One of the most common complaints by women with hair type 4a, 4b and 4c coils is frizz. I mean, dang, we have to accept that our hair is coarse, gets really dry, has almost no natural curl definition, and to top it off, we have to deal with frizz when we try to create that curl definition? Ugh.
Because my hair type (4b”> has little to no curl definition, like most naturals, I style my hair in twists and/or braids and then loosen them to create a curly look, better known as a twist out or braid out. Frizz is always ready to hijack a style, so we have to learn to be creative when preparing our hair. It can take 40 to 60 minutes to properly prepare my hair for a curly style, only to wake up the next morning with a head full of frizz!
Guess what? There are things that can be done to help keep frizz at bay, but none of these are completely guaranteed to work. Try them all to see what gives you the best results. Something is bound to work because I am proof that is possible to get great curl definition with low frizz. I’ll say it again, it IS possible!
Evaluate Your Technique
Twisting is very simple, but not all techniques are effective in giving good, smooth definition. When you twist your hair, you start off with two sections. You twist these two sections around each other repeatedly, until you get to the ends.
I suggest, keeping your two sections of hair completely separate all the way to the very end. It’s very tempting to “borrow” some hair from the longer piece and add it to the shorter piece when you get to the bottom, but keeping the sections completely separated ensures that the hairs aren’t weaving together. This results in clean and smooth separations when it is time to separate the twists, thus low manipulation and low frizz.
Is it Time For a New Product?
Rough, dry, brittle, split ends will harm you more in the long run if you don’t end the relationship with them now, and any efforts you make in achieving perfect curl definition for that banging twist out will be done in vain.
Not all styling products are created equally. What may be a great moisturizer, may do a poor job at giving good hold. If you want good curl definition for your twist outs you need a styling product with hold. This means you may have to get a brand new product or reach in the back of your cabinet and pull out that product that made your hair hard the first time you used it and deemed it unfit for your hair.
Products that give your hair hold tend to make it feel hard, but if you moisturize properly before applying this product, your hair will feel softer then using the product alone. Products with hold freeze the hair into place and helps to hold your curl definition in place. The stronger the hold, the less the frizz.
Wet Styling vs. Dry Styling
In addition to figuring out which products help fight frizz, try styling your hair on soaking wet hair, damp hair and dry hair. For textured like mine, styling my hair wet gives me the best curl definition, at a price though: good curl definition also means lots of shrinkage.
On the other hand, when I style my hair when it’s dry, I get elongated curls that are looseer. Testing this out could help you discover many things about your hair, most importantly your frizz levels.
Time for a Trim
If you’ve tried everything and your ends seem to be the main area where you have frizz, it may be time to trim. I know we don’t like the sound of that, and it seems counter productive if you have goals of growing your hair to BSL, but rough, dry, brittle, split ends will harm you more in the long run if you don’t end the relationship with them now. Any efforts you make in achieving perfect curl definition for that banging twist out will be done in vain.
In the end, you can get a great twist out with little frizz. You just have to keep at it. Practice makes perfect, curlies. Practice makes perfect.
How do you do your twist-outs?
