Anyone else feel like a curly imposter?

naturecat

There was a thread about this for wavies, but I wonder about curlies. I feel like a 3A imposter. My hair straightens completely when wet, and if I weigh it down while drying I would get stretched out waves instead of curls. If I didn't diffuse I don't know if I would get 3A. If I didn't do a bunch of things I wouldn't get 3A. Others would have their hair automatically go into ringlets while drying no matter what. Sometimes if I pull apart my barrel curls, esp on 2nd+ day hair, the pieces that make it up are more like 2b, and go back into curl when diffusing, but not on their own.
So I feel like a 3A who "puts on their hair" like make-up, rather than someone whose hair grows in curly. Anyone else feel like a a curl imposter?

claudine191

Yes. My wave pattern is spotty but insistent. If I cut it like it's straight the curls and cowlicks appear; if I try to work with them, they recede. It's extremely tiresome.

Lara.Pernat

Me too, I don't even know what type of hair I have (trying to figure it out with tests but my hair looks nothing like those on pictures). I have few spirals but only on ends, so mostly my hair seems straight.
Whatever you do for those awesome spirals totally works Naturecat! I love your hair

naturecat

Lara.Pernat wrote: »

Me too, I don't even know what type of hair I have (trying to figure it out with tests but my hair looks nothing like those on pictures). I have few spirals but only on ends, so mostly my hair seems straight.
Whatever you do for those awesome spirals totally works Naturecat! I love your hair

You're so sweet. Lately I've been messing up putting up too much gel in my hair, and my hair is baby fine and can't take it, so it stiffens straight instead of curling at all. And that doesn't match the right front hair, which is 3a no matter what. I've been pin curling to match.

I love your hair. Your hair from a few years ago had curl which mine will never have. Yours can go back to being that way. Even now you still have much better volume than I and can grow yours much longer. Though I do wonder if going shorter will help your curl a bit, as it will relieve all that weight on your hair. It should give you more curl up top instead of hanging straight up there.

The most recent pics you posted look 2B ish. If you have spirals on the bottom then 2B/2C. It's all curl appearance. Ignore the "tests" they mention on this site to check properties, as they're not accurate. Your original pattern as I recall, was at least 3A, maybe 3B. I, too, had spirals only on the bottom of my hair when it was longer, damaged, and I didn't know how to style it properly. Then when I went shorter those spirals came back, but much closer to the roots of my hair.

curlyamaryllis

Maybe it's being a fine, thin curly? I feel like coarse and/thick hair can take so much more- more abuse, more length, more manipulation, more product, whereas my hair gets overwhelmed so easily and falls into floof- sort of a stringy, puffy, not-curly-not-straight thing.

1001waves

You're not alone! We're not imposters! If I air-dry my hair (fine 2C/3a) with no product, I would end up with a scraggly poof that looked almost straight, except for that one little 3b ringlet at the nape that would always pop up no matter what. For years I thought that I had straight hair that just had a problem with frizz due to the climate. When I first started CG, I assumed my hair pattern was 2a due to my hair looking mostly straight with curvy bits at the bottom. Then it occurred to me after doing reading on the site that someone who had some definite 3b pieces would not have 2a as a primary curl pattern.

After obsessively diffusing with KCCC for several years to get my dream look of spirals all over, my own husband accused me of being a curly imposter since to him real hair is whatever it looks like after air drying! I finally figured out a few months ago, after 5 years of CG, a method that allows me to air dry to preserve my color treated hair but still keep a good curl pattern. Instead of applying all products while soaking wet and hoping my plop can remove enough water weight from the hair, I started applying leave in dripping wet in the shower, then squeezing out as much water as possible with a microfiber towel. Then I apply curl cream and hard hold gel. Then I plop for about 20 minutes, and air dry the rest of the way.

DicestBear

I can relate. If I use the wrong products I can end up with a curl/wave pattern in the 2s. My hair will curl on its own but it's frizzy and poofy and not terribly nice. With the right products I can almost tip toe to the 3B line but requires far too many things to be right.