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I’ve been working on healing and nourishing my naturally curly hair for three years now. As my curls got healthier, I noticed various improvements with them. 

If you are curious about what else I’ve learned along the way, you should check out these lists as well: 

• 9 Tips To Improve Naturally Curly Hair

• 5 Naturally Curly Hair Mistakes To Avoid

(PS: I have 2c – 3a type of curls.) 

1. No split ends anymore

For years I used to notice that within 1-2 months of going to the hairdresser, my hair would start showing some split ends again. 

The longer I didn’t get them cut, the more and the higher the splits got. 

And I didn’t even straighten my hair or use excessive heat on it! 

I simply didn’t take care of it, brushed it while dry and blowdried it. That was enough to cause split ends. 

Recently, after three years of taking deliberate care of my naturally curly hair, I suddenly noticed that I don’t have any split ends anymore! 

I didn’t even realize this had happened as I was so focused on reducing frizz and making my curls last longer. 

Now that I did notice it, I can’t help but be stunned by that difference. Nowadays, I cut my hair maybe twice a year, and I don’t have any split ends!!! 

That’s a huge success, which you will experience along your naturally curly hair journey as well. 

2. The roots are less oily

Another improvement you will notice is that your hair will be less oily at your scalp. 

I remember this had always been the main reason I needed to wash my hair before I took proper care of it. 

And it happened pretty quickly. By day two, I could already see the beginnings of oiliness at the roots. 

The healthier your curls get, the less you will need to wash them. Until a certain point, of course. 

3. You lose fewer hairs 

This is another result I’ve only noticed recently. 

I don’t shed that many hairs anymore even though I take longer intervals between showering and brushing my curls. 

In the beginning, a good handful of hair would come out. Now, it’s less than half of that. 

And isn’t that a great result! I’ve always thought it rather sad to see a long hair just fall out. I mean, just think about how many years it took to grow to that length?! 

4. Your hair shines more

Of course, I am not referring to that oily shine we are trying to avoid. No, I mean that naturally silky shine those straight-haired people in the commercials have. 

The more nourished and healthy your hair gets, the silkier it will look. 

You might not notice this development in equal amounts on all parts of your hair. 

My hair is mostly silky in the front half. I am still working on the other half of my hair towards the back of my head. 

5. Your hair takes longer to dry 

This was something I’ve noticed pretty quickly throughout my naturally curly hair journey. 

My hair started taking more and more time to air dry. 

I mean, yes, I have a lot of hair, so it naturally takes a while. 

But I would never have expected it to take up to 5 hours!!! 

Now, from what I’ve learned, this comes down to my hair’s porosity. 

According to NaturallyCurly.com, whether your hair is of high or low porosity is very much dependent on your genetics. But it can also be influenced by your hair treatment. 

If your hair is healthy and nourished, it won’t need to suck in all that moisture so quickly, so it takes longer to dry. 

I believe that’s why my curls have become more low porosity. It takes them long to dry, and it takes a while for them to get sopping wet. 

Anyway, your hair’s porosity is a fascinating topic you should look into. 

For starters, you can take this Hair Texture Quiz. 

6. Your baby hair grows 

Many of us have those cute but annoying baby hair framing our faces. 

I always thought they were just naturally there, and that’s that. 

But a few months ago, I panicked for a short time as I noticed that I suddenly had longer baby hairs. 

At first, I was scared that I had broken off the long hair around my face due to a too-tight ponytail. 

But after a while, another thought crossed my mind. What if those are not broken off long hairs but growing baby hairs?

I got that idea from Ayesha Malik as she talked about her DevaCurl damaged hair and how she’s gotten baby hair due to it. 

So it must also work the other way around, right? Maybe the healthier your hair gets, the more your baby hairs will grow out. 

I’m curious to observe my hair growth over the next few months to draw a conclusion to this question. 

It’s definitely worth analyzing your hair for a similar change. 

7. Your hair is less frizzy 

Frizz and volume are the two frenemies of every naturally curly-haired girl. 

Frizz can boost your volume, but who wants a frizz halo? 

As my naturally curly hair has grown healthier, I have noticed it to be less frizzy over a more extended period. 

This also provides the courage to get more and shorter layers as the curls won’t escalate into a frizz halo. 

What about you? 

Have you noticed similar, additional, or completely different curly hair improvements as it got healthier?

Let me know in the comments! 

I love hearing about other people’s curly hair journey. 

