10 common mistakes that are killing your curls

 Here are some of the things for curly girl that change the world , also this blog explain about the mistake for curly hair and how to fix them.

1. You are using a regular bath towel on your hair and you are rubbing your head with it

Okay, this is something that I was SUPER guilty of. I would wrap the towel around my hair and rub it until my hair was one big knotted mess.

This is a curly no-no for a couple of reasons…

First of all, bath towels absorb too much moisture from our hair. Curly hair is notoriously dry, so we need to retain as much moisture as possible.

Second, bath towels are made up of little loops, which are too rough on our hair.

Third, rubbing our hair causes frizz and tangles, and again, absorbs too much moisture out of our hair. The rubbing can also be extremely damaging to our fragile hair.

If your goal is healthy curls, the bath towel, and the head rubbing absolutely have to be the first things to go.

How to Fix It:

I already know what you’re thinking… “But Taylor, if I can’t use a bath towel on my hair, how will I stop my hair from being dripping wet??”

Instead of using a normal towel, you should use a microfiber towel or an old cotton t-shirt to remove excess water from your hair.

Both a microfiber towel and a t-shirt are super soft and very gentle on your hair. They are perfect for removing justttttt the right amount of water.

Instead of rubbing your head, you should gently scrunch your hair with the towel or t-shirt to remove the excess water. This will help combat frizz and will help your hair retain more moisture.

I personally prefer to use an old cotton t-shirt because I’m a momma on a budget and I already have way too many old t-shirts laying around, but microfiber towels are also great! Listed below is a really great, really affordable microfiber towel.

2. You aren’t conditioning or deep conditioning your hair

Our curls and waves are naturally very dry, so we need all the moisture we can get! When curls are moisturized, they become healthier, stronger, shinier, and in some cases, even curlier. It is especially important to focus on moisture when your hair is damaged.

How to Fix It:

Condition, condition, condition! It will seem like a lot in the beginning, but your hair will love it! I’ll be honest, when I first started my curly journey, I didn’t focus AT ALL on conditioning my hair. It wasn’t until I regularly started using conditioner, deep conditioner, and leave in conditioner that I started to see a crazy transformation in the health and appearance of my curls.

The number one essential is a good conditioner. Tresemme Coconut Botanique Conditioner was a lifesaver in the beginning of my curl journey and remains one of my all-time favorite conditioners! It is also my all-time favorite leave-in conditioner.

If you have damaged or dry hair, a deep conditioner is also essential to nursing your hair back to health. It should also be a weekly, biweekly, or monthly habit of curlies with healthy hair. I personally like to deep condition once a week. Shea Moisture makes 2 of my absolute FAVORITE deep conditioners.

3. You aren’t using any styling products

If you have wavy or curly hair, you know how unpredictable and out of control our hair can be. Without any styling products at all, our hair is even more frizzy, crazy and unpredictable.

How to Fix It:

Using styling products will help tremendously with keeping your curls under control and give a little bit more predictability. Start trying out some different products! You don’t have to use a ton of product or use expensive products to get gorgeous results!

All that you need to start is a good leave-in conditioner (or leave your normal conditioner in your hair) and a mousse, gel, or cream. Everything else is totally optional!

My current favorite styling products are Tresemme Botanique Conditioner or Not Your Mother’s Naturals Royal Honey & Kalahari Desert Melon Conditioner as my leave-in and Kinky Curly Curling Custard and/or Aussie Instant Freeze.

4. You apply your products to dry or damp hair

If your curls are stringy, crunchy, or frizzy, the culprit may be the way that you apply your products.

Applying your products to damp or dry hair is a surefire way to achieve lots of frizz and stringiness. You are also more likely to apply a lot more product than you need, causing that not so cute, but all too common weighed down, crunchy look.

How to Fix It:

Put down that straightener my love! If embracing and nurturing your natural curls and waves is what you want, you HAVE to cut back on the heat styling! You will be amazed by the transformation that your hair goes through the longer you go without heat styling! That’s not to say that you can never ever straighten your hair again! I personally like to straighten my hair 2-3 times a year, but I know a lot of curlies who will heat style even more frequently than that.

The goal is to learn to love your natural hair and you will reach a point in your curl journey where you will prefer your hair in its natural state!

6. You brush out your curls

Curly hair is a lot more fragile and susceptible to damage than one might think. It is also more susceptible to tangles… Add a hairbrush to the mix and damage is almost inevitable. Anddddd if you are brushing out your curls, you are stretching out and breaking up how your natural curl patterns which equal frizz city!

How to Fix It:

I’m not at all saying that you can NEVER brush your hair ever again! Our hair gets tangley very quickly!

To skip the damage and frizz of dry brushing your hair, try brushing your hair in the shower while you have your conditioner in it. This will save you so much time and effort! You can either use your fingers, a wide toothcomb, of a Wet Brush to brush out your tangles. I highly recommend a Wet Bruth for those with extremely tangley hair.

If your hair is super tangley, let the conditioner sit in your hair for a few minutes before brushing it out with a Wet Brush. Also, always start brushing from the bottom up. Detangle and brush out your ends first and then work your way up to your scalp.

Pro Tip: If you come across a giant tangle while your hair is dry, but don’t want to start all over by washing your hair, just add a little bit of water and conditioner to the tangle and slowly and gently pull it apart with your fingers.

