Wavy Hair Care

How To Sleep On Wavy Hair

August 30, 2020 by Emily Evert 20 Comments

There is an affiliate link in this post. All opinions are my own.

How to sleep on wavy hair over night without ruining it or getting frizz — How To Sleep On Wavy Hair

To sleep on wavy hair without ruining it, put your hair up in a very high and loose bun using a scrunchie. Your hair bun should rest on top of your head, not behind it. Sleeping on a silk or satin pillowcase or wearing a satin bonnet will help reduce breakage.

If you have wavy or curly hair, then you know that sleeping with your hair down can have you waking up looking a bit like medusa. Or maybe you look like you walked through a hurricane. When I sleep with my waves down, the back often gets flattened, too.

Sleeping your hair in a “pineapple”, or loose ponytail or bun on top of your head at night, will keep your head from smashing your waves while you sleep. Use a scrunchie loosely instead of a traditional pony tail holder, and you won’t get indents in your hair.

The material of the scrunchie you use to pineapple with matters! Try to find one that is really smooth, satin or silk are great options. They will introduce less frizz vs scrunchies that are more textured. My top choice is silk or satin scrunchies, then ‘regular’ scrunchies, and I avoid scrunchies that are velvet, terrycloth, etc at all costs.

Another key aspect to sleeping on wavy hair without ruining it, is making sure your hair has good hold. If you wash your hair and don’t use a styling product with hold, your hair will fall flat pretty easily. If you use a product like gel or mousse that has hold, that will help protect your hair pattern while you’re sleeping. Using a product with harder hold may result in hair that is harder to ruin.

What about long, short or thick hair?

Air Dry VS Diffuse Wavy Hair – Best Way To Dry Wavy Hair

August 23, 2020 by Emily Evert 16 Comments

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Air Dry VS Diffuse Wavy Hair

Both of these photos were with no product like gel or mousse. Each way was done just two days apart, my hair was not cut in between. I don’t consider either of these good results, my hair doesn’t do well without gel or mousse. Still, my hair has more volume and a tighter curl pattern when I diffuse.

**Update, November 2020. I wanted to update this post to try to give some comparison of air drying or diffusing with mousse. See the graphic below. I used the same products as I had used before, but to try out air drying with a fan to speed it up. I also did a lot of microplopping to try to encourage volume and waves despite air drying. This broke my clumps up into smaller pieces than I would usually have.

As a result, I don’t think the clump size shown in the photos below are ‘fair’ comparison. Still, this gives you an idea of the volume difference an the difference in the tightness of my waves. Diffusing helps a lot with volume, and it helps a lot with keeping my waves tighter. Air drying lets my waves loosen up quite a bit before they dry.

Air drying is on the left, diffusing is the photo on the right. In both I used NYM curl talk shampoo and conditioner, and suave captivating curls mousse.

Is Air Drying Or Diffusing Better For Wavy Hair?

Diffusing wavy hair may help your hair to dry in a tighter hair pattern, and with more volume, but will likely introduce some frizz. If you want tighter waves, diffusing is best. If you prefer elongated waves or are worried about damage, air drying is best.

So – should you air drying or diffuse? It totally depends on what your hair goals and hair concerns are! Keep reading to learn more details about the pros and cons of air drying or diffusing wavy hair.

Is Your Hair Straight Or Wavy? Signs Of Naturally Wavy Hair

August 22, 2020 by Emily Evert 61 Comments

Wavy Hair Before And After Curly Girl Method

This is my wavy hair before and after the curly girl method. Before starting the curly girl method on the left in both photos, and 2 years into the curly girl method on the right in both photos.

The curly girl method isn’t magic or anything. In my experience, it certainly has helped to make my hair healthier. It feels softer, stronger, and looks shinier than it used to. My hair became wavier.

All of these photos were after starting the curly girl method. From the very beginning on the left, working up to the current day on the right.

I realized my hair was wavy when I was 26. How can you live 26 years without realizing your hair texture? Well, I was brushing my hair as soon as I got out of the shower, and letting it air dry. I also kept my hair very long from the time I was in my late teens.

As a preteen and teenager, I straightened my hair daily. I remember people asking me “why do you straighten your hair when it’s already straight?” and my answer was “it makes it less poofy!” or “it makes it sleeker.” I never really understood why using a flat iron on my hair made it sleeker, or less poofy.

Now I realize that the poof was brushed-out waves, and straightening my hair removed that remaining bit of wave, which is why it became sleeker once fully straight. This was a sign that my hair was actually wavy.

How Much Gel To Use On Wavy Hair

May 8, 2024 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

A really common question I get from people who are relatively new to the curly girl method or embracing their wavy hair, is how much gel should I use? Also, how to tell if you’re using too much gel or not enough!

It’s a really great question to be asking, and it has a little bit of a complex answer. I recently did my hair with too much gel, and then again with not enough gel, so that I could show you through images what each of those look like.

How much hair humans have REALLY varies

First though, I wanted to give a visual for why it is so challenging to know how much gel to use on wavy hair. It’s because how much hair you have on your head can be VASTLY different from how much hair another person has on their head, even if their hair is the same length as yours and even if neither of you are experiencing hair thinning or baldness at all. I’ve read that people with dense hair can have 6x as many hairs on their head as someone with low-density hair. That sounds a little hard to believe, but the tiktok embedded below helps illustrate this fact.

@ciera.hamilton No wonder people always confuse us for twins 🥰 #braid #twins #fyp #foryoupage #thickhair ♬ Ice Age – B

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