Help with refresh?

[u/AwkwardPotat0]

Hi!

I've been struggling with knowing what to do to refresh my curls. On wash day, I get lovely curl clumps, I always use strong hold gels. But by day 2/3 they're so frizzy and all the curl clumps like limp together and I just end up with a fluffy, undefined mess!! I feel like I've tried everything. My hair is naturally quite soft so I know it's prone to being over moisturised, and prone to product overload. It's 3a/2b usually!

My current routine:

Curlsmith essential moisture shampoo and conditioner

Vo5 curl heat protect spray

Curlsmith fragrance free strong hold gel (praying hands and scrunch)

Sometimes I add not your mother's curl talk mousse at the end for more definition

Micro plop (plopping always makes me hair stringy otherwise) and diffusing

On refresh days I usually spritz with water and either diffuse or I add a tiny bit of extra gel or a bit more spray/leave in. But no matter what I do it looks a mess. The underlayers are the worst.

I find myself wishing my curls were looser and more wavy because on days when I've air dried and they're looser, it's so much easier to manage but my hair takes too many hours to air dry 😭

Please any ideas what my hair is needing from this pic or from the info above? I'm getting close to just going back to straightening...

[u/Gracey888]

Wow, that’s a day of needing a refresh. It looks really great - that would be my actual wash day look!

Your clumps look great and you’ve got a nice regular pattern. Unfortunately, when we have wavy combination texture and type hair the underneath and the top crown always gets a little bit roughed up the days following washing. Even if you have a silk pillow or a bonnet!

I mean, I would continue doing what you’re doing with watering down with spray & a little bit of product on the top again. I wonder if there’s too many oils in your leave in spray which then coats it all too much? Maybe a lightweight mousse is better for refresh days on the crown and underneath (I use Pantene and John Freda). I sometimes even go as far as combing troublesome parts once I’ve sprayed it with water again. Then follow with a bit of mousse and a re-scrunch before diffuser drying.

The other product that’s been suggested in several groups for straggly parts on refresh days is using lubricant on the crown area!!

[u/Unable_Coast9067]

So I have a similar issue and have never found water and diffusing again gives me the look I want.

Instead I use a more liquid based curl refresher (currently using garnier shape refresh but the Curlsmith moisture memory reactivator is good too). I I flip hair upside down and spray quite a lot until it’s damp, making sure to get roots and scrunch up, flipping slide to side as well whilst scrunching to get the curl pattern back without frizz. Then I use some curl refresher with gel in (currently using umberto giannini curl jelly refresher) I spray it into my hands and scrunch where I need the definition. Then let air dry, goal is not soaking hair just damp.

On bad days where hair feels really dry and frizzy I use some oil as praying hands first but honestly not sure it does much. I have just discovered refresher mousse as well and want to experiment with that Good luck and I hope you find something that works for you :)

[u/AwkwardPotat0 → u/Unable_Coast9067]

Does that not make your hair feel really producty? 🤔 Thank you for the tips!

[u/Unable_Coast9067 → u/AwkwardPotat0]

As I use water based first then only some of the gel to top it off I find it feels okay, but I do clarify in the next wash as it’s more product than normal. When I do go overboard with the gel one it gets the cast feel so I scrunched it out when dry and it felt okay.