7. You touch your hair a lot while it’s drying

This is one that I STILL struggle with a lot! While our hair is drying, it is trying to find it’s natural curl pattern, but if we are constantly moving it around and messing with it, we are separating those curls, which will cause frizz. “Frizz is a curl waiting to happen” stated the wise curl queen Lorraine Massey. Every little frizzy is a little piece of a curl that doesn’t know where to go and when we touch our hair while it’s drying, we are causing those little bitty clueless curls.

How to Fix It:

Stop touching your hair! I know that it’s easier said than done, but I promise that you will see so much less frizz and insanely better curls!

To fight the urge to touch your curls, try pinning back the front pieces. This makes the drying process more manageable, but will also add volume to the top layer of your hair.

8. You sleep with your hair down or in tight ponytails/hairstyles

Sleeping with your curls down can cause frizz and damage. It can also cause breakouts if you are using styling products. Also, tight hairstyles/ponytails are never a good idea for our fragile curls.

How to Fix It:

Try sleeping with your hair in a pineapple, which is a loose ponytail on top of your head. If your hair isn’t long enough for a ponytail, try sleeping in a satin bonnet or medusa clipping.

Protecting your curls at night is essential to making your curls last for multiple days, reduce frizz, and help your curls stay healthy! Another game-changing curly sleeping essential of mine is a silk pillowcase. I see so much less frizz and my curls hold up much better if I sleep with my hair in a pineapple + my silk pillowcase.

9. You are washing your hair too frequently

If you are washing your hair every single day, you are washing too frequently.

Washing removes all dirt and oil from our hair, but not all of our oil is bad. We need oil to moisturize our hair and scalp to keep it healthy, so when all of that oil is being washed away too often, the hair will become dry and eventually damaged.

Also, by washing your hair every day, your scalp kicks into overdrive in an attempt to play catch-up on oil production to give the hair the oil that it needs and when all of the oil is being stripped away, the scalp will produce too much oil. *Que the vicious cycle of washing and oil over production*

How to Fix It:

You need to stop the vicious cycle now!

What do I mean by this? Start extended your washes by one day. If you wash every day, start washing every other day and so on and so forth. “But Taylor, my hair will be SO greasy if I stop washing it every day!” That’s good! Your scalp needs to learn that you are no longer going to strip away all of the oil that it needs, but until it gets the message, your hair is going to be a little too oily!

It may take a day, a week or it could take a month. It all just depends on what products you are using, how healthy your hair is, and how often you were previously washing your hair.

I know that it sounds hard, and I’m not going to lie, this was one of the hardest things for me to do when I first started my healthy hair journey, but I promise that you and your hair will be so much happier for it!

In the meantime, wear your hair up or invest in some cute headbands or scarves to help hide the oiliness on the in-between days!

10. Your hair products contain silicones and sulfates

THIS right here is the biggest mistake I was making! When I needed a shampoo or hair styling product, I would just grab whatever was cheapest or looked the most appealing at my grocery store. I never, ever looked at the ingredients, because I had just assumed that if it were sold in the store, that it was good for my hair. Oh how wrong I was….

Let me explain why us wavies and curlies need to stay away from silicones and sulfates…

Silicone is a synthetic substance that is used to make plastic and it is one of the most common ingredients found in hair product.

Why is it in hair products? It coats each hair strand, giving it a shiny and smooth appearance. Sounds great, right? Nope! It coats the hair to the point that nothing else can get in. This, in turn, stops any moisture from getting in. Think about rain boots.. You can splash in a puddle and the water doesn’t seep through to your feet. This is exactly what happens to your hair when your products contain silicone.

Sulfate is a cleaning agent found in dish soap, laundry detergent, household cleaners and is a very common ingredient in shampoo. To remove silicone from hair, sulfate must be used.

The issue with sulfate in hair products is that it is too harsh and drying for wavy and curly hair. It removes any and all dirt and oil, and as I said earlier, not all oil is bad! Sulfates are the reason that a lot of people feel the need to wash their hair every single day.

How to Fix It:

Check your products for silicones and sulfates! Use this website called Is It CG? to check! All that you have to do is copy and paste the ingredient list of each product into the search box and it will tell you if that product contains any silicones or sulfates. To find my ingredient list, I usually search for my product on Amazon or Ulta.com . They both have full ingredient lists for products.

If your products do contain silicones and sulfates, stop using them asap! You need the Curly Girl Method in your life, babe!

The curly girl method is only using silicone and sulfate free products. Cutting out silicones and sulfates will literally transform your hair! I have been following the Curly Girl Method for a little over a year and a half now and I can’t believe the changes that I have seen in my hair!

If you want to learn all that there is to know about the Curly Girl Method, I highly recommend that you read 

It is a common misperception that you have to spend a lot of money on curly girl friendly hair products. This is absolutely not true! For the first year of embracing my curls, I used a lineup of products that cost me less than a total of $20! 

All that you need to start is a silicone and sulfate free shampoo, conditioner, and at least one styling product. I personally prefer gel. I also highly, highly recommend a deep conditioner, especially for those with damaged hair.

My current routine consists of washing my hair, conditioning, leaving in most of my conditioner and then applying my gel to soaking wet hair. Then I will let it air dry.

There ya have it curly friends! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post! If you are guilty of any of these curly sins, I hope that you found this post helpful! If you have any questions don’t hesitate to shoot me a message or ask in the comments below!