Curly hair does have a charm of its own other than the innate sexiness of having ‘bedhead’ hair, 24X7 curls do take off a chunk of age too! Maintaining curls is a never-ending story though what with combs that refuse to pass through dry and completely tangled corkscrews, flyaways that just don’t give up, and the biggest bane of kinks, frizz!
For reasons ranging from damaged hair to static, the end result of frizz for curly hair is the much-horror ed electrified strands. Experts explain that frizz happens due to two conjugated reasons. The recipe for frizz calls for damaged hair mixed with equal amounts of static.
What’s behind the frizzy hair?
Salon experiments: Perming, straightening, excessive coloring, and too many ‘hair altering’ treatments use abrasive chemicals that slow and steadily strip keratin off your hair – leaving it dull, dry and damaged.
Turning up the heat: You may love your dryer, but it sure doesn’t love you back – heat styling is often a big root cause of hair damage by weakening hair protein aka keratin, and making strands breakage-prone.
Incorrect hair products: If you consume innumerable bottles of hair ‘styling’ products and harsh shampoos, you are setting yourself up for damaged hair.
Being rough: Vigorous towel drying, those 100-brush-strokes, twirling your hair around your fingers, tight
Too much sun: Just like skin, UVA & UVB rays damage the hair too. While there is no SPF for hair per se, try hats and scarves for added protection…clips and barrettes, and even excessive finger combing your hair leads to damaged strands.
And how does static happen?
Too much brushing, combing, rubbing, and even touching – and the hair charges up, literally, causing it to rise as flyaways and being generally ‘static-y’.
Shampoos also cause static – hair protein (keratin) and shampoos are negatively charged and repel each other, causing static in the hair. Crisply clean hair then simply tends to rise up, up, and away!
The Combat Strategy
It involves equal amounts of the right handling and the right products. Having combed through the market, here’s what I felt every frizz victim should invest in, irrespective of curly or wavy hair.
The right comb: Thumb rule: Never comb curly hair when dry, dampen it with a little water or leave-in conditioner and then run through.
The right shampoo & conditioner: While most experts recommend using the same brand and range of shampoo and conditioner, I digress. I color my greys so my shampoos are color-protecting but I need heavy-duty conditioners. The idea is to invest in products that proclaim to be ‘curl friendly’, ‘anti-frizz or simply the ones for ‘damaged hair’.
The right hair products: Since I have frizzy hair, I have a whole drawer full of stuff to combat frizz, depending on when and how am I using the product.
(a) For an evening out I choose Sebastian Potion 9 .
(b) For really humid days its Brocato Actives Restorative Hair Infusion Serum.
(c) For early morning frizz I use the Brocato Curl Calming Balm.
(d) An office meeting fix and generally a bad hair day fix is Brocato Curlinterrupted Smoothing & Hydrating Treatment – voodoo for the hair!
(e) On a casual day, I just go with a smoothing serum that gives my hair a healthy shine.
(f) Another thing, I also try and not shampoo every day – a dry shampoo works instead for hair that’s clean and yet not dry!
The right hair accessories: Barrettes and clips that are too tight and cause tangles to need to be shown in the bin – get soft toweling bands and tie them loosely if you must. Also do not tie your hair the same way day in and out – pressure lines can form on hair making them prone to breakage from one area – causing more flyaways.
The right ‘heat’ products: Look for ‘ionized’ hairdryers available from Phillips, Remington, and Babyliss. The ‘ionic charge’ in these combats the static in the hair. Even then, use heat styling sparingly. Also, never use straighteners or curling irons on damp or wet hair – you will end up ‘frying’ your hair on them, literally. Only dryers and blowers are to be used on wet hair.
The right TLC: Gently pat or scrunch hair dry with towels instead of giving them a vigorous and completely unnecessary rubdown. Also, whichever styling product you use, read the directions first – using them right goes a long way in having the right hair!
Till then, fight on my frizz brigade!