Sophie

With naturally curly hair, there are a ton of mistakes to make. Mistakes that frustrate us so much because we curly girls put in so much effort into getting silky and voluminous curls. 

On the one hand, those mistakes need to be made to figure out what works best for our hair. After all, especially naturally curly hair can vary so much from person to person. 

Still, we, of course, want to limit those painful mistakes. And this is where the following list comes into play! 

I’ve collected some of the mistakes I’ve made throughout my naturally curly hair journey for you. 

They might not seem dramatic to you. It’s nothing like, “don’t burn your hair with a straightener.” 

But little by little, a little becomes a lot, so we want to eliminate every tiny mistake. 

Before we get into the list, I also quickly want to mention that I have 2c – 3a type of curls. 

But now, let’s get into it. 

1. Don’t obsess over tools or products 

This mistake didn’t necessarily impact my curls, but it created such unnecessary drama and expenses. 

I know that when you do research on the right products and tools to use for curly hair, it can be very overwhelming. 

Often, curly girls will mention more than 5 products and each of them from some fancy brand and, therefore, at least $20 expensive. 

This brings two main problems with it:

1. The expenses!!!! If you are a student without income like me and even more so when you are trying to build a business, you can’t/don’t want to go out and spend $100 on hair products every few months. 
2. Those beforementioned fancy brands might not be available in your country. I remember how seemingly every curl tutorial I watched mentioned DevaCurl products, and I wanted to get them more and more. But, on top of being pricey anyway, I would have to pay extra shipping with Amazon because the products weren’t available in Germany at the time. Now, with the whole DevaCurl scandal, I am forever grateful that I didn’t purchase them. 

So, what to do about the products and tools then? 

My recommendation is this: Don’t frustrate over purchasing those fancy brands. Simply go into your local drugstore (for me, that’s Rossmann) and check out the products. 

I don’t believe that products are miracle solutions for your curls. I like to think that at least 80% of how your curls look comes down your hair’s health. And only the rest 20% of its appearance can be improved by products. 

Now, what about products that improve the health of your hair in the long run? For me, that simply means that they are not damaging. 

They don’t need to have any secret ingredients. In fact, the more natural they are, the better. 

Try to find products without silicones, parabens, or alcohols. If you want to buy oils, buy virgin oil. You don’t want to have a long-ass and unreadable ingredient list. 

To make things easier for you, get yourself apps like ThinkDirty or CodeChecker (ThinkDirty didn’t know many of my German drugstore products back when I tried it). 

Those apps can help you analyze how toxic a product is. However, you should still be aware that apps like these might be biased. There is no telling if they do rate the products entirely objectively. 

Also, there are always different kinds of scientific studies on the effects of certain ingredients, so it very much depends on which one you believe. 

But these apps will definitely benefit you more than blindly buying any product. 

Also, you might be surprised at how much cheaper the healthiest product is compared to those fancy brand products/tools. 

2. Don’t deep-condition too long 

As I mention in 9 Tips To Improve Naturally Curly Hair I’ve recently learned that there is such a thing as over conditioning. 

For three years, I’ve been deep conditioning my hair once a week. I used to leave the conditioner in for 2-3 hours because I saw someone doing it in a tutorial. 

For the first two years, this has worked just fine. My deep conditioned curls were my best curls. 

But in recent months, I’ve become annoyed at how soft and stretched out my curls get after deep conditioning them. 

From my research, I’ve learned that you shouldn’t leave your hair wet for too long. 

Also, you need to balance out moisturizing your hair and providing it with protein. I haven’t focused on the latter so far. 

So, keep a lookout for how your hair reacts to the deep conditioning. 

It is normal to lose a bit of its curliness because of the added moisture, but if it turns very soft and more wavey, you might want to change your routine. 

3. Don’t use heavy products if you want volume

Heavy products weigh down your hair. The thinner your hair, the easier it will get weighed down. 

Experiment for yourself with different products. Maybe a mousse is better for you than a gel. Perhaps it’s just that specific gel that weighs your hair down that much. 

Just be aware of this possibility and change your products accordingly. 

4. When airdrying your hair don’t wear a top with rough texture 

I like to airdry my hair. I know many curly girls say airdrying takes too long, but for me, it’s the opposite. 

While airdrying, I can go about my day and study as I usually would. Diffusing, on the other hand, would probably take me 45 minutes. During that time, I can’t do much else. 

So, yeah, I like to airdry most of my hair after giving it a short diffusing session. 

