It’s been about 11 months since my last haircut (usually have the generic white guy undercut fade with longish hair on top).
I have thick, wavy hair that grows heavy and outward, instead of long and downward. I also get these random kinks and curls throughout, and it just doesn’t look good in my opinion. Some days I think it looks cute, but most days I’m starting to feel like Ted Kacynzski.
I wash it 2-3 times a week and condition 1-2 times a week, then just towel dry it and throw a beanie on.
Do you have any advice?
part of growing out hair is that it looks weird until it becomes a flow or gets long enough to put in a bun/braid
Yeah I'm not quite there yet, I don't think. Maybe in another 4-6 months if I can stand this mop for that long lol.
unfortunately, there is always a period when you're growing out your hair where it looks terrible and is an awkward length. you will constantly be faced with a terrible choice: cut it and start over, or hope it gets better
Are there any steps or styling tips I could try to implement to make it look less terrible? I'm fine with wearing my hat 365 (starting to get known as always having it on), but some days I'd like to let it out and feel confident with it, lol.
Edit: Also, I've been purposely avoiding getting my hair cut because of covid, but should I suck it up and get like...a cleanup cut?
don't break covid protocol to get your hair cut; at that point just get someone in your pandemicule to cut your hair.
there are a bunch of products you can try to tame it. pomade comes to mind. waxes, mooses, oils... stuff to style and keep it in place. most of all though, i recommend getting either a wide-tooth wooden or boar bristle brush. really helps distribute the oils in your hair and tame those curls
I do need to look into getting a brush. I use a wide toothed comb like this after I get out of the shower and dry it, but that's about the extent of work I put into it.
I'll do some more reading about products I can put into it to make it less flat.
yea that wet brush is great, but on days when you're not washing your hair a dry brush can do wonders. it also helps you go for longer between washes
yeah, you just kinda have to power through that. not much that it can be done about that.
So- depending on the weight of your hair (you said it's heavy) the unplanned layers you have from growing it out might be the issue. If so that might be hard to solve without a cut. Do you like layers in your hair typically? If it has random curls you might have a curl pattern you just have not learned to work with yet. Are you familiar with like the curl pattern chart (2A, 3A, 4A etc?) it covers wavy hair in the A's section- identifying your type helps you know what to do with it. I would avoid towel drying on any type of hair- try air drying if you have the time (or a diffuser? I use a diffuser and it's great). You could be over-washing it or using a shampoo with sulfates or silicones if you care about that type of thing idk. Co-washing is big. Do you use any hair product like mousse or oils or pomade or gel? Hope any of that helped at all LOL
Also I think my hair is a 2A or 2B wavy type, this is kind of how my hair would look if it didn't suck lol: https://ath2.unileverservices.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/11/type-2-hair-wave-532x355.jpg
Oh lucky!! That's a pretty manageable type tbh- it's perfectly wavy. Sometimes people have more then one type on their hair- I'm a 3B/3C. You might just have random 2B curls in a 2A pattern and that could be the reason for the random kinks/curls. It's mostly guessing tho less of a science more of a art.
Looking at the picture again, it reminds me a lot of how my hair looked when I was an emo teenager and just let it grow out for two years. Now that I'm 30 and my hairline isn't as strong as it used to be, my hair's been causing me a lot of stress and anxiety lol. But your comment made me feel really good about myself and like I can make this happen, haha. Thanks for all your input!
Of course! You can do it and anyways even disheveled curly hair has a very artist-y vibe. I wrestle with my hair like weekly honestly so I can relate. Self image is weird like that but this is the perfect time to experiment with your hair.
Hey that's a lot to work with, I might be able to look into what you suggested and find something that works.
I think the layering is an issue, because it's heavy and flat. Maybe if it was layered it wouldn't look so boring and ugly. I tried growing my hair out a couple years ago, and the first haircut I got to clean it up looked super frumpy, like someone's aunt lmao. So I decided to just cut it all off immediately afterward. I'm scared to try again because I don't want it to happen again >.<.
I'm not familiar with the curl pattern chart, I'll check that out.
I also don't use any products (because I don't know what I need, I'm used to using pomade and paste for styling short hair).
I'll give air drying a try tomorrow, though, and see how that looks!
