So.....I think I have curly hair! Help!

[Imscarlet]

My daughter has beautiful naturally curly hair. It's just fab. Neither myself nor my husband have curly hair. Or so I thought. We're having a lazy lounge around the house day, and I let my hair dry naturally. I can see a curl. I'm thinking that years of blow drying and having it in a ponytail it's been trained to be relatively straight. I have bob lengt hair.

I remember a friend growing out her hair, in my childhood, realising that it was curly and using a huge amount of product etc in it and having fab curls. Do I need to do this? What happens if only some of it is curly? I haven't a snowball's what to do here!

So it's a process. I was going the curly hair method for 8 months, went to the hairdressers had it blow dried straight and now I'm back to square one.
My curls are bloody stunning even if I say so myself BUT I cannot wash it more than once a week, no more heat st all, co wash with conditioner only and quite a lot of gel to get them looking lovely. It takes 3/4 hours to dry (just passed my shoulders) and then has the cheek to look nice in time for me to go to bed and shit again the next day.
I'm this close to getting it straightened again tbh

As above. I have naturally very curly hair and it's fab and also a pain in the backside at times. I wash my hair twice a week to keep it looking fab and conditioned, but can't apply heat to help it dry so it's wash early, leave to air dry with product in with a towel around my shoulders. Bit of a nightmare but hey ho.
They usually stay nice and bouncy until I need to wash again, if not a teeny bit tatty on the last day but then I tend just to style into something which usually looks nice too.

You should see how it goes, you can always cut it or start to straighten it again if you fancy. You shouldn't have to use tons of product if your hair is naturally very curly, only if you are forcing curl in.

Let's find out!

Get yourself some hair goop.

This is a good cheap place to start

Wash your hair (in the morning). Comb your hair. Put a 10p sized blob of the goop on your hands, rub your hands together, put the goop on your hair. Comb through your hair with your fingers and then scrunch it upwards a bit. Let it dry naturally, scrunching occasionally when you remember.

Do this for a few days in a row - you don't have to wash-wash your hair each time but you do have to make it damp at least.

See what it looks like.

One of the days, instead of just scrunching try twiddling some pieces of hair round your finger to see if you get ringlets.

If I straighten my hair then it takes a couple of washes to get back to a normal amount of curly, which is why you need to do it for a few days in a row.

Different people's hair behaves differently, and curly hair is like unhapppy families (all unhappy in their own way). So what works for one person might not work for you.

Ok, I'll pick up some goop tomorrow and give it a go! Exciting times!!

Yay!

My instructions are just for finding out if your hair is curly, they won't necessarily give you your best curly hair, but you'll definitely know if it has the potential :)

I have very dry, naturally curly shoulder length hair.

Wash it very rarely - once a fortnight or so. It is best if it is a bit greasy.

Put SLS free conditioner in a lot.

The Boots pink glop is the best product I have ever used (and I have used them all) - wet hair, towel dry, scrunch through, leave to dry naturally.

Don't use heat on your hair.

Give up all hope of ever looking sleek again.

Palmer's Coconut leave in conditioner is excellent too - also to apply to wet hair.

That leave-in conditioner looks great.

I have curly hair. When I'm wearing it down I use Phil Smith Curly Locks cream, I can blow dry it if necessary and it's fine. If I'm wearing it up I don't use any product, still can blow dry it and it's fine.

I find it really sad that for so many years now curly hair has been seen as a bad thing to be got rid of. I remember having waist length curls in the late 80s and hairdressers would gather round and admire it. Now they're just desperate to straighten it .

I think the late 90s and Noughties were the absolute worst for the insistence that ironed-straight hair was the only acceptable hair.

There then followed a period of teenagers all having MASSIVE wavy-ish hair in a side parting.

Now they mainly have it in a bun right on top of their heads.

Or that's how it seems anyway.

(talking about Caucasian teenage fashions here, which was all I saw when I was a teenager and so the only ones I can follow through time)

I was the last person to get a kylie perm, when was that 88 ?

After that it was mortia Addams with a zig zag parting. I've been told I look like a 70's chick with curly hair and had men cross the dance floor to tell me it's lovely but god it's hard work

I thought my lovely childhood curls were just a thing of childhood until one afternoon in a Japanese bath, I realised I'd forgotten my comb and just had to scrunch my hair into a frizzy mess in to what turned out to be still fairly curly hair.

Now I wash once a week and air dry. My hair isn't super curly, but as it's fine I prefer the body from my waves.

Letting my hair go curly is the best thing I've done. It takes minutes in the morning - spritz with water, scrunch in pink stuff from Boots and leave. I only wash it twice a week with the Palmers cowash stuff and I get loads of compliments. It has saved hours of time styling and is in much better condition.

What pink stuff do you use, Snuggly?

Boots' pink stuff is their Curl Creme, cheap as chips, linked by Trills above. The best hair product ever.

I have naturally curly hair - ringlets when fresh washed, turning into a ball of frizz next day. Whatever the product used, and I rapidly got bored with that anyway.
I was never complemented on it by anyone under 60, not that I was worried.

but what mattered is that I hated it. Now there is a cure which lasts a year. I can use a comb and look tidy, and have shiny hair that is comfortable rather than endlessly tangled and messy.

It also means I am noticed for me, not my hair. And I think it takes years off me. Many suit curls but I never did.

oops. Complimented. My natural hair doesn't complement me!

Thanks Bike, have given DP the chore of acquiring some today. I use mousse but it doesn't work.

Mousse is rubbish on curly hair.

SOME curly hair likes mousse. Or so a friend who has that particular hair tells me.

Mine prefers goop to mousse.

Hmm, my hair doesn't like the pink goop. Goes really flat in about half an hour. It's very fine, maybe mousse was the best thing - but I've thrown it away

My curls hate the goop too... so sad :(

Matrix Biolage Cleansing Conditioner
Kevin Murphy Killer Curls

I either scrunch blow dry (don't own I diffuser) or leave to dry naturally. Wash every 3 days. Curls are crazy at the minute!

My curls have turned to fluff and frizz, I'm reading with interest. I straighten it to look tidy, as the curls are just chaos. I couldn't imagine not washing it every other day, it would be so greasy!

The goop is most effective when used sparingly on wet hair.