Products for unruly, pouffy/rough textured, curly hair

[TrufflePioneer]

I've searched for so many years to find the right product (or cut) for my hair, but almost always end up disappointed. I know everything works differently for different people, so I'm prepared for trial and error, but what are your best experiences?

The Curly Girl method didn't work for me despite trying dozens of different products over an 8 month period - it still looked dry, frizzy, and kinky not curly. The top layer in particular is dry and weak (breaks easily) despite many glossing treatments, and it doesn't change over the years so it isn't temporary damage - it's just the way the hair is, apparently.

I went to see a curly hair specialist recently, who reluctantly told me to wear my hair straightened as it has a rough, uneven texture. I have identified great products for styling it straight/smooth with heat, but in 15 years of wearing it long have never found anything to make it feel nice and smooth and glossy when wavy/curly - either with silicone or without.

Any ideas? I've experimented with loads over the years - is the specialist right, is there no hope for ever air-drying my hair?

PS if this sounds familiar, I have posted before under another name, but that was all about getting a good cut - that failed, so I'm looking at products again now!

Aah fellow frizzy, I feel your pain!
I have the same problem and am trying to embrace curly as my hair is getting thin and weak.

The hot weather this week in particular has been a complete, hideous and embarrassing nightmare for my hair. (The source of much hilarity for my family though who are now calling me Painter Bob!! (google him!))

I have tried so many products and routines lately to pamper my frizz but have come to the conclusion that I will have to go back to styling it smooth and straight for work at least.

Wish I could recommend a miracle product for you but I haven't found it yet, sorry! Maybe try Tigi Curls rock amplifier...I quite like that.

Any chance you can share your product picks for styling your hair straight as that was exactly what I was about to post for?

Btw, interesting what you said about the top layer of your hair being the worst part.
Mine is too and I thought if I treated it kindly and used the right product, air dried etc it would improve.
It hasn't and looking back at photos in my 20's reminded me it was the same then.
Now in my 50's so I have finally realised if I didn't have that kind of hair back then, I'm certainly not going to get it now no matter what I do!

@Liquoricecomfit ahhh yes - they promised us that with time and "rest" our frizz would recover from heat and silicones and be bouncy and curly and beautiful! Yeah, right. I think some of us just have pouffy hair, the end.

I found two miracle products for smoothing with heat - the first is Colour Wow Dreamcoat, and the second is Mane & Tail Detangler, both available on Amazon. Dreamcoat is activated by heat (blow drying and straightening), and costs £24 a bottle, but lasts ages - it makes my hair incredibly soft, smooth and glossy and has lovely slip. The downside is that you have to blow dry your hair, it doesn't work with airdrying, and it does rather build up - I use it every other wash for about 4 or 5 washes, then I notice it getting a bit dull and claggy through the straighteners. So I use a clarifying shampoo to remove the build up, isopropyl alcohol to clean the straighteners, and start over.

Mane & Tail Detangler is about a third of the price, you need quite a lot but it doesn't tend to build up as much as Dreamcoat and washes out more easily, AND you can airdry your hair and it will still feel silky. It is silicone obviously so it doesn't eradicate frizz, reduce pouffiness or define curls or anything, but it does make it feel better and it's miles easier to straighten.

In fact I invested the princely sum of £23 on one of those ceramic straightening brushes. They're cheap tat and one day they'll set my house on fire, and of course they can't straighten our hair properly, BUT with either of these products in my hair I can drag the brush through my massive pouffy mane and take out the worst of the frizz and haphazard curls in just a few strokes, so it takes the sweaty frustration out of straightening - I just make finishing touches with the ghd's.

I've had some luck airdrying today - I washed with an acidic shampoo (low pH keeps the cuticle tight shut apparently), conditioned with Faith in Nature aloe vera conditioner, put on some VO5 Overnight Curl creme that I bought in a whim in Morrisons, sprayed a load of Detangler on it, tied it in a tight ponytail and let it dry - and actually, it's quite passable and not even that frizzy out of the ponytail!

In the morning it'll go one of two ways - surprisingly smooth, or gigantic and matted.

Trepadora and Devacurl are both brilliant (unfortunately very expensive though :-s). Also had brilliant results with Miss Jessie's curly pudding

I don't have curly hair, but my daughter has a medium curl with very dry and brittle texture. The only two things we have tried that work are the Noughty range intensive care leave in conditioner and Superdrug own brand coconut and argan oil pots. The coconut oil is just a block of solid oil and you scoop it with your fingers and work it through the hair with your fingertips. You need to feed the hair to keep it supple and define the curl

Alpaparf precious nature for curly/wavy hair. There's a shampoo and conditioner and a hair mask. I have frizzy brittle dehydrated wavy hair and it was a game changer, also aussie beach waves but they seem to have stopped doing that one

For your hair, try the trepadoras papaya slip. It is moisturising and has some hold. If you apply it to wet hair, scrunch it through and let it air dry it should help with frizz. Not too much product though, and once it's dry, scrunch out the crunch of there is any.

