I am SO SICK of frizz, please help me

[YoureBreakingMyHeartCecilia]

I feel like I have tried everything but I’m sure there are other things…

My hair WAS very dry but Olaplex and an amazing deep conditioner have really helped that. But even though it’s softer and less dry it’s still so frizzy!

It’s naturally wavy and even gently curly in parts and I have masses of it, medium texture but LOADS of hair if that makes sense.

I am HOPELESS at blow drying it so I have started to leave it to dry naturally; this has also helped with the dryness. And tbh it was no more or less frizzy when I did blow dry. But I would rather refrain from blow drying still as I much prefer leaving it. It’s very bushy if I blow dry whereas I get natural curls if I leave it.

I mainly think I’m getting my styling products wrong, both the type and when I apply them. I have a microfibre towel. I have tried applying products to soaking wet hair and to (microfibre) towel dried and it’s still just as frizzy.

I have used expensive and cheap products, nothing helps.

Currently I am using (and not really liking) Noughty hair cream OR Noughty gel. I read that gel was good for frizz but it certainly didn’t seem to help mine.

Should I be trying a leave-in conditioner? If so any reccs, AND would I still also need another styling product on top?

Is gel good for frizz prevention, if I can find a better one?

Any good curl/styling creams?

And how the blooming heck do I apply them? Wet hair? Damp hair?

I’m following a tip of not fiddling with my hair once it’s drying… makes zero difference to the frizz

Should I be drying with a diffuser instead of leaving it to dry naturally?

I have a silk pillow case. Zero difference (though I do like the sensation at least!)

Basically I am sick of looking like a frizzy mess and would love your help! Even a reduction in frizz would do, I’m not expecting miracles. All my friends/school mums/colleagues seem to have frizz free hair and I’m not sure what I’m getting so badly wrong!

@Rodders92

I also get terribly frizzy hair with glycerine. It might be worth trying some glycerine free styling products/ leave in conditioners

This. Glycerin makes me hair frizz horribly when there's moisture in the air. Trying to find products with no glycerin is so hard though, it's in everything!

Your hair sounds exactly like mine. I moved areas and so hairdressers and this one finally said- it's baby hairs, and it makes so much sense. If I stretch out my frizz it's short and she said it's because I have sooo much hair and it's the baby hairs growing. In the past I had been told I have thick hair which isn't true at all. I've got fine hair just so much of it!

No solutions for you though I'm afraid, nothing works. Now I just leave it, even though I hate it.

Frizz happens because you’re breaking up the curl pattern. It’s why if you brush wavy or curly hair it goes like a bush. I also suffer with this and find the best products are by Only Curls but you could use any appropriate brand.

I love a scalp scrub or exfoliating shampoo so will do that first
Conditioner left on while I do everything else, wash body shave etc
Rinse and gently squeeze out excess water with hands
‘Headbang’ a few times to get hair hanging upside down from my head
Apply curl crème in a scrunching motion
Scrunch out more water with microfibre towel or t-shirt
Scrunch in gel
Leave to air dry or you can use a diffuser. DON’T touch your hair while it’s drying
Once dry, scrunch out the crunchy cast the gel leaves

This is an enormous faff but does result in the least possible frizz. Plenty of times I just don’t bother but I do end up with frizz!

Garnier hair food works for me! Big tub for £3ish

I have thick half curly half wavy hair. The frizz is massive so I feel your pain!

I’oreal extraordinary oil, I was using the olaplex smoothing creme but find this better. I have quite thick wiry frizzy hair, i do use quite a bit of it though.it’s not perfect but pretty good.

