How to Style Curly Hair – Proven Tips & Tricks

I love to style curly hair, but many curly-haired girls are left wondering how to manage curly hair without it looking like a frizzy untamed mess. So this blog goes out to all my curly hair sisters to help tame your mane giving you tips on how to take care and style curly hair.

Let’s talk about oil on curly hair

1. Oil is for cooking; it’s not for your hair.
2. Coconut Oil and all other oils will repel moisture.
3. Oil and water do not mix; it’s simple science.
4. Oil builds up on hair and prevents it from absorbing moisture,
5. Curly hair is generally dry and needs to be hydrated, but oil DOES NOT hydrate hair.
6. Molecules of oils are too big to be absorbed by the hair. Therefore, leaving oils on your hair overnight or applying heat will not help the oil penetrate into the hair shaft.
7.  Don’t use products with silicones. They build up over time and block hydration (water) from being absorbed into the hair.
8. If you put something on your hand and it becomes waterproof, don’t put it on curly hair!
9. Stay away from Pinterest concoctions.
10. A small amount of light weight oil after the hair is dry for shine or slight frizz is okay, but oil does not hydrate the hair, and it must be fully removed during washing.

Bringing beautiful naturally curly hair to life starts with gently removing product build-up and residue to reveal its authentic form. People often used so many oils, silicones, and gels that it takes a little patience to remove the many layers of residue hiding the luster of the curl. KINACTIF Curl Shampoo gently removes build-up without damaging the hair. When first using KINACTIF Curl Shampoo, you may need to do 2 – 3 washings, leaving it on for 2 – 5 minutes with each washing. As the residue breaks down, and you will notice more lather with each washing.

What Does Pasta Have to Do With Hair?

It’s the best example I’ve come across for explaining the importance of moisture to the hair.

Think of uncooked spaghetti; thin, brittle, dry, prone to breakage. Hair lacking moisture is just like dry pasta. Now think of cooked spaghetti; plump, filled with water, supple, bendable, not able to break. Hair that is moisturized is just like cooked pasta. So what makes dehydrated pasta plump, bendable, and not brittle? Water that is absorbed inside the pasta. Oil is never used to rehydrate pasta, so why would you use it to rehydrate your hair?

The Big Secret to How to Style Curly Hair

The big secret is hydration, not piling on products that will only weigh your curl down, dehydrate hair, and make hair dull.

Try the squishing technique:

1. Thoroughly cleanse your hair with KINACTIF Curl Shampoo.
2. Keep your hair drenched in water, apply a minimal amount of KINACTIF Curl Mask or your favorite KINACTIF Conditioner to the tips and squish upwards towards the roots. The top layers of your hair can get extra dry because it has the most exposure to elements, so make sure to squish the mask all the way to the top layers of your hair.
3. It’s important to know that you don’t want to squeeze the water out of your hair while you’re squishing the conditioner up into the hair. Instead, you want to allow the water to absorb into the hair along with the small amount of conditioning treatment.
4. More water and less conditioner are the keys to this technique until your hair does not absorb more water.
5. If you feel any residue from the mask/conditioner on your hair, go ahead and rinse lightly. If you don’t feel a residue, you don’t want to rinse.
6. It is best to use a tiny amount of the mask or conditioner with lots and lots of water, squish and leave the water and conditioner in the hair.
7. If your hair is fine, you may want to use one of the KINACTIF conditioners in place of the mask.

Dehydrated hair may take a while the thoroughly hydrate. Think of trying to clean up spilled water with a bone-dry sponge. You have to add water to rehydrate the sponge for the sponge to absorb more water.

You will find that your hair will need more or less hydration during various seasons the same way your skin does. The dryer the climate, the dryer your hair and skin are, so adjust the amount of conditioning treatment as the seasons change.

The Next Step to Styling Curly Hair

After your hair is full of hydration, just like cooked pasta bendable, smooth, and soft, you will want to detangle.

1. Detangle hair while still in the shower keeping a wide-tooth comb, or detangling brush in the shower.
2. Lightly spray the hair with KINACTIF Curl Activator and gently remove tangles at the ends, working your way up. Always remove tangles from the bottom up instead of from the top down.
3. Keeping the curls defined will require a gel or styling cream. I suggest KINACTIF Curl Cream for soft, defined hold all day long.
4. While still in the shower, place a small amount of curl cream in your hands. Then, working in smaller sections, begin applying the Curl Cream to the ends using the same squishing technique you did with the conditioning treatment squishing the product upwards into the hair.
5. Add a bit more water if you don’t hear a slight squishing sound when working the styling product upwards into the hair. Once again, less product, more water. Water evens out the porosity of the hair allowing the product to distribute more evenly throughout the hair.
6. Evenly distributing the styling cream or gel is essential to keep your curls defined and free from frizz.

The Final Step to Style Curly Hair

Learning how to style curly hair requires knowing what not to do to minimize frizz and keep the curls defined.

• Never use a regular towel to dry curly hair.
• Never rub curly hair dry.
• Never leave curly hair wrapped up in a towel.

Now, what should you do to manage curly hair without frizz?

1. Use smooth cotton material such as a cotton tee shirt or microfiber towel to squeeze excess water from the hair gently.
2. If your curls start separating too much or frizzing, you are rubbing the hair dry (not squeezing) or have not applied your styling cream/gel evenly.
3. Add more water if you accidentally cause frizz by separating the curl or too much drying by toweling.
4. Air dry or gently diffuse the curls aiming the movement of the air from the scalp towards the ends. Support the curl, be careful not to get too aggressive with your scrunching or move the hair too much before it’s 100% dry. Too much movement of the curl before it’s fully dry will result in frizz.
5. When your curls are dry, they should resemble a wet look.
6. When the curls are fully dry (I mean 100%), gently scrunch out your hair to soften from the top down. If your hair feels a little crunchy from a heavier gel, scrunch the crunch and soften your overall look. The more you scrunch, the softer your curl will look.
7. If your hair is longer, scrunch the ends less, leaving the ends a bit more defined. This way, the ends won’t get frizzy as your curls get moved around and touched throughout the day.
8. If you like volume at the root, take a rat tail comb or chopstick and gently lift the hair at the roots while drying the hair with a diffuser.
9. For big hair volume, once the hair is 100% dry, flip your head upside down and gently massage the hair at the scalp, being careful not to disturb the rest of your curls.
10. Note that shaking out your curl or combing through the hair will result in more frizz.
11. For s little shine or if ends are a tiny bit frizzy finish your look by scrunching in a small amount of KINNESSENCE Oil Cream. It’s light weight, smells amazing, and leaves curls looking soft and shiny.
12. Regular trims will also help remove split ends and keep hair falling into a beautiful shape.

Learning how to take care of and style curly hair can result in jaw-dropping beautiful hair that will make you fall in love with the curl nature gave you! As Charlie Brown’s Frieda says, “What’s so good about naturally curly hair if nobody’s jealous?” People are always jealous of great curls!