How to Care for Wavy Hair

Do you have wavy hair too? Wavy hair’s versatility gives us the best of both worlds, curly and straight.

What we give up in predictability (wavy hair might look great one minute and crazy the next), we gain in adaptability (hair can go curly or straight, and it can really hold a style.) Wavy hair looks friendly, approachable, and natural. While sometimes I find it easier to just blow out my hair straight, I really do prefer the way it looks when I wear my hair wavy.

I loved when Lorraine Massey’s book Curly Girl changed the way that women looked at and took care of their curls. Finally people took notice that you can’t treat all hair types as straight.

Wavy hair, too, needs special care to coax the curls instead of controlling them, add moisture without weighing hair down, and protect hair from rough treatment. Let me show you how I style my natural wavy hair.

Styling Products

It takes a lot of styling product to achieve a natural look. I use mousse and pile it on. You want to try to boost and enhance the curl.

While I like Aveda’s Be Curly enhancing cream, I actually prefer using a less-expensive product such as Herbal Essences’ mousse.  It doesn’t make much difference, and if the product is expensive then I tend to skimp and use less, and my hair doesn’t look as good. Use a lot and scrunch it in while your hair is wet. You have to use a lot of product if you want your hair to look as good after lunch as it does in the morning.

(For smoothing my hair, Frédéric Fekkai’s glossing cream is nice for the rare times when I blow dry it straight.)

Cleansers & Conditioners

When it comes to shampoos and conditioners, I think I’ve tried everything. While the Curly Girl book advises to only use conditioner and never shampoo, that’s a bit extreme for wavy hair. I use the gentlest cleanser possible based on what my hair needs that day.

• Sometimes it just needs a little conditioner on the ends and also rubbing it on your scalp like you would do with shampoo.
• I mostly use sulfate-free gentle shampoos such as Jason Biotin Shampoo. I also like Kiss My Face Whenever Shampoo which is even more gentle and made mostly from aloe vera (that’s what I use on my kids.)
• Once in a while I use a regular shampoo such as Dove Volume Boost Shampoo if my hair is looking limp and it seems to have a lot of build up.

I even tried the “no poo” method for almost a year which involves using baking soda instead of shampoo and diluted apple cider vinegar for a clarifying rinse. That seemed to be better suited for shorter or straight hair, not long, wavy hair. It made my hair heavy, and I had to brush it often to keep it looking clean. I switched back to a regular shampoo method when I grew tired of keeping my hair straight all the time.

For conditioners, look for moisturizing formulas such as Jason Biotin Conditioner. Avoid conditioners and products with silicones which coat your hair to give it that slick feeling in the shower, but don’t give moisture to your hair at all, so your hair ends up dry and brittle. (Look at the ingredients to avoid words that end in -cone.)

Hard Water

I was amazed at the difference water can make when I moved to a city with extrememly high mineral content in the water (also known as hard water) from the mountains. It felt impossible to get my hair clean, there was a lot of calcium buildup and residue, and my hair felt both oily and frizzy. Shampoo made my hair worse and even more frizzy.

To counteract the hard water, I only used conditioner on my scalp instead of shampoo (even though it seems counter-intuitive) to add as much moisture to my hair as possible. I had the best results when I did a final rinse with a liter of filtered water. The filtered water made my hair lighter, cleaner, softer, and curlier. If you have hard water, try rinsing with filtered water to see if it makes a difference to help your hair feel cleaner. It might not be your hair’s fault after all.

Techniques

When you use enough styling product, you can avoid the damaging heat from styling tools such as curling irons and hair dryers. I can tell a huge difference in my hair’s health (less frizz) since I stopped using a hair dryer so regularly. I usually let my hair air dry, but if I’m in a hurry then I might blow dry my hair with a diffuser, always on low heat and aiming at the roots for fullness.

Brushes are for straight hair. I might use a wide-tooth comb in the shower, but I only use my hair brush when I dry my hair straight.

Wavy hair starts in the shower. When I’m almost finished, I do the final rinse on my hair while looking down so that the top section of my hair goes in front of my face instead of behind me. I comb through my hair with my fingers or a wide-tooth comb while the water rinses out the last of the conditioner. This helps to separate and form the curls and gives extra lift at the roots.

After the shower, my hair is still kind of hanging in front of my face, so I wrap up my hair in a towel. You don’t want to towel-dry your hair, you just want to soak up the excess water. If you have curly hair you might want to use a t-shirt or something more gentle than a terry towel.

