Can anyone help me type my hair?

whitegirlcurl52

I have quite interesting wavy hair. It's very limp, almost straight, in the front and as you work your way back gets increasingly curly. I have some pictures of the different views (on different days too) so you can see what I mean. Do I have multiple types? Is there a way to make the front curlier to blend it better with the rest of my hair? I've tried adding more product or scrunching more on the front but it never seems to help. Thanks for any comments or suggestions!
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This is just a view of the back of my hair
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This one is the side view of my hair
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Here you can see the difference between the front part that I've pulled aside and the curls hidden behind
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And this is somewhat of a better view of the front part of my hair that is more limp.
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Here is another side comparison view from the summer. (Sorry for all the pictures!)

Any help would be very appreciated! I've been curlygirl for almost five months now and have yet to figure out why this keeps happening!

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JessiiLeighh

Your hair seems mostly 2b, with some 2a in the front and some tighter waves in the back. Multiple curl types is very common. As for the front of your hair, you can try braiding or twisting it kinda loosely while it dries, so it dries with more texture. If you have to, spritz a mixture of water, sea salt, and gel only on the front pieces. Make sure you keep it well moisturized, and only do the front pieces, to try to blend it with the rest of your hair

whitegirlcurl52

Thank you! I'll try the braid suggestion next time I style my hair.

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JessiiLeighh

whitegirlcurl52 wrote: »

Thank you! I'll try the braid suggestion next time I style my hair.

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You're welcome! Just make sure to braid your hair in a way that matches your curl pattern. Too tight and it won't match the rest of your hair.

chupie

Also some long layers in front might help it bounce more. Are you doing any protein treatments and DTs? What's your routine?

PyjamaLlama

I have the same problem but the other way wrong - the front of my hair goes into ringlets and the back hangs limply. I have found putting more product in the less wavy parts helps, and gently smoothing the more wavy parts. Also, since my hair has been shorter (APL instead of BSL) with a couple of long layers in the back, the back has been much wavier your hair is really pretty by the way!!!

BotticelliBrit

This is a problem I noticed recently, though I think mine is probably due to heat damage. I actually found twisting the front parts of the hair around my finger when wet and then scrunching works wonderfully to blend it into the rest of my hair.

whitegirlcurl52

Thanks for all the advice! Chupie, my routine is usually detangle with conditioner, lowpoo, condition, then I flip my head over and use some regular conditioner as a leave in and re-detangle a bit. Then i use cold water to scrunch a bit and close the hair follicles and then use some type of styling product. Right now it's gel. Then i plop. My conditioner is tresseme naturals, my shampoo is yes to cucumbers and my current gel (just bought it, only used it twice so far but I'm liking it) is LA looks. I know I should DO more often than I do, I only do a evco DO about once a month. But that basically sums it up. My hair is about medium texure and I'm not really sure about my porosity. I thought it was high but I don't know now! :P

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chupie

whitegirlcurl52 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice! Chupie, my routine is usually detangle with conditioner, lowpoo, condition, then I flip my head over and use some regular conditioner as a leave in and re-detangle a bit. Then i use cold water to scrunch a bit and close the hair follicles and then use some type of styling product. Right now it's gel. Then i plop. My conditioner is tresseme naturals, my shampoo is yes to cucumbers and my current gel (just bought it, only used it twice so far but I'm liking it) is LA looks. I know I should DO more often than I do, I only do a evco DO about once a month. But that basically sums it up. My hair is about medium texure and I'm not really sure about my porosity. I thought it was high but I don't know now! :P

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Do you mean EVOO? I was thinking you may need protein. There is IAGirl's gelatin protein treatment. Also, maybe think about coconut oil over EVOO. You might try plopping before gel, not after, or sometimes, plopping doesn't work well after a certain length. Try what I call mini-plopping where you just use a flour sack and coil up a section in the towel, hold and squeeze holding it for like a count of 10- 20 seconds and carefully letting down. And I seriously can't recommend Sweet Curls Elixir FSG enough for defining. You can also make your own, there are a million recipes. I'd sure try it. To me it looks almost like you are getting build up. I don't know from what. You could try a PINCH of citric acid in your conditioner once, to see if you can detox. I almost wonder if the EVOO is too heavy for your hair? Do you diffuse? Some of us wavies just get WAY more wave if we diffuse.

whitegirlcurl52

By evco I meant extra virgin coconut oil. Sorry for the confusion! I never thought about plopping before gel but it's definitely something to consider. I've never tried a protein treatment so I'd be interested in trying that too. Would you apply that just how you would a deep treatment? And how often? Also? I did just think of something... When I turn my head over to re-detangle, my hair tends to lay a little weird. It also then affects how it lays after I let it down. However, if I don't turn my head over, I never get the same definition and it especially doesn't add any volume or wave to my roots. Any suggestions on what to do about that? I am trying to grow my hair out, so flipping it over is going to start getting heavy and a bit unmanageable. But if protein would help with definition I am 100% willing to try it!