Anyway, what I’ve noticed is that at my neck, my hair turns out very straight. 

I’m not sure if some of it might be contributed to those hairs genetically not being curly. But part of it, I was able to improve by not wearing something rough like a chunky cardigan while it dries.

If your hair dries, it is still susceptible and quickly brought out of shape. So you don’t want it to get caught in your top and stretched out. 

Try to wear something sleeker when air drying. Maybe you even have a satin top or kimono or something alike. 

5. Don’t brush your hair after drying it with a towel 

Very early on in my curly hair journey, I learned that you shouldn’t brush your hair when it’s dry. 

So I only brushed my hair while it was still wet. 

However, for a long time, I brushed it one last time after getting out of the shower and drying it with a towel. 

It was still wet then, just not sopping wet. 

Then I learned that this can increase frizz and that you shouldn’t brush your hair after drying it with a towel. 

Now, I only brush it in the shower while it’s still dripping. And I can genuinely say that it reduced the overall frizziness once my hair is dry. 

Try it out for yourself! 

It’s just a little change, but it can make a positive impact. 

I hope you learned something new from my past mistakes. 

Don’t frustrate too much over your curls if you are still at the beginning of your naturally curly hair journey. 

I’ve been taking care of my curls for over three years now, and I am still improving it. 

Give it the time to grow back healthy and strong. 

Until next time, 

Sophie

Hello, curly girls and curly ladies! I am incredibly excited to share with you my top tips to improve naturally curly hair. 

This is the first time I am doing a blog post on something that is not Personal Development or Online Business related. That’s why it is an exciting moment for me! 

Should you be interested in those two topics, do check out my posts! I’m sure they will inspire and help you. 

My curls 

To begin this, let’s first go over what kind of curly hair I have. 

I’d say I have 2c – 3a type of curls. On the top of my head, they are curlier than at the neck. 

Also, I have rather fine hair on top that is a bit of frizz-prone. The hairs at the bottom of my head are much thicker and naturally nourished. 

I’ve rediscovered my curls when I was almost 18. Before that, I always used to blow dry and brush my hair. Which is why I used to think my natural hair was all fluffy and frizzy and slightly wavey. 

So with 18, I started to wear my curls, meaning I stopped blow-drying and brushing them, and I began to deep condition them. 

But only from when I turned 19, I started to go really deep into this whole curly girl topic. 

Today, I am 21 years old. So I have more than three years of experience in getting back and improving my curls. 

Although I am still experimenting and learning and improving my curls, I’ve already come a long way. My hair is much healthier and curlier than it was in the beginning. 

And now it’s time to share with you the steps I took to achieve that. 

1. Brush your hair in the shower 

This has made a HUGE impact on my hair concerning the whole frizz prevention topic. 

I learned early on in my curl journey that you shouldn’t brush naturally curly hair when dry. 

I followed that advice and brushed my hair in the shower, while it had the conditioner in it. So that the strands could detangle more quickly, and the product was distributed broadly. 

That worked well, BUT in the end, when I got out of the shower, I brushed my hair one last time. By then, it was not very wet anymore. 

Later on, I learned that it could reduce frizz to only brush your hair when it’s really wet. Aka in the shower, or you could rewet it with a spray bottle of water. 

That’s why I now only brush my hair in the shower when it’s still dripping wet. 

Once I get out and dry it with a towel, a hairbrush doesn’t even come near it anymore. 

And I honestly noticed a big difference in the frizziness of my hair. 

Also, it’s kind of helpful to have a brush in the shower so that you can collect all the hairs that fall out instead of washing them down the drain. (Or – and I still can’t believe people do that – sticking them to the wall -_-)

2. Use a microfiber towel 

This is a very 101 tip you get on pretty much EVERY tutorial for naturally curly hair. 

Still, I resisted for a long time because I couldn’t believe it would make much difference. 

Also, my hair already took ages drying. I didn’t want to use a microfiber towel that wouldn’t get much excess water out. 

Eventually, however, I got myself a cheap one from Amazon. 

And I genuinely have to say that it did improve the frizziness as well. 

So get yourself one! 

3. Deep condition your hair once a week 

That’s one of the first things I started doing to repair my dry hair. And it has worked wonders! 

You don’t even need to obsess over what brand you take. Just get yourself one that is free of parabens, sulfates, and alcohols and was cold-pressed. 

If you want to be even more conscious about your product choice, use an app like Think Dirty or Code Checker to scan the product and get some help analyzing the ingredients. 

