clumping is GOOD?

deADCURly · 03-23-2007, 09:30 PM

im confused, clumping is when ur curls stay together instead of in separate pieces, but how is that good? i have alot of hair n i tried to make it all clumpy cuz i kept hearing it was a good thing but i had no volume and it was..flat..
??? help.

sfisher323 · 03-23-2007, 11:09 PM

Well some of us (me, for example) can have a tendency to get thin, stringy curls. Which I don't find terribly attractive on myself. So, I am always desperately in search of clumping. And actually, when I have good clumping, it tends to look like I have better volume. The stringy curls lie flatter against my had, but the clumpier curls - because they're fatter - give added volume to my hair.

Although, I don't know if I helped at all.

wild_sasparilla · 03-23-2007, 11:11 PM

The curls actually DO go in separate pieces if they're clumpy, just bigger ones.

And it seems to be a 2, 3a, 3a/3b and some 3bs thing to look better clumpy (?), as they look fatter, more substantial and more full of movement. HTH!

deADCURly · 03-23-2007, 11:15 PM

ohhhhhhhhhh
ok ok, i get it...maybe i do have clumping then..hmm..what does it look like?

JuicyTube · 03-24-2007, 09:38 AM

I think clumps look healthy. =]

medusahair · 03-24-2007, 10:02 AM

I break up my huge clumps into smaller ones by raking in my product. My natural pattern is really big clumps. It makes me look like I have 6 real big long curls.
Now I still have good clumping just smaller

Bad clumping is when the hair looks like it's all one mass, no separate curls. LIke when you brush it and it's all separated and nothing sticks together and makes the curls. That's bad clumping

My hair without product is pretty bad at the clumping. Any product I put it makes it all stick to each other and they start to form clumps. Better or tighter clumps depending on the product I use.

cmartin1 · 03-24-2007, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deADCURly

ohhhhhhhhhh
ok ok, i get it...maybe i do have clumping then..hmm..what does it look like?

I don't mean to create extra work, but I agree with deADCURly - is there a way for someone to post a pic of stringy curls and clumping curls for comparison purposes?

I can start by posting a pic of my stringy curls!

Maybe Medusahair can post a good example of clumpy curls?

medusahair · 03-24-2007, 01:19 PM

http://public.fotki.com/Medusahair/w.../dsc07099.html

Try this pic. It was after I had scrubbed some buildup off and my hair started clumping again.

fotki doesn't let me post it here just the link. Sorry!

Darby · 03-24-2007, 09:54 PM

I have very fine, thin hair so when I get clumps, it doesn't look good on me. It makes my hair look thinner and you can see my scalp. Whenever I go in for my trim, my stylist gets clumps with my hair. Yes, it looks shiney and healthy but it's too thin looking. When I do my own hair, I get more fluffy curls. I get a few clumped together but nothing like what most people get.
My stylist has clumped curls and her hair looks great BUT, she has thick hair.
Darby

sfisher323 · 03-25-2007, 01:08 AM

MH has fabulous clumping. (I have MH hair envy. But she already knows that.

)

I guess if you were to take a look at my fotki (in the Journey begins album) . . . my hair starts out as one big, messy, mass of hair with no clumping (Dec 5 2006). Then moves into stringy curls (a la Dec 21 2006) and has been clumping better over time (pictures in the 'More Experimenting' album) . . .

medusahair · 03-25-2007, 11:07 AM

Ok you take the clumping sf and I'll take the spirals k? deal?

redcelticcurls · 03-25-2007, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deADCURly

ohhhhhhhhhh
ok ok, i get it...maybe i do have clumping then..hmm..what does it look like?

Oh, I get both skinny, more stringy curls and clumpy curls, so I can help out on this.

Here's one with skinny curls, (less clumping) but with good definition still.

