- Hey everyone, Kayley your friendly
neighborhood hair stylist here and today we're answering
the question, why won't my hair hold a curl.
I have lived that hard-to-curl hair life
and even though my hair is a lot easier to curl now
I still have a lot of tips to help you guys out with.
So I'm excited to get into it
if you're excited about the topic of today's video,
consider hitting the like button to help support my channel
and if you're new here, you can subscribe
and join the braid-aholic family,
here on Kayley and Melissa.
And before we get into it,
I want to point out that I did a video
on how hot should your curling iron be
and I think that would be very helpful for this topic
so instead of reprising that entire video
I will just link it above and below.
I've also done a video on my fine-hair journey
and the tips and tricks that have resulted from that
and I will link that above and below as well
because I think, if you're coming here for answers
on curling your hair, those two videos
would help you as well.
So that being said let's jump into the actual
subject of the video, how to get your curls to last.
One reason your curls might not last
is that your hair is just too healthy.
That's most likely the case
if you haven't colored your hair a lot,
if your hair doesn't to through a lot of heat styling
and if it's naturally a smoother, sleeker texture.
And when your hair is in that really healthy state,
especially if it's virgin hair,
that means that its outer shield,
the cuticle layer is super-duper strong.
You have to get in through the shield
to be able to curl the hair.
But basically you have an extra wall of security
that those of us
with very bleached hair might not have.
So what's the answer to that?
Well, I mean, the first easy answer
is that you could damage your hair a little bit.
So if you wanted to do some highlights, some balayage,
play with color, just know it would help your hair
to hold a curl better.
Not necessarily a reason to do it
but if you need more reason to go
for that color changing
you've been thinking about, there's one.
Anna just yelled from across the room:
"Go into the salon to change your color."
We don't need you ending up in a Brad Mondo video,
I agree, go into the salon
if you're thinking about changing your color.
But if you wanna keep up with the super healthy hair,
but you wanna be able to curl it as well,
I think the tips that I'm gonna give you
are gonna help you with that
because I had virgin hair through the first like year,
two years of my channel, and I curled my hair
and I made it work.
And I'll tell you guys how to do that.
So if you think you might be in that category,
just go ahead and file that away
as we go through the rest of the tips.
The next reason your hair might not hold a curl
is that you're using too much moisture on your hair.
What, moisture is good for your hair.
Yes, it actually is but if you hair
is resistant to holding a curl,
then things like oils on your hair
are actually going to weigh it down
and make it harder to curl.
So depending on healthy your hair is
you can kind of back off the oil.
If your hair is a little bit less healthy
like mine, then you can still moisturize your hair
in the shower and stuff, but,
I wouldn't necessarily go through putting
an oil on your hair, you use maybe
a light-weight leave-in conditioner to none at all.
If you're hair is resiliently healthy,
just so healthy it goes boing
back to straight as soon as you try to curl it,
then you could start cutting back the moisture even more.
So maybe just a very light rinse with the conditioner
in the shower and then nothing else until you heat style it.
And you might be wondering wait,
is that bad for my hair and the thing is,
you always have to take into consideration
that hair that you're starting with
because what could be bad for some people's hair
might not be bad for your hair.
If your hair is really that healthy
and you've got the double-walled security,
then yeah, you can cut out the conditioner
and your hair will be totally fine.
If you had somebody like me
with super-porous hair and I did that weekly, or daily,
that would not go well.
So, again, categorize yourself, use the information there.
On the other hand you could be neglecting some products
that would really help you
and those are products that add hold.
Now I know when we think of products that add hold
we all automatically think of hairspray.
If you're in the fine-hair category
then lots and lots of hairspray,
espy lots and lots of super-hold hairspray
is just gonna create a massive, sticky, mat
and we don't want that.
Raise your hand in the comments
if you've been personally victimized
by extra-hold hairspray.
I don't have enough hands, let's put a foot up there.
Not only do I know that Anna Lar
was victimized by super-hold hairspray,
she was victimized by gel, a fine-toothed comb,
and then super-hold hairspray.
I was not joking with her gymnastics bun.
I'm both proud and aghast.
So okay, hairspray might not be the answer, what is.
I love utilizing products that are activated by heat
and those are typically ones that you're supposed to put in
when your hair is wet.
Now if you put them in when you're hair is wet
and then your hair is dried either by the air
or through a blow dryer, the product's still on your hair
and it's still gonna be activated
even more by your hot tools.
