hey everyone im new and need help

minajken21

Hey all im thinking about completely growing out my hair this fall and was wondering if anyone had some advice. I'm growing my hair now but am going to cut it when summer starts. Well I think I have 4a type hair and my hair is decently curly on top and back of my head but extremely nappy on the sides(i mean not product or condition will do anything to the sides of my hair). I recently started co-washing after doing research about a week or so ago. And using leave-in conditioners. Well when my hair looks wet its pretty good but when it dries, its frizzy and looks like curly nappy hair. I currently have tried three methods. 1. Using cantu leave in: which looks like i did nothing when dry and when i tried to add gel it was a disaster. 2. Using a watered down conditioner as a leave in but once its completely dry it looks like crap sometimes. or 3. using gel(smooth n shine curl activator gel): which doesnt work that well either. Any help on how I can define my curls more, my hair is the length it is on my avatar photo so not that long, maybe half and inch to an inch long. In the past I used texturizers (havent used one though since October '08) to achieve nice curly hair, but after about the 4th time I did it, the effect lessened and eventually my hair looked disastrous and would only look nice for about a day and then become wirery and frizzy after that. And my hair fell out!

Now i want to achieve curly styles with out using any chemicals and i need your help. Now im trying to improve the quality of my hair by oils treatments. Does anyone have any advice on how to achieve a nice style now(products, regimens, etc.) and help me prepare to grow my hair out in the fall??

CurlLee

well first you have to get over this whole "nappy" thing. its not that i'm exactly opposed to the use of the word, but your definitely using it in the negative connotation in which it orginated.

i've seen a lot of naturals (mostly women) who go natural in hopes of getting 3c curls. and when they end up with 4a/b hair they revert back to perms, or textureizers.

So if your going to grow out your hair, you have to be fully commited to how it grows out of your head. otherwise like you said, you will go to using texturizers or just cutting it off.

Its not uncommon (myself included) for people with texture hair to have different curl patterns all over their head. It can get frustrating, but there are tips that others have discovered that you will find help with this.

as far as the different methods you mentioned. i don't look at leave conditioners or cantu shea butter as stylers. those are more for mositure. so i wouldn't suggest using those for curl definition.

as far as gels. i can't help you there, for i was never really successful at using them right. there are a lot of youtube videos that could help you figure that out. and you could check out other forums here also.

I can't see your avatar, but you mentioned that your hair was short. another thing about textured hair is that sometimes it takes length to really show the definition of your curl pattern, the hair need that weight to hold the curls together.

i suggest when you do grow out your hair, in the begining just worry more about mositure than really defined curls, otherwise you will go crazy trying to get perfectly defined curls. when your hair is beyond a inch or two, then you maybe able to work with your curl pattern better.

you have to work with you hair not against it. i had to learn that myself when i first started growing out my hair. it gets easier with time. patience really is key.

minajken21

Thanks curlee, you have nice hair by the way. And yeah i should have used a better word than "nappy". I'm glad that your a guy that has natural curly hair, because most naturals are women, well what are your tips on moisture? I've watched a lot of youtubes its hard to discern which ones are good because most of those women have like 3c 3 b hair and even the women with hair like mine have success, i don't know maybe i just need most trial and error. Which products or methods do you use?

CurlLee

thanks... as far as moisture, right now i'm just using cantu shea butter leave in. i used to use organics hair mayo a lot. i also tried some of karen body beautiful's stuff a while back, and i didn't mind it. just didn't feel like doing the whole online ordering all the time.

conditioners, right now i like garnier triple moisture, although i mix that with suave coconut conditioner for added slip. and i also like tremme natural moisture conditioner.

most of its just trial and error though. you will begin to notice which things works better on your hair and what doesn't.