I’ve given the 8 seconds wonder water a try the last two washes and it does reduce my frizz. I have wavy hair that goes straight or curly depending on the day, the water makes it go more straight than curly unless I use a curl cream. But much less frizz so far

It’s such a minefield trying to work out what’s best for your hair. My hair has changed texture and is now very wavy and goes lovely and curly with a bit of encouragement. Used to be straight so I’ve had to learn how to manage curly hair.
What works for me is lots of conditioner and then curl cream scrunched in while wet. I disagree with PP who says using a diffuser is an absolute must. I find that my hair is much frizzier and has less curl definition if I diffuse. I now don’t use any heat in my hair whatsoever and it is in much better condition with hardly any frizz. Finding the right routine for you is a game changer though. My hair is so quick and easy to do now and looks like I’ve put in loads of effort. I did try curly hair method but it didn’t make much difference - apparently it isn’t always suited to those with wavy hair. The products ido use though are silicone free. Not sure about glycerin though so will have to check that

Look at the curly girl method

Olaplex 3 and 6, I had so much frizz before and can see a real difference now. Expensive but I wash only once a week so it works out ok.

I have thick coarse frizzy hair.

Over the years I have looked for the holy grail of hair products spending a fortune in the meantime.

The Dyson hairdryer is amazing for my hair type. Worth every penny imo. Altho friends with less thick hair don't rate it

The blue bed head conditioner.

Kerastase leave in conditioner or if that is too pricey the pink bed head leave in conditioner.

I use hyaluronic acid with hair oils. Olaplex 3 and 6 is also great for reducing frizz.

www.byrdie.com/hyaluronic-acid-benefits-for-hair-5101129

Aussie Freeze gel. It takes ages to import from America, but it's a really good drugstore brand. I layer it over a good leave-in conditioner.

I need gentle sulfates in my shampoo, otherwise I get terrible scalp infections from buildup. But my hair complains less if I stick to water-soluble silicones or avoid them completely.

If you can spring for it, the curlsmith line is supposed to be really good. I've used the air dry cream as a leave-in, and it's excellent. I'd use it more often but it's pricey. When I spring for it next, I'm going to try their gel too.

Have a look at Manes by Mel on YouTube. She has lots of sensible styling advice and techniques for curly and wavy haired people.

Eleven Australia is a nice salon brand too. The detangler spray and serum are lovely, and the curl cream is pretty good.

And you can use a Denman brush to pull leave in through your hair. That helps with clumping and making the curls and waves hang together.

I use a Wet Brush to detangle with conditioner through my hair in the shower.

www.curlsbot.com/ this is quite good for checking for bad ingredients - find an online list on ingredient and copy/paste it in.

Wash/condition with the same conditioner for most of your washes to maintain moisture. Maybe only use the shampoo once a fortnight.

Squish out the worst of the drips - then add gel. I comb it through as I think it "aligns" the hair a bit more so reduces the frizz. Then gently scrunch it to get the curl all the way to the roots.

I use Umberto GIanni Curl Jelly - but until this thread had forgotten about the glycerin thing - so it reminded me that last winter I used Aussie Freeze gel which is glycerin free and that did control some of the frizz.

Brazilian blowdry? Sorts out frizz for 12 weeks.

Hersheson Almost Everything cream has worked for me and my DSIS. We have very different hair, mine is coarse and curly; hers is fine and straight, but I use it as a curly girl product on soaking wet hair, then microfibre towel, and air dry/scrunch, and she uses it as a final dressing after blow drying to tame flyaways. It works for us both.

I keep my hair routine simple, sls free shampoo, (bar) and cheap argan oil conditioner which needs to be left for about 3 minutes. I occasionally use a curl cream. I been all the rules by using a leave in conditioner and brushing my hair, it does disrupt the fuel but it only takes minutes to go back into curls.

@YoureBreakingMyHeartCecilia

Thank you so much.

So I need to:

Check my products for silicones (the only one I’m actually concerned might have them is my deep conditioner as my styling products are labelled silicone free and my shampoo and conditioner are olaplex which I think (?) is silicone free)

If I’ve been using silicone, I temporarily (once??) use a sulphate-containing shampoo to get the silicone out?

I then proceed with silicone-free products. And a regular sulphate-free shampoo.

Does that sound as if I’ve got it right?!?

Yes, you've got it.

Unless you/your hair ends up preferring products containing silicone, in which case you're going to always need a sulfate shampoo every time.

