I usually spend part of my Sunday’s prepping my hair for the week. And, it takes time.
Deep conditioning, detangling, styling and setting is pretty routine so I don’t have to fuss with my hair as much during the week. The one thing that can put a damper on all that work is smooshed hair.
Prevent smooshed hair
To prevent getting smooshed hair the second day, there are a couple of things I always do.
First, I make sure that my hair is completely air dried before touching or putting it up before bed. If my hair is still damp in the morning, this results in undefined and essentially “smooshed-up” curls. Instead of drying (or setting”> in a perfect little ringlet. It will dry frizzy. It is tempting to want to get out the blow dryer and diffuse to speed this process up, but patience pays off. For me, diffusing causes frizz, it makes the curls softer faster and it’s harder to prevent smooshing with second day hair when I do this technique. Air drying sets the curls perfectly for me.
Once my hair is completely dry, I can then put it up and out of my face without ruining the style for on the second day. My number one technique for this is the pineapple. The higher you put it, the less disturbed your curls.
However, whenever I do this, my hair falls all over my face. For me, that is fine if I am lounging around the house but not ideal for sleeping or preserving my curls.
Cover up
To mitigate, I cover my hair with a silk scarf or cap of some sort.
Right now, I am loving the “slapcap”–a stylish slouchy beanie with a silk interior–and I’m all about style so this is right up my alley. Also, my curls are much looser in the front sections of my hair so, if I am going for a defined look, I leave part of my bang section out, and pint it back so that when I take it down in the morning it’s not too stretched out.
Then refresh
Refreshing is also an important step for maintaining second day curls.
Whenever I spritz, in order to re-moisturize, I make sure that It’s barely wet, not even damp, just a very light spritz because If I don’t, it will cause smoosh and frizz the next day. This goes the same for any product re-application. Hair should be dry to the touch before putting up, or you will wake up frizzy, undefined hair.
Of course, these tips can be modified. If you hair is shorter and it’s hard to get a really good pineapple, try the multi-pineapple. Place hair in two or more (depending on your needs”> high pineapple-like ponytails so that you are preserving your curls.
If your hair is super long, you can still pineapple but you’ll have to loosely pint the hair around in a very loose bun and tie up with a silk scarf so that your hair doesn’t get loose and your curls ruined.
How do you keep your hair from getting smooshed?