Skinny curls (less clumping) and less definition/more frizz

Good clumping and definition

While I love clumping, I have learned that I can have skinnier curls that still look decent. That might be a 3B and up thing as curls tend to get skinnier the higher up the curl chain you go. Some 3b's and lower really try for more clumping as many prefer the look of fatter curls. One some 3B, 3c's and up, the curls are thinner by nature, and so they don't look stringy when thin.

As others said, you can also have too much clumping. On me, this is too much clumping.

...and that same curl broken up and umclumped

Sorry for the pic overload! I hope that it helps with visualizing clumps.

cmartin1 · 03-25-2007, 03:25 PM

Please forgive me for hijacking this thread, but I have been needing clarification for so long about this!

Sfisher, Medusahair (and anyone else) - would my stringy curls morph to more curly clumps if I abandoned my Burt's Bees shampoo and went CG - or am I stuck with 2c hair?

wild_sasparilla · 03-25-2007, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmartin1

Please forgive me for hijacking this thread, but I have been needing clarification for so long about this!

Sfisher, Medusahair (and anyone else) - would my stringy curls morph to more curly clumps if I abandoned my Burt's Bees shampoo and went CG - or am I stuck with 2c hair?

I'm neither of those two, but I can help! For some it would, for some CG is too heavy or makes no difference. It's all a matter of your hair. But if you really like your shampoo, there's no need to give it up - more moisturizing condish and a cream styler or leave-in could help without you abandoning your shampoo. HTH!

medusahair · 03-25-2007, 05:17 PM

I Had great clumping before I gave up shampoo, I just had it lower in my hair and it didn't go all the way to my roots. Some days it still doesn't.

If you want to keep your shampoo you could at least try a heavier conditioner or....... some days when my hair wouldn't clump well I added a little peach oil, or jojoba oil to my conditioner. I think my hair gets too clean and it doesn't always want to clump well.

Products help with the clumping too, like for me peach oil helps, aloe helps if it's in a conditioner, some gels seem to help clumping like herbal essence totally twisted. The products make a big difference in how well I clump and how well they stay together.
If you don't shampoo buildup can cause a lack of clumping too so it's a fine balance. At least it is in my particular experience.

redcelticcurls · 03-25-2007, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmartin1

Please forgive me for hijacking this thread, but I have been needing clarification for so long about this!

Sfisher, Medusahair (and anyone else) - would my stringy curls morph to more curly clumps if I abandoned my Burt's Bees shampoo and went CG - or am I stuck with 2c hair?

For me, cg did make my curls clumpier. But, I think that my hair is just better moisturized while cg. For me, the more moisturized and conditioned my hair is, the clumpier it is. I'll use the haviest protein free conditioner that I can to try to get more clumps. Others get overconditioned more easily and can lose clumps because of it.

as MH and w_s said, you could try out richer condtioners first to see if that does anything for you.

curls101 · 03-25-2007, 06:58 PM

clumping is?

redcelticcurls · 03-25-2007, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by curls101

clumping is?

...having fatter, clumpier curls as oppsoed to skinnier, possibly stringy ones.

msgiblet · 03-25-2007, 08:42 PM

redcelticcurls - Whoa! You've got some beautiful curls!

HalfWavyHalfCurly · 03-25-2007, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darby

I have very fine, thin hair so when I get clumps, it doesn't look good on me. It makes my hair look thinner and you can see my scalp. Whenever I go in for my trim, my stylist gets clumps with my hair. Yes, it looks shiney and healthy but it's too thin looking. When I do my own hair, I get more fluffy curls. I get a few clumped together but nothing like what most people get.
My stylist has clumped curls and her hair looks great BUT, she has thick hair.
Darby

My hair is fine too and it has thinned also but I think I'm better off getting my hair to clump (which it doesn't really like to do...), the trick so it will look fuller and the scalp doesn't show is to "fluff" it once it's dry to break any crunch. All you have to do is bend down from the waist and then gently slip your fingers under your hair placing them near the roots, then you quickly move your hands from side to side giving your hair a "shake", you must do this all over your scalp so no hair will remain stuck to it, when you straighten up your hair should look much fuller because the curls widen as the crunch is broken.