r/Swavyhair

My hair is a hot mess. This was me trying to make it look nice after wash day. I usually wash hair 1-2x/week. What I did last night/this morning:

- Brushed thoroughly with paddle brush starting at the endsand working my way up, had a few stubborn little tangles at the ends that i had to pick apart

- Shampooed hair twice in slightly warmer than lukewarm water, only the part that would be flat if i had it in a ponytail. Used fingertips to kind of wiggle in the shampoo, not a hard scrub, didn't want breakage. Aussie Miracle moist shampoo

- Put in conditioner on the part of my hair that would be the tail of a ponytail. I have mixed porosity, so my scalp is usually greasy by day 3 but with dry ends. Ball that up at the upper back part of my head then put a shower cap on. Let sit for ~15 mins while I do the rest of my shower. L'Oreal Hyaluron + Pump Hydrating Conditioner

- Lean forward and rinse hair with cold water and softly brush through again with wide tooth comb. Turned off shower. Squeezed out most of the water (didn't twist it out, left some in still but wasnt really dripping anymore)

- Applied about 3 tablespoons leave-in conditioner w/prayer hands starting about 6" from my scalp downwards

- Wrapped up in turbie twist towel for 2 hrs. Then put on long satin bonnet before bed (slept 7 hours)

- Was still slightly damp when i woke up. Parted using rattail comb then combed through with wide tooth comb, just enough to get big tangles out.

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Hoping for something affordable, I'm on a tight budget right now, hence the aussie and loreal. Sometimes I also spray with By Nature Fermented Rice Water (on the roots, after the shower, I'm thinning near my temples) or Tresemme Keratin Smooth Heat Protectant spray, but didnt today. Ethnicity is norwegian/german/cuban/puerto rican if that helps.

I’m going on a cruise to Italy, Greece, and Croatia soon and need a good easy travel refresh routine that can be packed into travel size as I’m carryon only for my flight. I currently have to re-wet my entire head and reapply products (basically do my whole routine over, minus washing and conditioning) to refresh.
My current routine is wash with Hask shampoo, condition with Curls Blueberry Bliss Leave-in Conditioner (washed out completely). Then I apply Uncle Funky’s Daughter’s Curly Magic Curl Activator to sopping wet hair and squish in. Then I apply a little bit of NYM Plump For Joy Thickening Hair Lifter to my roots. Last I finish off with Cake’s Curlwhip Mousse, then air dry and scrunch out the crunch. I really want to keep it simple so I can enjoy my trip and not worry about my hair looking a mess. I also would like to not have to re-wet my entire head every day and basically start over. I need a good refresh routine that is travel size friendly please. If you have similar hair (fine, thin, high porosity) and a good refresh that is available is travel size or can easily be decanted please let me know. TIA!

Sometime in the past year or so my normally straight hair has developed a wave/frizz, but I just can’t get it to look good. I used to wash my hair, put some detangler/leave in conditioner in, walk out the door with it wet, and it would air dry straight. Now it’s air drying poofy and frizzy. When it rains/mists it becomes wavy. But I can’t seem to air dry it in a way that looks nice. I’ve tried mousse and gel and sea salt spray and air dry creams and it just looks stringy/brassy/dirty (vs poofy and insane with nothing like before). I’ve tried plopping and microplopping and scrunching/clapping out the crunch with oil or no oil. I bike commute so I can sort of heat style it to look straight like it used to be before, but if it’s raining or humid that’s just a waste of time so I really am trying to figure out how to let my “natural” hair happen. It just all looks bad. Sometimes I’ll attempt to have it wavy during the day, then come home and rewet & scrunch it again and after it dries it’ll look nice. But I also need it to not look awful at work! Please, please, if you have fine hair and went from straight to slightly wavy, what do you do??

Hey y'all, hope you're having a good week so far!

I have this hair, it is freshly showered a few hours ago. No combing, no products or anything I have just left it to air dry as I usually do and let it do its own thing. When I shower I shampoo 2x roots only, conditioner on the mids/ends only and afterwards I usually put on leave in conditioner (but didn't this time cuz I forgot).

My hair isn't flat flat and in the back I get these curls naturally, I don't form them or anything they turn out like this every time after the shower and the rest just gets kinda like it is. I haven't done or tried any curling/wavey shower rutin since I don't know if I have it or if I just have a mixed pattern of hair and I don't know anything about it honestly either.