Good luck!! Half of having wavy/curly/coily hair is just not knowing what to do with it so just have fun with it!!
Long layers can kind of weigh down the hair and give it a more tamed look. Too erratic of layers has the opposite effect of just creating a like wild halo look. If you are in a in-between stage a lot of it is just waiting for the hair to grow out honestly and looking a bit awkward. I've had aunt hair cuts too for sure. The products you should use depend both on your curl pattern and the density and porosity of your hair.
Air-drying is a great start!! It helped me a ton to cut down on frizz and let the natural pattern do it's thing. :)
Causes frizz because you tousle the way it naturally settles and it also splits ringlets. There's an okay way to do it- just pat to absorb not wring or rub. Regular towels are also dry and rough- just use a t-shirt or get a hair towel made of microfiber.
My hair also grows outward and lots of people love it or ask incredibly amusing questions. I'm asked by random people on the bus or subway if I have a perm, someone who didn't even know me told me she wants to have sex with my hair etc. Just incredibly weird shit, it's a lot of fun and I recommend it.
Although I don't know exactly what you mean by "wavy" or what it looks like.
Yeah, I started growing mine last year and realized how much I wasted my time when I was younger going to the gym trying to get bigger and get some attention from girls, when all I had to do was just not shave my head for a year.
Look into scrunching and plopping, the way you dry your hair is going to have a huge impact
my suggestion? side shave until one side grows out super long then let the side cut grow out. eased the transition a lot for me, mostly because it looked like it had a style to it.
Do you mean something like this ? That would be pretty cool and daring, haha.
yeah like that and just keep getting it shaved while the rest grow out. you do need to fit the aesthetic for it to work but i think it turned out well for me
My face is round with big cheeks, and my jaw isn't super strong, but I've had a beard for 7 years and I think I could pull the look off. Thanks for the tip!
Hey how'd you get that photo of me? But anyway yeah what I did was shaved the sides and back until the top grew long enough to tie up or put in some kind of bun, or like that photo. Then I rocked that look for a while. Now I'm growing out the sides and parting my hair in the middle to hide the scruffy looking sides, so yeah it definitely can work if you want to grow it out that way.
Also with regards to hair conditioner even a very cheap leave in/on conditioner is usually better than the ones that you need to rinse out afterwards. That's what I've found anyway.
Damn dude you handsome af.
Haha I'll give that some thought. That's not something I really considered before, but it seems like a good way to go about growing it out, plus it looks dope while you're doing it. I've been using the same herbal essences moisturizing shampoo and conditioner for 15 years, maybe I should try switching that up, too.
Yeah it's definitely a way to do it, I got the idea after I saw an actress grow it out that way, from a full on buzzcut to hair down past their shoulders. Also if the conditioner and shampoo combo works for you don't change it, if it's not broken don't fix it I guess. Or change it if you want, you do whatever you want oviously.
spoiler
It's not actually me in the photo :-(
Don't throw a beanie on before it's properly dried, it will stay in the shape it dries to. Letting it air dry throughout makes it a lot more and more evenly curly/wavy, if I tie it up or put a beanie on before it dries properly, it will stay partly straight and curl only on some parts, making it all look like a mess. I started growing like 17 months ago from the same white guy undercut, and at this point it's starting to look consistently nice (although I still usually tie it up or keep a beanie on, otherwise it'll hang on my face, might have to try salt spray or something).
From the sounds of it we have very similar hair. When I had my hair long I just shaved the sides and back and tied the rest.
I got sick of that so now I just have my wife shave my head near bald once a year or so. I get her to shave the sides and back fairly short a few months after that and it usually fills in nicely. When it gets too long I just shave it all again.
Years ago I had long (shoulder length) hair but it wasn’t really manageable without having to do stuff to it every day or braid it or whatever. My hair is just too thick and wavy. So I guess my point is if you want to be lazy just try a medium length style, although that’s going to involve infrequent trims.
Thanks for the warning and suggestions, haha. My thought process is I've let it grow out for so long and kind of like it, so I want to give having shoulder-length hair a try again until I get sick of it. I do miss dating a girl who was a professional hair stylist, because now I have to figure all this shit out on my own lmao. It's cool you got your wife to take care of that stuff for you!
