If your natural hair is not straight, and you wash and dry it but it becomes all puffy, or you have that 'halo frizz' on top of your hair, it's because your hair is either wavy or curly.
Why does it happen?
First of all, let's define frizz. Frizz is hair that "stands up" on it's own, and it becomes separated from the rest of your hair. This occurs when the hair strands lack moisture, aka when your hair is dry. It's also common with humidity!
Textured hair, no matter how curly it is, is simply naturally drier. This is because there's twists and turns which keep the moisturing natural oils from being able to slide down the length of your hair. That's why, the tighter the curl pattern, the drier the hair.
What can you do about frizz?
It depends on when it manifests.
If your hair hair gets frizzy when you wash it, aka wet frizz, check out this blog with detailed explanations and solutions.
If you style your hair and then you step outside and it's boom - frizz explosion, it's probably because of the humidity in the air. What happens here is, your hair is trying to "draw" from the moisture in the air, almost like little hands reaching out to it. For this, you would need to find styling products that keep the moisture into your hair, and lock it up.
You may have heard of silicones and automatically think they're bad, but they're actually a great sealant if you are fighting humid weather constantly. Just remember to wash it off your hair properly using a clarifying shampoo so it doesn't build up. If you'd like an alternative, after styling you can coat your hair in castor oil, which also makes a great sealer.
If your hair is just generally frizzy and you can't seem to get rid of it, here's a few things to try:
- Deep conditioning masks: it's likely your hair is generally dry and so you need to bring moisture back in using a good mask
- Ditch hair bands (which do a lot more damage to your hair than just cause frizz, but that's a topic for another day) - replace them with silk scrunchies instead
- Swap to a silk pillowcase at night. Cotton absorbs moisture from your skin and hair, while silk doesn't. It's overall so much better for you!
- Make sure you use a curly hair brush that's gentle. Traditional hair brushes do a great job of pulling, tugging and breaking our hair, which can also act like frizzy hair
- Try adding more water when you style to avoid starting off with wet frizz. To make that super simple, grab a continous mist bottle
- Swap your cotton towel to a microfibre one; they are gentler on hair and don't cause frizz
- Consider a diffuser attachment. If you dry your hair with a traditional hair dryer, it's very likely that's the reason for your frizz. Get a diffuser attachment head and watch this video on ways to diffuse curly hair
- Be gentle! A great wash day starts in the shower. Everything you do from washing to brushing to conditioning and drying, matters. Be gentle.
The last thing I want to mention is that some frizz is 100% normal with curly hair and we should simply embrace it! It's the "cost" we have to pay for having such unique and gorgeous hair! Some curlfriends even like to rock their brushed out frizzy curls, and I totally get that! Your hair doesn't have to look smooth and defined and perfect. As long as it's healthy and you love it no matter what, rock it however! That's what I preach on my instagram community where I hope to see you join me!
I hope this helped you understand where frizz comes from and all the different ways to address it. If you have any questions you can always find me on Instagram.
Adelina
xoxo