So I'm hoping to see what kind of perspectives I can get and advice (if any is needed) of what I can do or try! 🩷

This is my hair after I used the bowl method and scrunched in a bunch of Creme of Nature Style & Shine Foaming Mousse before diffusing. I think it's type 2A because it's straight at my roots and then wavy at the end.

I really like it! A bit frizzy but I'll work on it. These results didn't last very long, though. Any tips for maintaining them throughout the day, and maybe for refreshing on day 2?

Recently, I cut and donated my long hair. Since then, I’ve been having trouble making my hair look wavy. I thought having shorter hair would make my waves bounce more, but that hasn’t happened.

Right now, I use shampoo (Bare Head & Shoulders), conditioner (Garnier Fructis Aloe), and mousse (Cantu), but I don’t really like how my hair looks now. It feels SO MUCH MORE COMFORTABLE though, and I love that.

What am I missing here? Is there any way I could make my hair look better? If I dry my hair with a blow dryer and diffuser on cold air, is it going to damage my hair? Should I buy a heat protectant?

A couple of days ago, I went to the pool, and my hair dried looking very cute with only the pool water. At home, I try to take care of it and keep it moisturized, and BAM: it looks weird.

All opinions and critiques are welcome. Thanks!

First photo: wet hair
Last photo: before the chop

Been growing my hair out from a pixie for the last 9 months. I can’t believe I figured out this week how to get the curls to emerge and stay. I put my routine and products below. This subreddit has been so helpful!! I’ve found splurging on mousse and texturizing spray to be the best place to put my money. Not the shampoo and conditioner.

Hair type: Colored, dense fine hair. Tends to get oily very quickly.

Photos go from
- August 2025: before growing it out
- April 2026: playing around with products
- May 2026: it’s working!!!!

Routine:
- Brush before washing. Wash and condition every other day in the shower.
- DO NOT brush after getting out of the shower. Towel scrunch for a little bit.
- Add in 3 pumps of mousse.
- Add in texture sprays (both)
- Scrunch the hell outta that hair (using microfiber towel)
- Let air dry for 10-15 minutes
- Finish with lowest heat setting on blow dryer with diffuser attachment. Don’t mess too much with it.

Products:
- Shampoo: Pantene Pro-V Volume & Body Shampoo
- Conditioner: Pantene Pro-V Volume & Body Conditioner
- Mousse: Aveda Phomollient Styling Foam Hair Mousse
- Texture: B&B Surf Foam Spray, and B&B Surf Spray
- Dry Shampoo for Day 2 hair: Not Your Mother’s Dry Shampoo, Clean Freak
- Blow dryer: Infinity Pro Conair with diffuser attachment

Hi 😊

I've been directed here as hopefully the right place for some advice for my hair type. I've never had it this long before and I'm struggling to find the right way to care for it, especially now that I'm noticing it's not fully straight like I've previously thought!

I struggle a lot with frizz and it feeling greasy after a couple of days so I'm just trying to get a grip of the right direction to go in. The gel has made no real difference to the level of greasiness I seem to feel.

The first three pictures are day 2 with the gel and scrunching my hair. The other three are day 1 allowing it to air dry as straight as possible. No scrunching or additional product.

My routine atm is

- double shampoo with aussie miracle moist shampoo

- squeeze water out

- condition lengths with same brand detangling conditioner

- squeeze ends with cotton tshirt

- apply cantu grapeseed strengthening gel to ends

- wrap in tshirt for 10-15 minutes

- allow to air dry and then crunch out the dry gel

I use the aussie products for now because my partner had just bought new bottles and I can't afford to swap out for anything new unless I'm sure it's the right direction to go in.

Any help would be incredibly appreciated 😊

Well, I don’t know if anyone is really interested or not, but since my last post I have since concluded that I definitely have waves in my hair haha. So now I’m on to the figuring out how to style them phase. The first photo is after my most recent experiment and the second is the original I posted in here when I was asking people if they thought I had swavy hair because I wasn’t really sure.

I wanted to start minimally and cheaply when testing out how wavy my hair actually is, so this time I did not towel dry and just scrunched a bunch of mousse it when it was wet and then let it air dry. I did find a wavy/curly hair stylist that I’m going to see in about a month and in the mean time I will continue experimenting. I think I will try diffusing next. Just figured there may be other people interested in the process along the way since I’m guessing there’s other people on here that are in the same position as me just discovering they have wavy hair 😅

I recently realized my hair holds a wave when wet, and I loovveeee how it looks, but it doesn't stay!

