Am I curly or wavy? Help please

[SpottyBumPony]

Can you help with my hair. I don't know if I'm curly or wavy, I can get curls like this picture but they are quite messy and irregular, after a day they look like rat-tails. My hair is quite dull.

I'm using an anti-frizz shampoo and a curl conditioner, shine serum, beach wave spray and scrunch gel. Plopped then air dried.

I'm being suckered in by OnlyCurls Facebook advertising but it's so expensive. What can I do to make the curls nicer?

I think your hair looks lovely.
With CG, I've found it's a lot of trial and error. Best product for me (so far) has been Faith & Nature conditioner, then Umberto Giannini gel (dark pink one) or Flora and Curl gel . More expensive products haven't always worked, and too much product weighs my hair down - my hair is fine and wavy.
I have to refresh most days - spray with water and a bit more gel. I also lightly brush through my ends as they get ratty.
I think Only Curls do a trial pack.

I think the issue is that you will need to blow dry your hair instead of air dryto avoid frizz. You will need to dry your hair around 80% dry, plop the products and dry it with a round brush. There are many tutorials on Youtube on how to blow-dry your hair.
Here is a that I found useful. x

Am a curly girl. Game changer for me was washing with conditioner, leaving a conditioner in. Using a curl cream. I use cantu gel when soaking wet, plop and then brush when soaking wet.

Don’t touch your curls when drying if poss. There’s loads of different companies selling us the perfect curly dream but it literally depends on your curl pattern. Mine hates coconut so I use olive products and I’ve stopped buying expensive stuff !!!

Oh and a satin / silk pillowcase plus either put it up at night in a velvet scrunches (Wilkes sell these ) or a satin bonnet , not stylish but 🤷‍♀️

You are wavy, if you follow a full cg routine it will most likely be much too heavy for your hair. I would cut out the beach wave spray, and try using a diffuser to bring out the curl in your hair. Also consider a trim if you haven't had one gorgeous a while.

Shamelessly placemarking as I have the exact same hair. Gorgeous for one day if I shower and leave to dry with conditioner combed through but then a matted tangled hedge the next morning😭

Avoid silicone in shampoo and conditioner
the day after spritz your hair with water and finger comb - do not brush your hair (only before washing)

find a hair dresser to do a curly cut it’s a game changer

I'd say wavy. I agree with purple's advice avoiding products too heavy for that hair type.

My hair's also wavy, but I don't like to use a hairdryer (rarely anyway) so I tend to plait mine wet after adding product, so end up with braid waves initially (as they call them) rather than my own natural wave. I use a few products on wet hair, including Olaplex 9 and also 7.

I used some extreme hold gel recently and found that was great for any frizz. Apply then scrunch it out when dry, if that makes sense. I think it's called a cast when dry?

You have gorgeous hair!

Its really trial and error - you’ll get lots of great ideas here but everyone’s hair is different so it will take some time to work out what works for you.

My initial thoughts are to try only using shampoo on your scalp and then cowashing the rest of your hair.

A cut might really help get a bit of spring into your curls?

If you want even curl pattern, consider googling videos of denman brush styling technique?

rather than buying expensive products, maybe but cheap versions of different formulas? Then you can have a good play to find a combo that works for you. So super cheap versions of: mousse, heavy gel, water-based gel, leave in conditioner, curling cream. Together, that would come to £20 and you could explore lots.