And the even better thing about those products
is that they're typically meant to be super-duper touchable
and easy to work with.
So I picked out some favorite's from my hair closet,
apologies, a lot of these are salon,
I need to get into the drug store and try out
some new stuff, it's been too long.
But if you have a favorite drug store product
within this realm, let me know in the comments
'cause obviously I need to try some new ones out.
So the first category of kind of wet-to-style
products that I like are mousses
and most mousses add hold.
That's kind of their purpose.
So you can pick just a basic mousse like the SGX One
or you can pick something
that does something like adding volume.
If you need it maybe your hair is damaged
and still a little hard to curl.
You could use something that adds a little bit of shine,
maybe just a little bit of volume.
It kind of lets you customize what you want
a little bit more.
I do find mousses give a little bit
of a hairspray texture to the hair in the sense
that it will feel a little bit more produdct-y
and a little bit more like faux hold-y,
I don't know if that makes any sense.
I might have just been using products for too long.
But, it's also very, very effective.
The next product that I love
in the wet-to-dry category are blow-dry balms.
Now these can come in all shapes and forms,
you definitely have to read the back
and see what they offer because some add hold, some don't,
you want one that adds hold.
And again, if your hair is really hard to curl
you definitely don't want to pick one
that's super-smoothing 'cause it's gonna be adding
all the moisture in.
But the balms can be really nice 'cause their just
a little more touchable, they're also a little softer.
So if you really need that intense hold
then go with the mousse, but if you like really soft,
touchable, play-with-able hair, the balms.
The one I used today is this Kerastase L'incroyable Blowdry.
I think they actually sell this in a spray
and in this kind of like jelly-serum consistency.
I really like it, my hair looks really nice
and smooth and pretty and it holds
a lot better when I use this.
Another one that would be good for those of you guys
with more smooth, silky hair naturally,
is the Bumble & Bumble Thickening
Great Body Blow Dry Creme.
This one adds a little bit of roughness
as in enough to make your hair more normal,
and volume and a great amount of hold.
So I would recommend this
if you're in the super, super-shiny healthy category.
And of course there are heat protectives out there
that are meant to add in hold.
A favorite of mine is the Ouai Memory Mist.
But there are a lot of others out there
that are equally as good.
The next reason your hair might not be holding a curl
is that you are not utilizing
the heating to cooling process.
Now I talked about this a lot
in my how hot should your curling iron be video
so I'm just gonna go ahead and recommend you watch that
if you want more information.
But to surmise, your curl actually forms
when your hair cools down from being hot.
Your hydrogen bonds temporarily break when your hair
gets hot and they reform when your hair cools.
They actually do the same thing
when your hair goes from wet to dry.
So it's not a scary process,
it's not an inherently bad thing.
But that's also why if you go to bed with your hair wet
and you wake up and it's dry in the morning,
it's probably in some funny shapes.
So the way to use that for your advantage
to make sure that your hair holds a curl,
is to let it cool in its shape.
You can do that either by not touching your hair
whatsoever after it comes off the iron
and giving it that chance to set,
or you can go the extra mile and take your curl up
right after it comes off the iron
and clip it up to cool.
That way gravity can't get to it,
you're not tempted to run your fingers through it,
and then when you take it back down it's much more robust.
So I actually did a little experience to be able
to show you guys the difference.
On one side I clipped my hair up,
on the other side I ran my fingers through my hair
to kind of mimic my hair being harder to curl
than it is and this is the difference.
I just want you guys to be able to see
that pining your hair up to cool can do so much.
It's working with the natural chemistry of your hair
and it's not taking a lot of extra work
but it can give you much stronger results.
Another reason why your hair might not be holding a curl
is that you're using the wrong iron size.
For me if I were to use a one-and-a-half inch iron
or anything larger, my hair would definitely be straight
by the next day if not the end of the day.
With a two-inch iron,
it would be straight immediately, like no question.
And I wanted to point that out because a lot of you
have talked about how your hair is hard to curl,
how it goes back to straight so quickly.
I don't know what curling-iron size you're working with
but it's very easy to assume that if you are working
with like a one-and-a-quarter inch iron
or a one-and-a-half inch iron and your hair's hard to curl,
yeah, it would absolutely
go back to straight super-duper quickly.
So if your hair is hard to curl
I would start with a one-inch iron
and maybe even go smaller from there
'cause a three-and-quarter inch iron
was my jam for a really long time when I had virgin hair.