When it's wet I'm just scrunching with texture spray. My hair is super fine so I try not to use anything too heavy. I have tried mousse with similar results.

When it dries, it's so straight in some parts that it makes me feel like I don't actually have swavy hair and I'm just forcing it? But then I took a pic from the back and it actually has a nice wave!!

Last pic is my hair air dried with no product/scrunch/etc. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!

You can criticize with advices if you want i also need a good routine

I'm currently using African pride leave in cream and letting it air dry but it doesn't always give me a good result

This is my hair day after shampoo/conditioner, brush while wet then air drying without products. Don’t like the feel of products in my hair but willing to try again. Looking for tips how to make hair look less messy and more intentionally wavy the days following washing it. My hair takes a millennium to dry so wetting it in the morning prior to work is not ideal. Also, single mom so using hair tools in the morning currently is more effort/time than I am willing to spend.

Long post.... sorry!

Last year I spent a lot of time trying to get my 2b-3c textured curls and waves to be soft to the touch, but hold shape without heavy gels, copious amounts of products and 40 minutes diffusing my hair. I wanna run my hands through my hair and didn't want to feel crunch or product overload in my hair. Needless to say I struggled hard with this.

But then a goddess showed up around the end of September 2025, the new stylist I stumbled across suggested Mizani Foam Wrap, and I instantly fell in love with my results.

The deets...

I have fine low porosity 2b-3c range hair (depends on length tbh), with medium density. I have a variety of texture from baby fine and tangle prone to thicker diameter grays doing, whatever it is they wanna do.

Shower routine:

I use Garnier honey treasures shampoo and conditioner. I shampoo the roots, scalp massage a bit, and rinse/gently work the suds through to mid-shaft while doing a gentle finger comb. I apply conditioner and finger comb it from mid shaft down, then squish my conditioner and leave it in for a minute. Rinse. (I like the scent and I love the slip the conditioner provides. It also gives a moderate shine boost, which helps keep my product use down!)

Post-shower routine:

I remove some excess water with my towel, then with prayer hands apply the curlsmith leave in curl cream (2 peas sized amounts to each half of my hair, one bottle of this has lasted me about 4 years now). Then I part/style my hair. I run my hands under the faucet, shake them out, then...I put foam wrap about half a pump into my hands per side, then run that through my hair with reups with water misting.

At the end if there is any left on my fingers/palms I run it over my higher frizz areas (crown area mostly). Then I scrunch until my loose ish curls clump and waves show up. And then I air dry it.

That's it. The curlsmith leave in plus the Mizani Foam Wrap, used conservatively, allows for a soft, touchable wavy/curly end result. Now I will say, the Mizani does smell strongly, but I like the scent. Honey scented shampoo and conditioner with the light fruit scent of curlsmith is lovely, but Mizani can overpower until the next day. (For those who are stronger scent averse, maybe see if you can find a light foam wrap that is scentless, or minimally scented)

This combo doesn't weight down my curls and if anything it helps my curls stay and not feel like I slapped on a gallon of gel, and whatever else is out there that's tiktok hawt right now. What I will do is if I want a bit more root lift is lightly coat my fingers in a volumizing powder, flip my hair over and massage it into my roots.

TLDR: My goal was achieved, touchable soft waves and curls, no heavy duty emollient product layering or major gel cast, and a wash scrunch and go routine that takes less than 10 minutes post shower. I love my hair and have been doing this routine for about 7 months. Figured I'd share it with you all!

Note: My hair is about 90% dry in the photo. It's the underneath/nape of neck curls that take awhile to dry, everything else was fully dry.

Hi! I’ve recently started leaning into my wavy hair but can’t seem to find a routine that works. I can tell my hair is wavy because when I scrunch it after the shower you can really see the waves and a few curls. I’ve tried using a leave-in, gel, and mousse then diffusing. The pattern didn’t hold. I’ve tried diffusing without the leave-in and again it didn’t hold. I’ve tried the routine without diffusing and it honestly looks the same as when I diffused (barely any waves/curls).

Is it the products that I’m using? Or is my hair too long/heavy to hold any curl pattern?

Pics 1&2: Scrunched in gel and mousse then plopping it in a t shirt for 20 mins.

Pic 3: The “after” which was just letting it air dry

Pic 4: My hair after washing it and putting leave-in then going to bed when it was about 70% wet.

