VIDEO - How To Get More Volume in Your Curls
May 5, 2019 by Shamara Lee
Hello my beautiful curly friends!
We are back with another video dissecting a popular question many naturals want to know. How do I get a bigger fro? If you’re like me, I used to envision how fabulous I would look with huge, healthy natural hair. I had Erykah Badu goals. This video will share four tips on how to achieve more volume in your natural hair, creating the appearance of a big, beautiful, attention grabbing fro.
1. Add Water To Your Hair When Styling
As a natural, water is our best friend. After a good night sleep, we often wake up with flat hair and water is our primary source of reviving it. Many of us use a combination of products for styling, detangling and curl definition and if you’ll notice, in many cases, the hair is weighed down a bit after applying. How ever our hair is positioned when wet is how it’s going to dry. If you’re looking to add volume back into your hair, water will help with that. Once you take off your Swirly Curly bonnet, you can lightly spritz your hair, like the photo captured for Curl Keeper featured on NaturallyCurly.com, or dampen your finger tips and shake the curls out that way. Experiment with techniques to find what works best for you. Keep in mind, in most cases, you won’t get curl definition and volume at the same time. Usually the curl definition will be sacrificed in order to obtain volume. The key here is to find a middle ground and just know that at different stages of your natural hair journey, you’ll achieve different results using different methods.
2. Use A Pick
Picking your fro is an historic way of creating natural hair volume. Even people with non textured hair use picking as a method to achieve hair density. When picking a section, please pick from the ROOT and NOT the ends. Picking your roots is the safest and most effective way of achieving volume without damaging your tresses! You want to insert the pick at the base of your scalp and gently pull up until the pick won’t go any further. This model demonstrates the correct way of picking natural hair, featured on Ouidad's blog. Hair picking is only necessary for 5 minutes max around your entire head. If your hair seems dry, add water and a little leave-in to re-hydrate it. If your hair is breaking no matter what you do, stop picking it and try using the pads of your fingers in the same way you would use your pick. Sometimes, using your fingers works better. It all depends on your hair and what stage it’s in, so please be mindful of this and style accordingly.
3. Use A Blow Dryer
Blow drying seems like a non-negotiable for natural hair. We are taught to leave the heat alone! Although, heatless methods are best, applying warm or even cool air onto your hair won’t cause harm. This has been stated from the Curl Doctor himself. Also, keep in mind that you’re not applying air directly onto the hair either. Using a blow dryer allows you to break up the curls and create movement due to the air flow. If you want to sustain curl definition, try cupping the bottom of your hair and delicately apply air to that section. It will be more time consuming but necessary to avoid creating frizz.
4. Separate Your Curls
This method is similar to picking the hair except you’re focused on finding curl clumps and separating until you’ve achieved the desired volume. Just a forewarning, the detangling process can be more tedious because the hair has been undefined for a while, but there are ways to avoid making your wash day gruesome. My advice would be to try these suggestions and adjust after you’ve given them a fair shot. Natural hair takes a couple of wash days before it can determine what it likes and what it does not. Just like you have to give products time, regimens are the same way.
It’s been so fun sharing our four recommendations for maximizing hair volume! If you’ve found this discussion helpful, share it with someone who can benefit from this information. Also, feel free to engage with us! Leave a comment. We’d love to know some of your methods for creating natural hair volume.
As always,
Xox
Keziah Dhamma