These days everyone is longing for full-textured locks, and you’d love to jump on the bouncy hair bandwagon too. But every time you spend the half hour it takes to curl your entire head of hair, those curls have fallen flat by the time you step foot outside your door. What gives? There are a few different reasons your locks might not want to bend. See if any of these reasons apply to you, and find out what you can do about it.
The Shape Of Your Hair
While it might not be what you were hoping to discover, here it is: Hair with a naturally very circular hair shaft doesn’t hold curl well, and there isn’t a lot you can do to change that. While it does put your hair above average on both the smooth and shiny scales, it also makes you prone to—you guessed it—perfectly straight hair, despite your efforts to style it otherwise.
Hair with a little natural wave has more of an oval shaft, while super curly strands are more oblong in shape and kinky hair has a shaft that is almost flat. When you curl your hair, you’re changing that shape only temporarily and hair is inclined to return to its natural form. Those with super straight hair are always going to struggle with keeping curls, just like those with super curly strands struggle with keeping them smooth.
Your Hair Is Too Healthy
Who ever thought that healthy hair could be a bad thing? Well, technically it’s not. It does, however, come with often unwanted side effects of slippery styling. When hair is really healthy, the outer layer of the shaft is extremely smooth, which doesn’t lend itself to holding any style–ringlets to updos– in place.
Your Hair Is Too Clean
Like exceptionally straight and healthy hair, really clean hair is also slick and doesn’t behave the way you’d like it to when styling. By not washing every day, you can leave more natural oils in place and create more texture that makes your hair more apt to do what it’s told.
You Have Too Much Product In Your Hair
When styling your hair, you want to go light on the conditioner and other heavy moisturizing products. These products can weigh your hair down. Also, over-conditioning will put too much moisture in your locks, which is less-than-ideal for styling. Remember: as counterintuitive as it may be, smooth, slippery hair isn’t a good thing when you’re aiming for style to hold.
How To Fix Your Curls
Now that we’ve laid out some reasons why your curls are falling flat, it’s time to give curling another try. Use these steps to add long-lasting bounce to your hair:
- If you plan to take a shower first, start by going light on the conditioner. Think about “unsmoothing” your hair to prep it.
- Next work in a thickening product, like Bumble and Bumble Thickening Full Form Mousse, from root to tip before you blow out. Or, if you plan to work with second-day hair, which we highly recommend if you can do so, add some dry texturizing spray. These products, along with your natural oils, will keep hair from being too slippery, give it some grit, and make it more malleable.
- When you’re ready to curl, don’t forget this very important step: Let each curl set and cool. After you create each curl with your curling iron or flat iron, use a metal clip to pin it to your head, then leave it in for 5-15 minutes while the curl cools and sets.
- After you’ve taken down your clips and completed your style, finish with a lightweight holding spray that won’t make hair heavy and risk weighing down your curls.
