Tuesday, July 22, 2014

How to Bring Out Natural Curls in a Dry Climate

I had the best hair of my life when I lived in Texas because my naturally-curly hair sopped up all of Texas' glorious humidity. (My skin was radiantly awesome too!) I loved that I didn't have to try very hard to have nice hair! To illustrate, see the photos taken in Texas (below), 2012. I think I spent maybe 10 minutes a day doing my hair...I was in utter hair bliss!

My husband, Greg, makes me so happy...

...I adore him!

Sadly, when we moved back to Utah, my hair went through a dry crisis! I had forgotten how limp, flat, and un-curly my hair was without humidity in the air. My hair had most definitely been pampered in Texas for two-and-a-half years! I was so grateful to be living in Utah again, but I mourned my terrific Texas hair! :(

It took me nearly a year of washing and styling my naturally-curly hair in various ways to finally get my curls back! Okay, my curls will never be exactly how they were in Texas (or Napa, for that matter), but I feel they're much better than they were even three months ago!

Without further ado, here are my suggestions for bringing out natural curls in a dry climate:
  1. Wash your hair with Dove Intensive Therapy Shampoo.
  2. Rinse well.
  3. Condition your hair with Dove Intensive Therapy Conditioner. Leave it on for as long as you can manage.
  4. Rinse well.
  5. Towel-dry your hair.
  6. Gently brush through your hair with a ceramic/tourmaline/ionizing brush. You can use any brand, but I really like Goody's Finish Gel Cushion Brush.
  7. Comb through your hair with a wide-toothed comb to encourage your hair to curl by itself. I use Conair's anti-static Style & Detangle comb, but you can use any brand.
  8. Scrunch up your curls all over your head. Start with your scalp and work all the way down to the ends of your hair. Reverse the scrunching from the bottom and go back to the top.
  9. Finish getting ready however your choose. Just don't do your hair right away—give it several minutes to dry. This allows your hair to not only start curling on its own, but it will be ready to soak up the spray gel in step 10.
  10. Spray Garnier Fructis Curl Shaping Spray Gel into your palms, rub your hands together, then smooth the spray gel all over your hair. Repeat until you've put enough spray gel in your hair for your liking. Your hands will feel sticky, but you can wash them. *It's important to spray the gel into your hands and not directly on your hair, because then you have better control of where the gel goes. **I absolutely prefer Garnier's spray gel because it's not as heavy/crunchy as other styling gels tend to be. Believe me, I've tried more gels than I can list!
  11. Spray your newly-gelled locks with water. Don't drench them, but get them fairly damp. Use a spray bottle that creates a fine mist. *I fill my empty/old Garnier Fructis Curl Shaping Spray Gel bottle with water and use that as my spray bottle. I replace my water spray bottle every time I've emptied another Garnier spray gel bottle.
  12. Bend over so your head is upside down, and scrunch your hair while remaining upside down.
  13. While your hair is still upside down, blow-dry your hair with a diffuser on high heat, and scrunch your hair continuously while drying.
  14. If your hair feels crunchy because the spray-gel is concentrated in one area, hold the blow-dryer on that spot until it gets hot, but don't burn yourself! The heat softens the spray gel and makes your hair hold its style, but it's definitely not crunchy. Repeat the heat-concentration steps until your hair is soft all over.
  15. Once your hair feels not crunchy and is completely dry, turn your blow-dryer's setting to cold. Blow your hair with cold air to set it in that position.
  16. Stand upright, flip your hair, and put your locks into the position you like.
  17. You'll most likely have some stray hairs, or flyaways, but just wet your fingertips and smooth them into place.
I took this selfie two weeks ago to document my dry-climate naturally curly hair. While my hair isn't as lush and curly as it was in Texas, it's much better than it has been in dry Utah!


P.S. Obviously, one of the easiest ways to bring out natural curls in a dry climate is to cut your hair shorter than its current length. That said, I'm enjoying my longer hair and have no plans to cut it anytime soon. I'm happy to say that my husband is thrilled with my decision! :)

1 comment:

  1. I also use the same spray gel, on my hands and working around. I use it after using the root plumping cream spray. Love those products !

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