What nobody needs, ever, is silicone in their shampoo because that'll block your conditioner afterwards from being properly absorbed. I guess it doesn't matter so much if you don't use conditioner. But even then you'd still want a silicone free shampoo with sulfate occasionally, to get the build up of silicone out of your hair.

Generally anything ending cone, conal, xane is silicone but that's not an exhaustive list there's others.

It's all trial and error.

Some hair likes oil, either regularly or occasionally, or as an igredient. There's sealing oils (IIRC coconut, jojoba, amongst others) and moisturising oils (almond, olive and I think grapeseed, among others).

Some put products in dripping wet hair, some like me put in damp hair.

I smooth products along hair shaft with hands and some scrunch products in by getting the ends in your palm and pushing upto the roots in a handful.

It's all one big experiment to find the combination that works best. Which includes the correct cut to get it hanging how you prefer if you want to wear it down and totally loose. I cut my own hair.

Even then you'll not be immune to bad hair days when the weather is unfavorable or you've slept with it mussed up and it's all wrong.

When I did a lot of sport I had to wash daily because sweaty greasy hair roots didn't hold a style, the only realisic way to restyle for me was to start over again. So I did sport first thing before doing my hair for the day. Vanity!

Some people prefer to wash hair every week/fortnight and use a spray water bottle to restyle, because that's what's working best for them.

Others do curly girl method which means no shampoo of any kind, using conditioner to 'wash' instead (it doesn't, it means you have to scrub your scalp with your fingers for about a thousand years or something to get it clean manually, the hair equivalent to dashing your dirty clothes against rocks in a river to clean them IMO! But there's those who swear by it).

Good luck with your hair journey OP. When you get it right and factor it into your routine, it feels easy. Until then, get good at up-dos for those days when it's all gone wrong

I disagree with PP who says using a diffuser is an absolute must.

For clarity, I meant as opposed to a hairdryer with a standard attachment for straight hair/no attachment at all. Diffusers don't work for everyone, some are better off air drying.

@ShineySparkleyChrissmassy

I disagree with PP who says using a diffuser is an absolute must.

For clarity, I meant as opposed to a hairdryer with a standard attachment for straight hair/no attachment at all. Diffusers don't work for everyone, some are better off air drying.

Oh sorry, I misunderstood! Yes I completely agree, using a hairdryer with our diffuser would be a frizzy disaster!

Thanks so much everyone.

After some more research I’ve ordered a few trial size curlsmith products so I will update (if anyone is that interested later this week…)

I just feel it’s got so much worse recently (I’m regretting the Noughty products and my supposedly amazing and pricey deep treatment conditioner as it’s worsened since I started those) and it looks really crap. My style isn’t exactly polished at the best of times, I have an artsy job and dress quite casually; if my hair is this frizzy I look like a complete wreck! I do take decent care of myself and make an effort to look nice (just not polished!) so it’s a bit dismal to look like I’ve been repeatedly pulled through a hedge just because my (admittedly-unruly) hair looks so dry frizzy and unkempt.

Will update on success or failure!

Thank you all so much

I'm using this shampoo
www.lookfantastic.com/garnier-ultimate-blends-smoothing-hair-food-coconut-shampoo-for-frizzy-hair-350ml/12430117.html

And this conditioner herbalessences.co.uk/en-gb/products/white-strawberry-sweet-mint/white-strawberry-sweet-mint-conditioner/

Neither have glycerin in and it has helped - both cheap from the supermarket so might be worth a go?

@GameofPhones

The Braun Satin Iontec hairbrush works for me www.robertdyas.co.uk/braun-brabr710-satin-hair-7-iontec-brush-black Also a stainless steel comb. Both reduce the static electricity that causes frizz.

I just recently started using this, and sleeping in a silk turban. Frankly amazed. Seriously. Transformational.

I also have a cupboard full of oils and shampoos and conditioners.

But the Braun hairbrush and the turban have made the difference.

@AdamRyan
Boots are doing 2 for £8 on that shampoo. My sister bought it this morning.