Wavy hair product to encourage curl?

[Dollydowser]

I have got slightly wavy hair, since pregnancy and going grey (but I colour it). I normally blow dry my hair with a big round brush but I fancy a younger look and have tried to scrunch dry it with a diffuser. Problem being I need a strong product to hold the curl or it drops out and looks fluffy. Today I tried gel and it went crunchy, and I caught sight of it in a changing room mirror this afternoon and it looked like rats tails!

Any recommendations for something to encourage curl without crunch or fluff please? I have shoulder length hair with layers.

Hello, I've been searching for nearly 30 years and finally find the right combination.

Ok, you must have a good oil first. This is good in itself but will also help get the right touch with the next product

Which is ........ drum roll..............
THIS ONE from superdrug.
Usually £2.99 but I paid £1.47 last time.

No crunch, no frizz, but quite runny which seems the right consistency.
Thicker ones create crunch and stiffness ime.
Good luck, worth a try at that price

More than - I don't think your link worked! Was interested to see what you use!

Can't help but hoping to ref any advice

Mousse not gel is the trick. Look for one which defines curls. I have tried a few and am a bit fickle with them but even the boots own brand curl one works for me

Oh morethan can you try that link again, need to know what it is then I can get myself down superdrug today!!!!!

Me too, going shopping this morning.

morethan says its called 'This One', sorry, it wasn't a link

www.cosmopolitan.co.uk/beauty-hair/news/trends/beauty-products/title-29-7#fbIndex10

This is fantastic, use on wet hair after squeezing. Scrunch, scrunch,scrunch.

If you know what plopping is do that (in a T-shirt) or use a towel turban but do not touch.

When partly dry leave to dry naturally.

If necessary scrunch out the crunch

Try some of the Curls Rock products. My slightly wavy hair did the same as yours in pregnancy and a hairdresser introduced me to a curl booster to make the most of it. It did dry slightly crunchy and the effect only lasted a day, but it made a real impact when I used it.

I've got a tube of that one Rentahoose - it's awful on my hair, leaves it all crunchy and crispy looking, even if I do scrunch it afterwards. I've seen many recommendations for it on here before though.

My delightfully curly haired friend swears by Aveda 'be curly' products.

This one

The Aveda Be Curly doesn't work for me either, makes mine look lanky. Neither does Boots Curl Creme. They all seem to make it look either greasy or lanky or both.

WhoKnows

If I use too much, it is a bit crunchy but if I don't use to much it's great.

Seems less crunchy than most gels but that's just me. I do have very thick/dry hair though so maybe suits my hair.

Mine's fine, flyaway, wavy and lots of it. I think my problem is that even small amounts of product weigh it down too much.

You could check out the Curly girl handbook. It talks about using sulphate free shampoo and conditioner and scrunch your hair in the water in the shower. Only use a old T-shirt or a microfibre towel to dry your hair, supposedly the hair drying too quickly causes frizz. It then says to use gel - which is ok only if you dry it straight away, otherwise it gets crispy. I do use mousse and John Frieda frizz ease spray.

I find using a salt spray works well. Gives my curl a spiral look.

Sea Spray from Lush

Ah, funny you should mention the Lush Salt spray, I have just bought some. Only tried it once so far, so the jury is still out on it, it gave more volume rather than defined curls on first try but definitely calmed down the flyawayness. However I found the smell a bit overpowering, as with so many Lush products, which is a shame as I love many of them.

Whoknows, your hair sounds like mine, fine but lots of it. I tried scrunching with gel this week, the first person that saw me said 'what have you done to your hair?' in a not very complimentary way!

I use Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls Scrunching Jelly and love it. Just scrunch it in, add a bit of Avon dry ends serum to the ends and good to go

My hair is very thick and heavy - I use the Moroccan Oil curl creme while it is wet and then scrunch with some Bumble and Bumble curl reviver spray once it is dry - works incredibly well!

I really need to dry my hair with a diffuser to scrunch the curl in. Without something to hold it, the slight wave I have drops out to a mild kink (not that I'm adverse to mild kink but that's another thread). Any more products that will make it more curly without crunchiness?
Lala and elsie, how curly is your hair?

Mine is quite curly. Not tight curls, but if encouraged lots of wavy curls. If left to naturally its a frizzy mess, it can be easily hair-dryered and straightened if I ever get the time, but its much quicker to scrunch and go!

Thanks Idohaveoneofthese, I have had a look at the curly girl stuff. I realise I have type 2b curls, which mean my waves start lower down, so I definitely need to grow my layers a little bit for it to look curlier.

So today I applied a little bit of gel, followed by a generous amount of Osmo Curl Fluid and the first person I saw today said 'I like your hair, is it naturally curly? It was much wavier, and better defined curls but no crunchiness.