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How To Fix Limp Wavy Curly Hair

January 28, 2022 by Emily Evert 1 Comment

There are affiliate links in this post.

Your hair used to feel bouncy, but now it feels lifeless and even looks kinda limp, maybe stringy as well. This has happened to most people with wavy curly hair at some point. While it’s unpleasant, it’s not a huge deal, as long as you’re able to determine the cause, and learn the fix.

In this post I’m going to jump cover the various causes of limp curls, and how they can be corrected.

9 causes and 9 solutions for fixing limp wavy curly hair

What Causes Limp Waves or Curls?

Limp curls can be caused by damage, moisture-overload, product overload, water weigh-down, uneven ends, a lack of hold in your styling products, product build-up or changes in humidity. 

That’s the short answer. Of course, I’ll go more in-depth about each of these so you can determine what the cause is in your case!

Damage. If you’ve dyed, bleached or used high heat on your hair, sometimes this damages hair in a way that makes waves or curls straighter and/or less bouncy.

  • How to fix limp waves caused by damage: There are “bond rebuilding” products on the market that claim to be able to repair damage. However, from listening to a podcast on cosmetic chemistry (including hair products) they said these are not scientifically proven (despite one brand having a patent!). So according to them, we do not yet know how to truly repair hair once it has been damaged, we can only make it feel better or lookb better, not actually be better. Which makes sense,a after all, camage is the result of a chemical process occurring in the hair. You can try bond rebuilding products if you’d like, but most likely, you’ll may have to wait on your damaged hair to grow out before you’ll be able to repair your curls fully.

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Bond Builders For Damaged Wavy Hair

March 4, 2023 by Emily Evert 2 Comments

Can You Really Repair Hair Bonds Damaged by Bleaching or Dyeing?

There are several types of hair bonds that can be broken. The ones broken during the process of bleaching hair or dyeing hair are primarily disulfide bonds, which are a type of covalent bonds. Those disulfide bonds cannot be fully repaired with any technology that we currently have.

The cosmetic chemists on the Beauty Brain podcast say bond builders like Olaplex and wellaplex do more conditioning than bond rebuilding. Covalent bonds or disulfide bonds are the ones damaged when hair is dyed. “It’s literally impossible to fully restore disfulfide bonds”. Hair repair products may rebuild hydrogen bonds or electrostatic bonding. 

Episode 216 on bond building explains how Olaplex has a patent that claims they rebuild disulfide bonds, but patents aren’t evidence of effective peer-reviewed science. 

What percentage of hair bonds are damaged while bleaching hair?

Typically 15-25% of bonds are damaged while bleaching hair, but it can be up to 45% in cases where “severe” bleaching is being done.

This is a quote from from Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair by Clarence R. Robbins.

“Robbins and Kelly [5] have shown that 15–25% of the disulfide bonds in human hair are degraded during “normal” bleaching, however, as much as 45% of the cystine bonds may be broken during severe “in practice” bleaching. This latter amount of damage may occur while frosting hair, or while bleaching hair from black or brown-black to light blond”

damaged wavy hair 101: what does the most damae to wavy hair? Do bond rebuilders really work? What type of hair bonds are broken when hair is damaged?

What Type Of Hair Bonds are Damaged by Bleaching?

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Wavy hair care blog owner

About Me

My name is Emily, I have been blogging since 2009. I found the curly girl method in 2018, which helped me to discover my naturally wavy hair. Since then, I’ve continued to wear my hair wavy, reading and watching tons about wavy hair. This blog is where I share what I’ve learned, in hopes of helping others. More about me and my backstory can be found on my about page.

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