Then I apply a ton of product while my hair is wet and scrunch it in, and let it air dry.

Time-Saving Tip for Mornings!

I like taking a shower in the morning, but with two little kids, I don’t have time to do the whole shower routine and let my hair air dry. It’s much better for me to take a shower at night when the kids are asleep and I’m winding down from the day. I wash my hair and go to bed. In the morning I lean over the bathtub and rinse my hair under the faucet to get it wet again, then I apply product and let it dry as I get ready for the day.

Have a Good Christmas!

This month was hard. I have a built-in rest system where my brain turns into a ball of cotton fluff and I can no more put together a sentence, let alone a full blog post. So my plans for posts will have to wait.

When the introverted side of my personality becomes overwhelmed by social obligations resulting in my hiding in the bedroom under the covers after hosting a class party for forty kindergarteners complete with allergen-free snacks…

When taking a nap is the only cure for being worn out, both physically and emotionally, because the drama, I cannot take it any more, for the love…

When my ambitions and intentions are interrupted by car repairs (we’re a one-car family) and a flooding laundry room…

When my brain just wants to snack on pictures of animals wearing sweaters and past seasons of Burn Notice cued up on Netflix…

then rest is the only reasonable thing to do.

So I have been taking some time to distance myself from my computer and to-do list for long enough that the urgent things don’t feel quite so urgent, and I can get over myself in time for Christmas.

The bathroom renovation will not be finished in time for Christmas, nor will the backsplash, the entry light fixture, the bedroom, nor the office. The online work projects are paused. I was going to sew and hang all of our curtains. I took down the old curtains months ago, and our house has been curtain-less ever since. Sorry, neighbors. Maybe you’ll see us get new curtains next year because right now it’s the holidays.

Have a good Christmas, and I’ll be back to posting here at Small Notebook on Monday, Dec. 26 (assuming my brain comes back from its vacation.)

Thank you for reading here, and for being the most lovely readers that make writing this blog feel like a privilege instead of a job. And because I don’t want to keep a secret, the week between Christmas and New Year will be Beauty Week at Small Notebook for answering questions about skin care, hair, and makeup. (Organizing will wait until January, but there’s quite a bit of that too.) See you then!

Quick Clean Hardwood Floors

A dust mop can clean 1000 square feet of hardwood floors in less than five minutes.

I wanted to find one that was extra wide and good quality, so I bought it at a janitor-supply shop. It has a machine-washable cotton head (air dry). It works without cords, without electricity, without motors, without noise, and without attachments. It’s just a dust mop, but it really works.

Because it’s so wide (24 inches, though it can be longer) the cleaning goes fast. As you push it, it glides across the floor and the head swivels to make the turns without your picking up the mop. I don’t use any sprays or treatments on it; the cotton fibers do a good job holding the dust. Then you shake it out, and wash the mop head once every few weeks.

I highly recommend it for caring for your hardwood floors, along with a good door mat.

Things to Make and Do with Kids During Christmas Vacation

A month ago we turned the clocks back for the end of Daylight Savings, but I neglected to mention it to the kids. They don’t know they’ve been going to bed an hour early every night since then. (They still wake up at the crack of dawn, just like always.)

One day they will know how to tell time, but until then, the seven o’clock bedtime is so, so sweet.

Here are some fun things to do with the kids that I shared at Alphamom:

Christmas Craft: Beaded Snowflake Ornament

Create A Video Slideshow To Share Your Pictures (I can see older kids having fun doing this when school is out next week.)

Kids’ Apple Craft: Paint Embellished Apples For A Holiday Table

Tradition: Start A Christmas Ornament Collection For Your Kids

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You know that I like to keep my crafts simple, mostly made with felt or paper or pipe cleaners. When the instructions say something like, “Now get out your modge podge…” I’m probably not going to do that one.

The Pipe Cleaner Christmas Trees to make from Pure and Noble are totally my crafting style.

Spy training when you’re stuck inside because of the cold weather. (Via Tsh on Pinterest).

Sometimes it doesn’t even have to be a craft. The scissor practice activity just bought me a few more minutes to finish writing this post. I drew a crazy line on the back of a piece of paper and now she’s cutting up all the fliers that come home from kindergarten. (Also via Tsh on Pinterest).