Less definition in the back

Maganda · 01-11-2012, 01:54 PM

My hair looks good when I push it all in front of my shoulders, but not in any other style. If I push it all to the back, it looks like a mess. If I put it in a ponytail or a half-up, it's a mess. If I put it all up in a clip, it looks ok. I'd like to be able to wear it in more styles.

I think I finally figured out why. The curls in the very front of my hair come out looking great, but the rest of my hair is frizzy, undefined, and sometimes wonky. So when I wear it all in front of my shoulders, the curls in front cover up the bad part. How can I change my technique to get good definition all over?

I wet my hair and rake and scrunch in leave-in and gel and let it air dry every day. I just tilt my head to the side when applying product because if I apply product upside down, my hair doesn't lay right when I flip back up. Same thing happens if I plop or use a sleep cap.

I thought maybe my hair just clumps up in a bad way when it touches other hair. So I tried to spread my hair out more--some in front, some to the side, some in the back, but of course it never stays in place when I do that, and for that matter my hair is very thin and it looks patchy when I try to spread it out like that.

I've tried pinning my hair while it's drying but I'm not very skilled at that. Any tips?

Auntie Bubbs · 01-11-2012, 02:36 PM

I have the same problem, less definition in the back of my hair, and for me, the issue is definitely product application. I just can't get good saturation of product to the back of my head.
I've gotten better at it, but my method sounds like the method you don't like: I put my product in upside down. Soaking wet hair, flipped head upside down, gently scrunching in the product from the bottom up to the scalp/roots. (Well, I start out gentle; I get more agressive as the product gets saturated into my hair.) After I get good saturation upside down, I flip over, and scrunch in at the back, the sides, and the crown. I do the exact same thing all over again (upside down, flip over and do the back, sides and crown) with my hard hold gel, then when my hair is all clumpy from all that product, I super soak very, very gently with a few palmfuls of cool water, and then plop very gently with a floursack towel.
Since I started doing the back, sides and crown like this, and following with the super soak, I've noticed I get less frizz and more definition in the back (Well, all over, really). I used to get next to no definition in the back, but nice def in the front. Now I get really nice Shirley Temple curls all over. LOL
But: I don't rake product in my hair at all. I think it ruins my curl pattern. And frizzes my hair. I don't believe in raking. So that's a complete opposite philosophy.

HTH

britney. · 01-11-2012, 05:29 PM

I have the same problem! My hair always ends up looking terrible in the back but good in the front! It ends up looking frizzy and poofy with no curls at all sometimes or I just have gross looking curls in the back. For me the problem is also product application.. I find it very hard to apply products to the back of my hair thoroughly! And also, it's hard to diffuse the back of my hair as well so it just ends up getting even frizzier from trying to diffuse the backside of my hair. I just try to focus on applying more product to the back of my hair which helps somewhat. But it's still pretty difficult to get the back of my hair to look nice. :/

Maganda · 01-11-2012, 09:12 PM

Thanks for the advice! I agree I need to work on my technique.. the video tutorials make it doing things upside down look so easy and I don't know why it doesn't come out right for me...
I don't have any problem with getting definition when my hair is wet. It doesn't take much encouraging to make my hair curl.. just a couple scrunches and I have a good pattern all over. So I don't think the raking is an issue. So I think something is wrong with how it dries or with getting enough product in the back of my hair..