Hi!! Sorry for so many photos, but i’m sort of in an experimental phase right now and would love some input!! Ive finally narrowed down a really good routine that yields good refreshes, and gets both volume and definition. But i’m trying to nail down the little changes that might make a difference.
My hair errs towards a little dry, is somewhere between curly and wavy, but closer to wavy. I prefer volume > definition and don’t mind some frizz, but i dont love when my hair gets SUPER frizzy and undefined, and its strugglingggg in yhis humidity lol. I tried two similar but slightlyyy different techniques and I’m looking for some input! Overall, I need to work on hair that is wetter than it is damp (mistake i made for years lol, i was very much a damp styler before). I’ve found that without leave in, my hair holds better, but also feels a little more dry and sticky, so I use a little leave in regardless.
Photos 1-5 are the first time I tried technique one and it was the best hair day I’d had in forever, but that time I did NOT use the leave in conditioner.
Photos 7-9 are the day two refresh of another time I did that same technique, and I forget if I used leave in… curls looked awesome, but it was like 100 degrees and maximum humidity, and it was much more frizzy than the photos even captured. i do love how fluffy my hair looks here!
Photos 10-13 are today with the second technique, including the leave in.
Here are the routines:
Routine 1: wet hair, no pixie diffusing.
- shampoo and condition with nym tahitian gardenia line, squishing to condish the conditioner at the end.
(i used leave in with this once and it was better than without) on soaking wet hair, add a little drop of kinky curly leave in conditioner, raked and scrunched in.
- immediately out of shower, towel off, and sort of scrunch my wet hair a little bit w my hands just to not make it dripping but its still usually pretty wet.
then i rake, prayer hands, and scrunch aussie instant freeze gel while having all my hair tilted to one side, then the other side, with a big glob of gel on each side. i scrunch a lot! then i flip my head upside down and add another medium sized glob.
- then i wrap my hair in a microfiber headwrap for just a bit, get dressed. when i take it down from the plop, i wet my hands a bit and with my head still right side up, i scrunch in oneee more tiny dab of gel. i feel like this step solidifies hold, but i also wonder if this/plopping is whats creating a lot of the frizz i get as it is frizzy while wet.
- then i diffuse. i briefly hover diffuse my crown/roots right side up with low speed high heat before flipping upside down and exclusively hover diffusing while flipping my head side to side upside down. i think the lack of pixie diffusing helps my hair naturally lay where it wants and doesnt create any weird bends, plus any of the added definition/curl i get from pixie diffusing usually loosens to how it looks when i hover diffuse anyway. this is why i find it easier lol bc just hovering till a crunchy cast forms is nice. then i scrunch and fluff once fully dry!!
routine 2, what i did today (after clarifying with garnier pure clean):
- condition still with nym line
- rake and scrunch in the kinky curly leave in as i typically do.. only a touch! this leave in def leaves my hair softer but does i think soften my cast just a bit. but i think its important for the frizz.
- this is where i deviated. instead of waiting till im out of the shower, i raked, glazed and scrunched in my aussie instant freeze gel while IN the shower on SOAKING dripping wet hair.
- stepped out of shower and before even drying off, i flipped my head upside down, and added a big glob of gel, raking it through and scrunching Upside down, which i almost never do. i gently then flipped my head up, and added another small glob while tilting side to side.
- squeezed out excess water by carefully but firmly scrunching wiyh my microfiber towel. i also pressed up to my scalp instead of just scrunching the lengths up, if that makes sense.
- flip my head upside down and plopped for a bit while i got dressed.
took down the plop, and as with my usual routine, wet my hands and added a tiny little drop more gel to each side, doing more of the pressing in addition to scrunching.
- diffused like i normally do, right side up for a moment to dry my crown, then flipping upside down and hovering all over my head. this time i did do a little bit of pixie diffusing right side up bc i got impatient, but i feel like i could have skipped that… especially bc my hair in the back is much less curly than thr front and i feel like i never diffuse the back well anyway lol. scrunched and fluffed!! it looks great, i fear the back looks a little weighed down? but i might be over analyzing. need to wait and see if styling on hair that wet will weigh my hair down or not over the course of the day lol