Morning after morning, I worked on my curls without result. A hairdresser immediately spotted what I was doing wrong.
Who has never experienced the hair drama of waking up? After a night of rubbing your head against the pillow, the curls that were so perfect the day before look like a cloud of frizz. The reflex is then to start again every morning, with a lot of cream and manipulations. And this is precisely where everything comes into play: by wanting to do too well, you exhaust your curls instead of enhancing them.
However, I thought I was doing well. It was when I sat in the chair of Émilie, the hairdresser who worked on my hair at the La Belle Boucle salon in Paris 2nd, that everything changed. She had barely laid eyes on my lengths when she identified my mistake: this need to freshen up my curls every morning. According to her, this daily reflex saturates the hair with product, suffocates the scalp and stiffens the lengths due to the accumulation of residue. His advice initially seemed completely counterintuitive to me.
Because the real secret to defined hair all week long is not to do more, but much less. Her golden rule: let two to three days pass without touching her hair between each refresh. Spacing out this step lets the hair breathe and, paradoxically, preserves the definition of the curls. On my 3A loops, this simple change transformed everything.
A clarification however, because no rule is universal. This rhythm is especially suitable for soft curls like mine. Tighter or very dry hair often feels thirsty more quickly and requires a veil of water mist between two refreshes, without overloading it. It’s up to each person to observe their loops and find their own tempo.
On days without refresh, it’s time for delicacy: you take your hair down, shake it gently at the roots with your head down, and let gravity restore volume. When the real refresh arrives, we forget the cream, too rich, which ends up relaxing the curls. The solution lies elsewhere: a hair gel. Its watery texture does not re-nourish, but reactivates the products already present while sealing in hydration. It was towards Kalia’s hibiscus gel that Émilie directed me, and I never take it off. We spray a little water on the lengths, we take a dab of jelly which we rub between our hands, then we press the curls from the bottom to the top using the scrunch technique. This gesture forms a light film which disciplines frizz and immediately restores bounce, without any greasy effect.
It all finally starts the evening before, because the night is the main culprit for flattened curls. Sleeping on a satin pillowcase limits friction and preserves moisture, and the pineapple, that high, loose ponytail, prevents curls from being crushed by the weight of the head. Well protected at night, they are already defined when you wake up. Proof that when it comes to curls, knowing how to let go is sometimes the most beautiful beauty gesture.
