibly do that a week or longer after the wash, certainly not before.

Glitch had some hair wrapping techniques to get wavy hair to dry straight and smooth, maybe looking into that might help.

Or, maybe braidwaves (especially with a little oil), tried at various levels of dampness/dryness to see what works.

Thank you! This is really helpful, I think I'll try CWC, and maybe look in to a heavier conditioner/using a hair mask on the regular. I will perhaps try to style it without brushing it through as well, try and keep it up so the frizz can't take hold! I have a BBB but it has nylon bristles as well, and I've been washing every few days due to exercise etc so may hold that thought for later. I wonder if I could get away with damp bunning with a little oil, that may actually work really well for keeping things neat, I'll just need some more clips!

Originally Posted by Bat

as someone who Isn't a fan of wavy hair on myself I completely understand your concern! it looks like you are a 1c now, the only two solutions I can think of is more length to pull it down, or find a more heavy conditioner or mask to weigh it down more

I think it's more that, styled "wavy" it doesn't look wavy, it just looks straight but really messy if that makes sense? I would love to get away with truly wavy hair, if I could style it as such I'd be a happy camper, it just doesn't do that sadly! I'll be waiting for everything to weigh down more over time, and finding heavier treatments in the meantime.

Originally Posted by ETJ CURLS

How, exactly, are you blowdrying? There's a specific technique to it that will get even the curliest textures straight with the addition of the right tools and products. (I suggest watching The Blowout Professor on youtube for more tips.)

I've seen people have great success with wrapping, so that would probably work. Roller setting could be an option too.

Thank you for that, I tend to rough blow dry the top and very occasionally properly round brush blowdry the lower layers that seem more wiggly. I find it a lot harder than just using a straightener, so you're right, my technique is probably a bit squiffy. I was previously able to rough blow dry whilst fingercombing the underlayers and achieve a very smooth result so this is all new to me.

**Bat** · October 30th, 2023, 06:11 AM

Good Luck!

**luxurioushair** · October 30th, 2023, 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by illicitlizard

Ah thank you very much! I appreciate it, I think seeing the picture it isn't as awful as it feels - just not used to it! I'm hoping as I gain length it'll go "back to normal"

I actually haven't tried oiling, I have some argan oil and coconut oil at home though, so I will try this! Maybe do a ROO, or oil it damp... have had decent luck with that for smoothness in the past. Thank you! It's amazing how little weight it takes to weigh down hair - I weighed the bulk of the 11" I had cut, and it only weighed 69g!

So 69g made all the difference? That's very interesting!

**KokoroDragon** · October 30th, 2023, 09:20 AM

The second picture looks a lot like my texture - too straight to be truly wavy, but too wavy to be completely straight. Wavy routines don't work for my hair either, they just make it look kinda messy.

It's never bothered me much so I haven't done anything to "fix" it, though brushing it out seems to work pretty well for me. Or, to go the other direction, braid waves.

As for buns that could work for your length, I would suggest trying a braided cinnamon bun. I believe I started to be able to do a disc bun at that length too, though that will depend a lot on how thick your hair is. Also, Tuanyiji has a bunch of pictures of multiple stacked buns you could take a look at for inspiration!