I need advice from people who have tamed their thick, wavy hair...

[DevonCiderPunk]

I have very thick and wavy, almost wiry mouse brown hair. Used to have it long, but it was so heavy that it laid very flat on the crown and then bushed out below the ears like Crystal Tips. For the last five years I have been wearing a chin-length bob, which sort of works, but I fancy a change. I am early 40s with a very round face.

Shall I grow it long & layered, or shall I go for something shorter?

Google curly girl. That helped me. I don't brush mine at all, I don't use shampoo at all - only conditioner, and I use conditioner as a defrizzing balm on dry hair.

Mine is long-ish. I get it thinned out and layered at hair dressers and wash as little as possible. Also use a boar hair natural bristle brush as it smooths and distributes natural oils throughout hair.

Boots curl creme is wonderful for curly hair, it really does tame them. Mine is very wavy but since having my hair layered and using the creme its very low maintanance.

local.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/2137083-Curly-Girl-Any-Tips

My hair is similar I grew it into a medium layered style. I swear by Tresemme 7 day smooth system heat activated treatment, does what it says on the tin!

Thanks everyone! Time to properly investigate Curly Girl I think. Not sure about not brushing it though... Anyway I have a week off work coming up so have an opportunity to experiment!

It's so hard to feel groomed with hair like this, don't you find? I had some professional photos taken for work last year and I spent about an hour on my hair. It STILL all flicked up and frizzed out, and only on one side, not the other. Ah well, we can't control everything in life!

I have thick wavy frizzy and greasy hair. I could never grow it past shoulder length as it was so awful to style. As it gets greasy I have to wash it every 2 days which means extra styling.

I now have it long and layered, bouncy and shiny but it takes time to get get it like that.
What I do: wash and condition with dead sea spa magik.
Towel scrunch, not rub then extraordinary oil on the mid and ends and then tangle teaser.
Leave to dry (can take upto 2 hours) or blowdry if I can't wait.
Section hair and use BBH which smooths and straightens and creates bounce. Maybe another light slick of the extraordinary oil to the ends.
Yes its sooo time consuming but the results are worth it, I love my hair now.

Thanks Lumiona, I will look those up - what's BBH?

Also... How do you look after your hair on the non-wash days? Mine looks okay after a wash & natural dry, but as you say it's 2 hours plus, and then the following day I wake up with frizz and weird shapes depending on which position I've slept in!

Marking place. Too hot to do any of this to my frizzball at the moment!

My hair dresser calls my hair a wafro...it's like an Afro but no where near as beautiful.

I have mine in a short(ish) style currently as it's much easier to maintain. I wash it about once a week, less if I can get away with it. I use a moisturizing shampoo & intense conditioner. I towel dry then apply argon oil serum, followed by frizz ease straightening spray, then heat protect spray. Carefully blow dry using a small/medium round brush always pulling hair down- never up or out.... Once dry I have a rest & cool off. Then more heat protection spray, section hair, then straighten. Once straight more serum.

It takes a lot of work but people are always surprised at just how curl, corse & frizzy my hair actually is

Babyliss big hair which sounds ridiculous for our hair type but it's a spinning hot brush which smooths the hair down.