The key is not to touch it while it's drying.

There's now a curly version (type 2 and 3 only) of dreamcoat. I haven't tried it so don't know if it's any good but it did appeal to me as you can leave that to air dry or diffuse, since you've had success with the regular one this may work well for you?

I’m reading the responses with interest!
Have you tried any of the vitamins specifically targeted for hair? I haven’t, but wondered if you or anyone else has tried them and noticed any difference?

My hair likes the shea moisture protein mask (blue tub), also noughty as recommended above. I would like to try the righteous oil and ecoslay range - next payday maybe! I find a cider vinegar rinse helps with the frizz too although it does stink the house out!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone - I'm compiling a list!

Fellow curly girl. I couldn't live without tigi blow out balm. It's sort of a serum, I put about 10 drops through after the shower. Honestly makes my curls so silky.

Bedhead or Catwalk version @Springfern? My hair does quite well on Tigi products...

I've just noticed that there are apple cider vinegar hair rinses available on Amazon - I can see that these would be good for frizz owing to the acid content, but the blurb says they are for oily hair? Mine is about as far from oily as it's possible to get...

Catwalk OP. This one www.tigi.com/catwalk/uk/product/blow-out-balm/

Perfect thanks!

DD has very curly hair that tends to get very knotty and tangled underneath and frizzy on the top layers.

We use highly moisturising salon shampoos (I honestly am not convinced it matters which one) and conditioners, but only actually wash her hair every 2 weeks or so.

I use an Innolux Elixir on her hair immediately after a wash.

Then in between, we dampen her hair and apply As I Am leave in conditioner - applied extremely generously. I detangle with my fingers first (do the bottom first, then the outer bits) then sometimes use a tangle teaser on as well.

This helps to control the frizz/out of control nature of the hair. During school term, I can do this pretty much every day but the sheer effort involved means we do it less often now. There's no doubt that a more regular application would help. Surprisingly, there's little or no build up and I'm always sort of surprised if we haven't done it before how the hair just goes back to it's usual very dry, very curly, somewhat frizzy state.

I have also long eyed the twist defining cream but suspect the effort of getting DD to hold on for this is not worth it!

Have you tried a rice water rinse on your hair, OP? (Many vids on Youtube). I have very frizzy hair too and I believe it helped repair some of the brittleness and added some strength and softness to my hair.

Thanks for that routine, BlingLoving...v interesting and some new products to try too.

A rice water rinse Binky, no, can't say I have!? I've done the egg white thing from the CG method, can't say it did much.

Has anyone tried the Boucleme products? I keep getting spammed on FB with curly product ads, the Cocunat stuff looks amazing but gets poor reviews, the Noughty range seems popular, and Boucleme looks interesting...

Devacurl I've read mixed things about, and Trepadora looks pretty good.

I know you have to try all these things yourself, I was hoping that someone with hair like mine had tried some! I've tried so many that I couldn't even list them...all I know is, that the vast majority do nothing to contain the frizz (even using a gel to form a cast and then scrunching it out doesn't work), or they just make it feel sticky and knotted or rough, rather than silky smooth. I can only put that down to the rough cuticle, nothing can flatten it apart from heat.

I got some Hair and Mane Detangling spray today so looking forward to trying that tomorrow thanks Truffle.
I've tried Boucleme - hated the shampoo and conditioner, did nothing for my hair except feel dirty.
I don't mind the gel. It's quite sticky though so I only tend to use it to smooth the fluff and frizz down during the day. I put a bit in my hand and add some water from a spray bottle and just gently smooth over the halo of fluffy hair.
Wouldn't buy it especially for that though.

Ooh good luck Liquorice, hope it works for you!

I've just been trawling Amazon reading reviews and adding products to my basket. Trouble is, I've done that before, spent a fortune and I haven't discovered anything miraculous yet!

Noughty intensive care leave in conditioner and Noughty intensive care hair mask both seem to work on my frizzy curls.

I also like using Moroccan oil curl cream leave in conditioner (which was recommended by my hairdresser)

Other things that help with frizz are sleeping on a silk pillow case, only using silk textured hair scrunchies to tie my hair back and never drying or styling with heat.

Some really great suggestions on here

I assume you have tried them as they are so mainstream, but I find Cantu products are perfect for my curly hair.