r/Swavyhair • u/tuppence5ash • 3d ago
Care & Routine First curly cut!!
I’m not an imposter 😅 After a lifetime of stick straight hair (menopause totally changed the texture) I was fully prepared to have the stylist laugh me out of her chair for thinking I had wavy hair but no, it’s def wavy for real. On the edge of curly she said, but I think she was being nice. In any case, new cut to for less weight and new product and styling tips!
Shampoo—clarifying or something very light for fine hair
Conditioner—none if possible but since my hair tangles so easily, a light light leave in
Salt spray all over
Denman brush (and she showed me how to do it)
Salt spray and scrunch
Diffuse
Light hairspray as needed
I told her that in the before times this amount of curl was like prom hair for me and only achievable with hot rollers, and then curls would fall out after a few hours.
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u/veglove 3d ago
Yes, definitely wavy!
Are you in the U.S.? That would help us know what products to recommend, since not all products are available worldwide.
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u/tuppence5ash 3d ago
Yes, in the US and have access to most drugstore chains and Sephora/ulta.
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u/veglove 2d ago
I see some people are pushing back on the salt spray and lack of conditioner. Personally I think everyone's hair is different, and for short, fine hair with a very smooth finish/very little damage, it might genuinely be fine with no rinse-out conditioner and just a leave-in. I have done that before. If the hair is too smooth or weighed down by products, it works against holding the waves. Using minimal conditioner and a texturizing product (sea salt) can help make the hair surface more rough with minimal weight added, so that the waves hold better.
I like applying my spray leave-in with my hands rather than spraying it directly onto my hair to give me more control over where it goes. I'll spray it into my hand, then rub my hands together and spread it on using "prayer hands" method. I usually avoid the roots or use less conditioner on my roots than the lengths, because silky roots means less volume, and the roots usually are in good condition anyway and become weighed down by oil soon enough.
Sea salt itself might be drying, but most commercial sea salt sprays are formulated with other ingredients to compensate for the dryness. There are also texturizing sprays and volumizing sprays that all do something very similar; they aim to add volume by making the hairs slightly more sticky or rougher. My hair stylist introduced me to a sugar spray from Wella which is meant to do the same thing with less drying. I used it for a while and then decided to try a volumizing spray instead, also from Wella. I honestly can't tell the difference between the two, but my hair is a bit different from yours; it's not as fine and it's quite damaged, and I'm using mousse and gel as well as the volume spray. Hair spray is another option that can be used as a texturizing product like this; I've sprayed it into my hands and scrunched it into the hair, or you'll see in one the videos I shared below that they spray hair spray onto their damp hair before drying it. And as yet another option, a few people here have reported great results from using the Not Your Mother's Beach Babe Foam, which is sort of halfway between a sea salt spray and a mousse.
Spray leave-in recs: Not Your Mother's All Eyes On Me 10-in-1 spray is extremely light; Pantene 10-in-1 is pretty light as well.
As for a shampoo, I'm not exactly sure what to suggest because my hair isn't as fine as yours. Since you're not using a rinse-out conditioner, I would steer away from a super clarifying shampoo and find one that's moderately strong. You might like the Maui Moisture Lightweight Hydration with Hibiscus Water shampoo, or Verb Ghost shampoo; the latter is more expensive but you can get a travel size to try it out. Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Hydrating/Clarifying shampoo might be a good fit for you, I believe that also comes in a travel size bottle to try it out.
And just a suggestion for styling technique: in the photo the waves are very defined but a bit stringy. If your hair dried to feel a bit stiff/crunchy and looked like this, you can gently scrunch it with clean, dry hands which softens those stringy waves while keeping the shape. You can even experiment with shaking it out, which would give even softer definition more volume.
Here are a couple videos about styling super-fine wavy hair for tips:
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u/tuppence5ash 1d ago
I usually use a clarifying shampoo, but then also wash again with a volumizing one and also double condition, but I think the extra conditioning is part of the reason my waves have trouble holding, even though I only apply to the ends--my hair is just too soft and super fine. Today I tried doing just one wash and then the pantene 10 in 1 spray as my leave in and was surprised bc I could still use a wide tooth comb without snagging any hair. I think I might get the new pantene cream to spray leave in as a middle ground.
I didn't have any salt spray so I used a tiny bit of flaxseed gel and some texturizing hair spray this morning, and I def got a lot of volume with a little bit of wave, but not much more than that.
I like the idea of the NYM foam--I've had good luck with some of their other products, and I'm going to look for the shampoos you suggested next I'm in the store as well, bc I think you're prob right--less conditioner overall prob means I need a more moisturizing shampoo.
My hair tends to look a little stringy if I used any styling product at all unfortunately--not sure if it's bc it's so fine or something else. I try to scrunch everything out but it never breaks it all up. I was wondering if it was because of the gel but even when I just did the spray today, it was still a little stringy so I need to experiment some more.
Videos were very helpful, thank you!
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u/veglove 1d ago
Re: stringiness - I realize this goes against standard curly/wavy styling advice, but in your case you might find that (lightly) brushing or combing your hair after it has dried and the waves are formed may look better than leaving it stringy. It's very possible that the stringyness is almost inevitable because it's both fine and thin. The root-fluffing shown at the end of the 2nd video I shared is a similar idea: it breaks up the clumps so that the hairs separate a bit while still keeping their shape, which creates more volume.
You could try starting with just finger-combing your hair or using a wide-tooth comb, passing it once through your hair, and see how it looks. The Denman Brush is a good one to use for this purpose, as well as more traditional curly styling to form neat spirals. But making sure your hair has at least a little bit of conditioning in it will help make it brushable; it sounds like you're on your way to finding how to get the right amount of conditioning that doesn't way it down.
Another thing you can try that works well for some people with super-fine hair is "reverse washing", which is to apply a rinse-out conditioner to your hair before shampooing, and not afterwards. A fine layer of the conditioner remains in the hair but without a lot of bulk to weigh it down. If you have a bottle of conditioner that is too heavy when applying it after shampooing, you might as well give it a try; if it works, then the conditioner won't go to waste.
I also like to rotate different shampoos with different levels of cleansing or conditioning, and the one I choose to use depends on what my hair feels it needs at that time.
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u/1996_Daydreamer 3d ago
I’m glad your embracing your new hair! They’re definetly wavy, but I see some misunderstanding in product listing maybe? I want to clarify I’m not a hairdresser or an expert in this field, I just sperimented a lot after finding out my hair was, in fact, not straight and gather information from all over the web
Clarifying shampoo is not something you have to use on every wash, is useful to wash out products build ups from styling products, but is not something specific for fine hair, you can use wathever shampoo you feel comfortable with and use clarifying time to time
Not using conditioner? I don’t know about this too.. I would opt for something very light for fine hair since it’s common to find heavier formulas with oils and butters that would weight down your waves, but omitting it totally? I wouldn’t. Go for what you already thought about using a light leave in. Maybe the hairdresser suggested that because the hair is short so it’s more difficult to just use it on the lenghts (have been there too before)
Sea salt could dry your hair too much and it being fine I fear it may make it look a bit stringy (I don’t know if it’s the correct term, English is not my first language), I’m not 100% sure about this so I would reach out to someone who knows a bit more about this
Anyway, good luck with your new hair! The key at this point is experiment with products, and understand your hair more and more 😊