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chupie

whitegirlcurl52 wrote: »

By evco I meant extra virgin coconut oil. Sorry for the confusion! I never thought about plopping before gel but it's definitely something to consider. I've never tried a protein treatment so I'd be interested in trying that too. Would you apply that just how you would a deep treatment? And how often? Also? I did just think of something... When I turn my head over to re-detangle, my hair tends to lay a little weird. It also then affects how it lays after I let it down. However, if I don't turn my head over, I never get the same definition and it especially doesn't add any volume or wave to my roots. Any suggestions on what to do about that? I am trying to grow my hair out, so flipping it over is going to start getting heavy and a bit unmanageable. But if protein would help with definition I am 100% willing to try it!

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Ope! Sorry. If you do the gelatin protein treatment, you'd follow it with a deep conditioner. How often depends on your hair. Another thing people do is just get some NPF from Sally's and put a bit in with their condtioner. I just used CJ Repair Me for the first time today and love it. Seems to do the best job at all in one of anything I have tried. (and they have a Black Friday sale tomorrow on the Curl Junkie site). If flipping over is causing an issue, some people I know finger comb their hair back from their forehead in the shower as the last part of detangling to get more volume. Also, clipping the roots up helps with volume in the crown. You can search around for a lot of great posts on that. I will say LA Looks is more of a hard hold gel. Generally you need a "clumper" under that. I love CJ Pattern Pusha, and I have discovered the Sweet Curls Elixir to be GREAT at defining and shine (I just posted a couple of pics on the thread under reader review of using only a leave in and the SCEFSG). Ummm. I have used Spiral Solutions Curl Enhancing Jelly as the clumper, Jessicurl Confident Coils. Some people call this the "filler" and the gel a "sealer". Another great technique for clumping is the Supersoaker method. If you haven't watched that video, it's great. A lot of people start with that and modify as needed. Some people can get great definition with one gel, but most of us wavies seem to need a filler in there to help with definition and clumping. Also, like I said, pixie diffusing with a bowl diffuser helps tremendously. You should join the FB wavy group (see this thread http://www.naturallycurly.com/curltalk/2/144110-wavies-have-you-seen.html) . You will see a ton of people with hair similar to yours. (I'm much more s'wavy and not nearly as wavy wavy as you).

whitegirlcurl52

Wow I didn't expect to get this much help and advice! Thank you so much!! I'll definitely look into protein and deep treatments as well as a good clumping product. I did notice that the gel seemed more of a sealer that a clumper or definer. I'll be using all of this advice and will probably keep checking in to post some progress or any more questions. Thank you tons!!

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whitegirlcurl52

So just as an update, I did a modified version of the super soaker method (I had been doing something similar to it before but it was difficult to control upside down.) I'm not sure if it was all the finger coming I did in the first place because I don't have a Denman brush, or what but my curls came out pretty stringy. I didn't do anything upside down this time and used a bit more gel than last time. I'm looking into getting the sweet curls flax seed gel as a filler. I'll attach some pictures to show you the comparison. I also only plopped for 5 minutes as opposed to my usual 1.5 hours or overnight. And I was out and about in the cold weather, but even in the shower my hair felt stringy and greasy no matter how much water or conditioner I added. It was a soft water shower tho, which my hair is not used to.

This is the non upside down dilemma I seem to have too often. My curls seem to end up stringy and a bit greasy. The pictures are from thanksgiving and then today for comparison. They are both first day styles.
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I know it's difficult to see a difference but today's hair is definitely greasy and stringy. It also has less wave or curl and also less volume. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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Firefox7275

Brushing, finger combing, re-detangling or raking products through can all pull out weaker waves. You might mess with your hair less, just palming products on and scrunch'n'pump to encourage wave. If needs be do everything upside down, don't detangle one way up then detangle again the other way up.

That is a very long plop time too. If you think about it some parts of the hair are concertina'd into waves and other parts are flattened/ straightened against the head.

Hydrolysed protein definitely encourages wave so is worth trying. I would do a treatment after clarifying and/ or chelating, don't pile protein over possible build up.

What are the surfactants in your low-poo and how well are you rinsing out your detangling conditioner? Some shampoos will combine with some conditioners to create build up: especially anionic with cationic ingredients due to their opposing electrical charges.

chupie

With soft water your hair (and body for that matter) will never feel rinsed. Are you visiting? I actually think the first pic looks great. Little hard to see that second one.

jakrussel3

The front of my hair is less wavy too. Sometimes wrapping the hair around a finger helps me, sometimes it doesn't. Looking at your hair, some layers in the front might lighten things up so it would wave more too. I know you're trying to grow it longer, but you're probably going to need layers in there somewhere.