Frizzy hair struggles? Put down the conditioner.

A while back I saw a post from a new curly who was having trouble with their hair – it was limp, frizzy, and never looked right. The person described themselves as a fine-haired, low density wavy who only used products from Cantu and Shea Moisture. On a typical day, this person cowashed, then deep conditioned, then conditioned, then used a leave in, a cream, a mousse, and a gel.

If that last sentence doesn’t make your skin crawl, keep reading!

When your hair is frizzy or just not looking right, it can be tempting to want to give your hair ALL OF THE MOISTURE, especially when you’re a new curly. Your hair might feel dry, so more moisture can’t hurt, right?

WRONG.

It is so, so easy to overmoisturize your hair. Loading up on moisturizing products can cause curls to become limp, feel overly soft and mushy, and in general not curl correctly. In fact, using too much of conditioning products can cause your hair to frizz up even more!

For newbies, I recommend keeping it simple. Stick to a mild lather shampoo and a regular conditioner. Choose ONE moisturizing styler per wash day – either a leave-in or a cream, and start with a dime-sized amount. Layer a good gel over top, and that’s it! Once you have a simple routine down, I’d then experiment with adding in different products, like a biweekly deep conditioner.

In addition, take into account how heavy certain stylers are. Products with shea, coconut oil, jojoba, and castor oil tend to be on the heavier side – I have fine hair and get my best results if I avoid heavier stylers. Other curlies have textures that love shea + will DRINK UP heavy ingredients, so experiment to see what your hair loves!

Back to my example above – anonymous essentially conditioned, then conditioned, then conditioned AGAIN, then put a little more conditioner in her hair, then a bit more, a teensy bit more, and then used some gel. All with SUPER heavy products. EEP!

(Interested in learning more about moisture? Check out my protein moisture balance video here.)

All of that being said – I do want to stress that every curly will have some degree of frizz. In my mind, there is a difference between your everyday frizz and excess frizz that may be caused by product overuse, damage, or some other factor. Read my thoughts on frizz and how it should be normalized here.

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