Pic 5: The mousse and gel I use

Hi! I've recently started trying out a routine better suited for swavy hair. I used to use quite heavy moisture shampoos/conditioners to help deal with frizz. I think I might have 1c hair and my hair is quite thick.

First photo: Wash day after routine below

Next 3 photos: Morning after

Currently I'm using:

- Umberto Giannini Starter Kit

- Conditioner with wide tooth comb, no other brushing

- Gel prayer hands and scrunching

- Micro fiber towel turban for an hour

- Heat protectant spray

- Diffuse up to 80%ish dry and then air dry

- Loose scrunchie bun when sleeping

I did try using mousse first and incorporating it last wash, but I found the waves fell out after a day or two.

The waves seem quite random at the moment, lose definition over time, and come with a fair bit of frizz. I'm struggling with hair getting knotted and have been finger combing big knots between washes.

I'm looking for some advice on where I should go next for the above.

Sorry if some of that didn't make sense, I am a newbie to haircare in general! (Have always been using heat protectant though)

Thanks for reading!

I’ve spent my whole life assuming my fine hair was straight and always combing it out of the shower, so it would often appear decently straight, but I would deal with a lot of breakage and frizz (not necessarily puffiness). I realized that it does take well to scrunching/pressing when wet, however, I believe it gets weighted down very easily.

I started only brushing it before and while in the shower with conditioner. These photos are of my hair wet out of the shower, then air drying out of the shower - with no combing, no scrunching and no extra product applied other than a bit of almond oil. Then my dry hair after flipping upside down and shaking it out a bit. Last photo is what my hair is like when it’s been combed/brushed out of the shower in the past.

My hair is fine, while a bit more dense in the back. I currently have no layers in the back. I’ve tried Aussie Miracle Wave Mouse, it seems to “soften” or weigh down the visible waves too much, however, it does add volume and wave to my roots oddly enough. I’ve had perms in years past and my hair always took really well to them. The lower half of my hair is currently months old permanent box dye. So is it waving because of old damage? Or is the wave loosened because of the treated hair? Is it just flipping out because it’s shoulder length? Idk! Haha

I’m looking for outside understanding of my potential hair type, hair cutting suggestions, and products that might work best for my hair/wave type. I am willing to try diffusing when I get a diffuser attachment, or an air dry cream if there’s one that’s good for fine hair like mine. Thanks for any help in advance! I would love to figure out a routine, or just resign to accepting that my hair isn’t actually swavy. 😅

Lots of individual wavy strands but no cohesive wave pattern.

in 2021 i felt like i was making great progress with my wavy hair. first 2 pictures are from them and i was super happy with the texture. i’m a fairly low maintenance person and only used either herbal essences mousse or nym curl cream, and only sometimes diffused. always plop and sleep with my hair in a high bun. these days i haven’t been doing much with my hair because whenever i try (usually the same methods and products as before but i’ve tried many others!) i don’t get the same results. third picture is my hair on a regular day when i haven’t done anything to it. fourth picture is my hair when i actually tried, products and diffuser. what happened!
i just started using verb moisturizing shampoo and i use dove repair conditioner and only wash every 3-5 days. i use a shitty suave shampoo to get rid of buildup every couple months. i don’t feel like my hair is especially dry or especially greasy, and it’s very healthy besides some split ends. completely virgin also and i barely use heat. any tips? especially for super low maintenance girls who don’t wanna do a lot of work? lol.

hello! like many others, i also grew up with pin straight hair (and always wanted my best friend’s curls lol) but in my 20s i noticed my hair was a lot more frizzy. in my 30s i realized that it’s wavy! here are before and after pics.

my hair is medium to thick density, low porosity with thick/coarser strands.

my routine: shampoo once with cleansing shampoo, shampoo with my regular shampoo, conditioner. while still in the shower with my hair dripping wet, i apply some leave in conditioner and scrunch in a ton of gel. then i use a tshirt to scrunch out the excess water. finally i plop for 30 mins and let air dry. once dry i scrunch out the crunch with a lil bit of hair oil

my question today: do you think i should finally get a diffuser and see if i could get more hold/curls with my style? my hair is quite long and although many ppl recommend layers for wavy hair, i dont have the budget for a good haircut these days and dont trust myself to cut layers lol

products used: head and shoulders apple cider vinegar shampoo, dove hair therapy rice protein shampoo and conditioner, not your mother’s curl talk leave in conditioner and eco gel krystal styling gel