How To Style Curly Hair And Must Have Products

If you’re reading this I’ll go ahead and assume you’re a curly girl, or at the very least a wavy girl, and you’re looking for some tricks for luscious, frizz free curls. You came to the right place! Learning how to style curly hair is not for the faint of heart. The fact is, it’s not terribly difficult but it takes tons of trial and error, probably wishing for straight hair as a child, and then finally lots of love and embracing. Since I’ve done all of the above, I wanted to share how I style my curly hair and some must have products for my fellow curly headed ninny muggins (ELF fans anyone?)

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that I may make a small commission if you choose to purchase through some of the linked items below. This does not affect pricing for you. All opinions are my own.

First, the shower:

Before I dive in to products and how to actually style your curly hair, let’s start with my shower and hair washing routine. First, I only wash my hair twice a week. I maintain my curls through sleeping and 5+ workouts a week with some of the products below as well as using a small curling wand for touching up stray pieces.

Before getting in the shower, I brush my hair our completely. I know some curly girls disagree with this but I feel my hair does best when I can brush through all the residual product and knots before showering. It is important to note, I brush gently working through the knots from ends up to the root. Once in the shower, I do not use any special shampoos or conditioners. I have in the past and I just can’t justify the price. I simply work the conditioner through and get any leftover knots out with my fingers. When I get out, I do a towel twist to dry it SLIGHTLY. I only keep my hair twisted for less than 5 minutes.

If you know about hair charts, my curl pattern is somewhere between a 2C/3A. I’ve seen some charts where I fall into 3B as well.

How To Style Curly Hair

Step 1:

Make sure you are wearing a t shirt as opposed to a tank top. This will keep your hair from sticking to your skin and getting stringy. Brush through your hair with a brush or wide tooth comb. Next, ensure your hair is equally wet from root to tip. You want your hair thoroughly wet but not dripping. You do not want dry ends.

Step 2: Hair Oil

Generously apply hair oil throughout your hair while it is wet. If you have oily hair, focus more on mid shaft to roots. I work mine through from root to tip because I have dry, course hair that absorbs the oil very easily. Comb through with a wide tooth comb. No more brushes from here on out.

Next, part your hair how you want and add in more oil focusing on the ends and the areas where you are more prone to frizz. For me, I focus on the ends as well as the pieces around my face.

Hair oil has been key to not only preventing frizz and defining my curls, but also maintaining them between washes. I’ve used all of the following hair oils and I like them all. While the more expensive Moroccan Oil I could use less of, it still didn’t offset the price. My local grocery store stopped selling the Argan Oil of Morocco that I mentioned in a previous blog about Must Have Beauty Products Under $25, so I switched to the Garnier Fructis and that works about the same for even less!

Step 3: Curling Cream

Separate hair in half and loosely finger a full pump of Moroccan Oil curling defining cream throughout each side of your hair from roots to tip. Do another half pump or so focusing on the ends, underneath, and pieces around the face. This curling cream is worth every penny and is a must have product to style curly hair. It lasts awhile and works wonderfully in “clumping” your curls together to help define them.

Step 4:

Now gently flip your head over. Do not whip it. When you whip your head over you disrupt your natural curl pattern and separate where your curls or waves have naturally clumped together. Now, do one more pump of curling cream and begin scrunching it into your hair. Do just enough finger scrunches to get the product off your hands. From here, use a thin cotton T shirt over your hands, NOT a towel, to scrunch your hair a little more. Just a couple minutes, you don’t want it to get too dry yet. Now, slowly stand back up. I kind of “roll” my head up because again, you do not want to whip it back up to stand and lose all the curl you just put in it.

Step 5:

Fix your part and put any pieces back where they need to go. Do a quick hairspray over the top of your head. This is just a once over focusing on your part and the top of your head to prevent frizzing while it starts to dry. I use TRESemmé and I pick the largest can they have. Next, separate your hair in half (from the back) and move each half in front of your shoulders. At this point, you want to touch your hair with your bare hands as little as possible.

Step 6:

Spray hairspray over one side, spraying only the outside, not underneath by your neck, and scrunch that side with your T shirt again. Then do the same with the other side. Now, put all your hair to your back and spray hairspray once over the entire thing. Scrunch the whole thing, focusing on the middle back with your T shirt. Spray one more time and then let dry for an hour or so without touching it.

Step 7: After the hour is up

Don’t panic if it feels a little crunchy. I promise it won’t for long. Plus a little firmness on the first day is a good thing as it will help keep the curls between washes. Now, scrunch lightly with your T shirt again, just a couple times through. This will loosen up the firmness and add a little volume. Now, grab your hair oil again and do a generous squeeze in to your hands and scrunch the ends with your oily hands. If the ends are a lot dryer than the top of your hair, wet your hands and do a couple scrunches and then spray over with a little more hairspray.

Optional: Root booster

I like to lift up a couple sections of hair (think left side, middle back, and right side) and spray hairspray at the roots for a volume boost. If you have a root booster you like, you can use it instead of hairspray. Hairspray adds volume and texture and for me… the bigger the hair the closer to heaven.

Your roots are probably still damp at this point. As it dries all the way through, it will get fuller and look even better. Second and third day hair is where it’s at for my curly hair.

If you’d rather see a video tutorial, you can watch mine here!

Maintenance:

I use a regular pillow case because I don’t like the feel of silk but if you don’t mind, definitely use silk. I sleep with my hair sprawled out on my pillow so the under side is what is touching most of the pillow case but don’t worry too much about that. You can fix any wild pieces with a curling wand.

I run hair oil loosely through my hair almost every day that I am not washing it to control frizz and touch up with hairspray as needed. I leave my hair down for the gym because it’s pretty much impossible to come back from a hair tie crease with curly hair. When I have to use a hair tie, I use the rubber ones and don’t wrap the hair tie. The rubber keeps it in place to do squats at the gym or to tie up in a loose bun for a shower. The key is to touch it as little as possible at the gym, wear a full t shirt on really sweaty days so your hair isn’t sticking to your skin, and let the sweat dry when you get home. Once the sweat dries it’ll re-firm the hairspray. And again, touch up any of the underside pieces with a wand.

The worst part of curly hair is it that never looks the same twice. If at first you don’t get it just right, keeping trying and adjust the amount of product you use. If you have wavy or loose curls, it won’t look just like mine, but I am confident you’ll be able to achieve beachy waves or smooth curls that last for days with the tips and products above.

-The Relatable Red