So going a little bit smaller helps
because your hair is then going to loosen up
and it's going to loosen up
to the size you're actually going for.
It's kind of annoying that you have to cheat the system
but you can cheat the system
and that's a really easy way to do it.
Piggy backing off going with a smaller curling iron,
if your hair is really hard to curl,
really healthy or really long,
you might just need to reset your expectations.
And I don't mean that you have to completely throw
having some movement and body out the window,
but I am saying that maybe you're not gonna have
perfect ringlets all day, every day for three days straight.
Honestly, my hair can't do that.
Right now the result of you putting a curling iron
through your hair might be waves.
I'm sur those waves can still be really, really beautiful
as something you that you can
still create great hairstyles with.
But I think the biggest thing
is not to give up, to keep trying,
figure out what works with you.
But understand that most likely
if you're hair is hard to curl it's going to loosen up,
at least a little bit from where you're working.
And that's okay, that doesn't mean that it's gone
back to straight or that all of the work that you put in
wasn't worth it, it absolutely is
because you've got something going on,
it just might not be what you see on Instagram.
And honestly what you see on Instagram
is often taken right after the curls were done,
not three days later.
So I just want us all to like, you know what,
our hair is great, our skills are great, you're doing great.
A funny tip that I have learned in my own experience
of doing bridesmaids hair, 'cause I've had a lot
of bridesmaids who have long, thin, virgin hair
and have to have it curled for a wedding
that's happening like five hours
after I'm doing their hair.
The second pass through, meaning going through
and re-curling either a couple of sections
or like half the hair, really makes a big difference.
So if I have somebody sitting in my chair
that has really long, really virgin hair,
I'm gonna do all the tips I just gave you.
I'm gonna be puttin' in product.
I'm gonna be curling with a smaller iron.
I'm gonna clip it up, I'm gonna let it cool.
I'm gonna send her away to go chat with her friends
while I do somebody else's hair
before I take it down.
But then, she's gonna come back over,
I'm gonna take the clips out,
and more likely than not
it's not gonna look quite the way I wanted it to.
So what I do is I go back through
and I re-curl any pieces that look like they need it.
It might be a few pieces,
it might be up to like half the hair.
Really depends on the girl.
But what I will say is after that second time through,
it's there, and I see the pictures from the wedding later,
and they're still there.
So, it's a lot of work, it might be more than you wanna do,
but if you're in that position
where you've tried all the other stuff
and you're still a little meh,
try doing a second pass and see if it helps.
Your hair might also not be holding a curl
because you need some more practice.
And I know that's probably not
the most fun thing to hear but think about
the first time you applied mascara.
Or even the 10th time you applied mascara
or did your brows or trying to wing eyeliner,
or anything else that was once hard for you
and you can now do in the morning without coffee.
I can't do a winged-eyeliner without coffee
but everything else I've got.
It's a new skill that you're learning
and you're gonna have a few times where it's not right.
So if you've tried it, you know, three, four,
five times and it hasn't worked out perfectly
that just means that you're still learning your hair.
You're both learning the skill of moving your curling iron
through your hair and the skill
of working with your own hair type.
I wanna give you as many tools that you can
to really hone your own skills
but the thing I can't do for you is be there
and practice and mess with it
and troubleshoot whenever things aren't going right.
But I do hope that this video really helps you
to figure out where you could tweak things
to maybe get a better result.
And there you go, those are my tips and tricks
to making your curls last longer.
Now again, if you haven't seen my fine-hair tips,
and you have fine hair,
I recommend going and watching that
'cause I think some of those will help
with this whole thing as well.
But I do hope this video helped.
If you guys have any tips that I didn't talk about,
tell me in the comments below because I'd love to hear.
Or maybe there's a new tip that you learned about
in today's video, tell me that in the comments
'cause I'd love to know that as well.
So that being said, I hope that you enjoyed today's video.
If you did, you can hit that like button
to help support my channel.
If you're new here you can click that subscribe button
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But that's it for today, whether you are old or new
or a casual lurker, thank you for spending time with me
and I'll see you in my next video, muah, bye.
Log in to tuse, I don't even know what that means.
(Blows raspberry) (speaks gibberish)
Read that, one second, buffering (speaks gibberish).
My brain feels very full, I just said a whole lot of words,
I need to go sit still for a while.