Finger coiling? Is it faking curls?

Berrynice

Hello everyone!

I have only just realised I have wavy hair dispite having very curly siblings and parents! To try and help find my natural hair, I have seen on YouTube that people finger coil. They say it's to help tidy up natural hair but I was wondering is this true or would I just be faking curls?

What's your opinion? Have you tried it?

Guide 65

No, if a straight haired person finger coiled, they'd still end up with straight hair (unless they pinned the curls and left it to dry).  All you're doing is encouraging the hair to curl, not creating curls that aren't there.

And anyway, does it even matter?  If you use a straightener, would you feel bad about faking straight hair?  If you had straight hair and used a curling iron, would you care about faking curls?  We all do what we need to do to have hair that looks good and looks the way we want it to.  If finger coiling works for you, then go for it!

BrittanyM

No one will kick you out of the "club" for finger coiling. Go for it if you like how it looks!

cnic216

I finger coil all the time! There's a couple of sections of my hair that don't curl like I'd like them to and to make sure everything matches, I'll finger coil those areas as needed. I'll also finger coil on refresh days to fix any frizzy areas and get back some definition. If you like the look and it works for you, go for it! I definitely don't consider this "faking" anything. 

Berrynice

Thank you all for replying 😊

Whilst I'm discovering how my hair is naturally, I didn't want to trick myself into thinking I had curls, but after your replies I'll give it a go for sure and see how it works!

Thank you!

tinksaysboo

I totally get what you mean.  I can finger coil my hair and get some amazing Shirley Temple ringlets (okay maybe not quite but you get the picture) that I would never get just my scrunching. When people ask if my hair is naturally like that, I hesitate, which in turns gives me that feeling that it's fake curls.  But then I remind myself, my hair is curly.  Hair wouldn't easily curl or stay curly from finger coiling if it didn't already have curl in it.   I try to think of it as a way to style my curls, like how straight hair people can curl in their ends (to get the Rachel) or flip them out!

Gretchen

You be you!  If it makes you feel beautiful, do it! 

Berrynice

Sooo.... I tried finger coiling 2 times. It made my hair lmost straight haha!! No idea what I'm doing wrong 😋

tinksaysboo

Oh weird!  Are you finger coiling after you have put in products (and your hair is wet) and scrunching after? 

BrittanyM

Disclaimer, i am not a finger coiling expert, but maybe your sections were too big?

cnic216

I had this problem if I was trying to finger coil a damaged piece of hair. It would always turn out straight. Do you have damaged sections in your hair? 

Berrynice

I added gel to dripping wet hair and split my hair into 4 sections. I then finger coiled sections within the sections and scrunched.

It wasn't frizzy which is a  surprise haha but it didn't work at all. Maybe I need a better gel?

Have gels affected how they work out for you 3?

tinksaysboo

I have only finger coiled with my current gel.  I don't know why its doing that, sorry! 

cnic216

I've only ever been successful with finger coils with gel as well. Like I said before, when I was transitioning and I tried to finger coil my hair that was damaged, it didn't work at all. You might try to do a pin curl and see if that works. 

Guide 65

If I finger coil in the wrong direction, my hair will straighten out.  If I coil in the right direction, the curl is encouraged - but it doesn't really make it any curlier at the end (unless I pin it to dry).  The biggest problem with finger coiling for me is that every curl wants to go a different way, and I can't always tell which way that is.  For me, it's just way too much work for not enough results.