I should also warn you: There is such a thing as over-conditioning. 

During my first two years of deep conditioning weekly, my curls were at their best after those deep condition sessions. 

But over the last months, I’ve increasingly noticed how my curls were much more stretched out and soft on those deep condition days. 

I’ve done some research on it, so I think I have found two reasons for this. 

1. I deep conditioned for too long. I used to deep condition for 3 hours even though the product only said it needed 30 minutes (don’t ask me where I got that idea from). Anyway, apparently, it is not so good for your hair to be wet for that long. 
2. I have focused too much on providing moisture and didn’t balance my routine with a protein-providing product.

But as I mentioned, I have only started to work on that issue, so I can’t give you very detailed information on it yet. 

However, if you are just starting and want to repair your damaged hair, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about it. 

Using a typical, not too expensive drug store deep conditioner every week has helped my hair a ton throughout those first two years. 

4. Put your hair up while sleeping 

For a long time, I’ve resisted this idea. Mainly because I had never ever slept with my hair in a bun before, and I am very prone to headaches, so I was afraid having a bun or anything overnight might result in nasty headaches. 

And if I tried to do a loose bun, it was simply too loose and fell off after two turns in bed. 

The same goes for that scarf wrap some curly girls’ favor. 

However, for a few months now, I have been successful and, most importantly, painlessly sleeping with a pineapple-ish hairstyle in bed. 

It does indeed help prevent frizz for the top layer of your hair. 

If your hair is too long for a regular pineapple (aka a ponytail on the very top and front of your head), simply pull the hair another halfway through. 

It will result in a loose messy bun that might not look very attractive at the first tries, but it gets the job done. 

5. Sleep on a silk pillowcase 

This great frizz prevention technique has a significant additional effect on benefitting your skin as well. 

And again, silk pillowcases don’t have to be that expensive. There are some rather affordable one-sided silk ones on Amazon. 

6. Use cold or lukewarm air to blow dry your hair 

Too much heat will damage your hair, you probably know that by now. 

Therefore the next time you blow-dry your hair, use the cold or lukewarm mode on your blow-dryer. 

This will keep your hair healthier for much longer. 

Nowadays, I have no split ends anymore, and I contribute a big part of that to quitting blow drying my hair with hot air. 

7. Stretch out intervals between wash days 

Washing your hair dries it out. Just like your hands get all dry when you wash them too often without using hand creme. 

Therefore try to prolong the phases in between your wash days. 

I know a few curly girls with incredibly healthy and gorgeous natural curls that don’t wash their hair for 5-6 days. 

Personally, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable going that long without washing it. 

Right now, I wash my naturally curly hair every third day. 

Another benefit of that is, of course, that it will save you quite some time. A lot of curly ladies have very extensive washing routines. So it’s great to have to do them less often. 

But it takes a while to get to that point. The more damaged your hair, the quicker it will look oily, frizzy, and all over the place. 

So simply start with washing it every second day. Once it gets healthier, you can prolong the intervals. 

8. Use shampoo only on your scalp 

Maybe it’s just me, but I used to apply my shampoo on all of my hair. I changed that for two reasons. 

1. Most of my hair doesn’t need shampoo. It does just fine getting cleaned with water and then nourished with conditioner. 
2. I am still working on my itchy scalp issue, so I use a shampoo with more chemicals than I would like. And I don’t want that on all of my hair. 

Try it out for yourself and see if it makes a difference. My hair didn’t look more greasy or anything like that once I stopped using shampoo on the whole length. 

Another benefit of this is that it reduces the amount of shampoo you use and therefore have to buy. 

9. Get layers 

The longer your hair, the more your curls will get weighted down. 

If you wear all or most of your hair at the same length, you will barely have curls at the roots. Most of them will be at the bottom, causing you to look like a triangle – that’s slightly exaggerated, of course. 

Personally, my hair has benefitted very much from layers. The next time I am going to get a haircut, I intend to ask for even more layers because it really enhances my curls. 

Now, this is no one size fits all kind of rule. We all have different curls, and we all have to make our own experiences with them. 

As I told you in the beginning, I have 2c – 3a kind of curls. You have to make that decision for your hair. 

One advice, though, I learned from Manes by Mell that you shouldn’t thin out your hair. Layers: yes, thining out: no. 

I hope these tips will help you enhance your gorgeous gift that is your naturally curly hair even more. 

Embrace them! They can be one of your greatest physical assets and something to be proud of. 

Sophie