Natural Hair/Wash N Go Question. I hope someone can help.

[LadyRaider]

I'm new to the whole natural hair thing, of course. I was wondering about wash and gos. When I attempt one, My hair, as it drys, draws up and is Afro-y like. Not in a bad way, the curls are cute, but it has no movement and like I said it draws up into a mound, if that makes sense.

I have used gel, but perhaps not enough, and I've used just leave in conditioner (coco cream) and a bit of Redken ringlets. With those products I still get drawn up hair and it is in varying stages of crunchy.

I guess what I'm asking is there a way to keep my curls as they are when they are wet and still have movement? On a youtube video I watched, a lady talked about the secret being to "weigh your hair down."

Perhaps I'm not using enough conditioner? But when people use gobs of conditioner, doesn't the hair feel sticky? Like that girl that does the tightly curly method or whatever it's called. Is her hair sticky to the touch due to the overload of conditioner?

Thanks for any help.

 

[LadyRaider]

And I guess this is a different question, but it's related: The only way I could get my hair to look something like this:

is a twist out or braid out. Correct? That can't be done with natural curls?

 

[Mrs. Verde]

What you are describing is what we call around her shrinkage. In my many years of being natural, I have not found a product that combats it, it's par for the course. I am very heavy handed with conditioner, yet my hair still shrinks about an inch when it dries. My hair might feel sticky, it just depends on what products I am using. But sticky hair doesn't really bother me.

Regarding the YT video, I don't know what she means by weighing the hair down because it hasn't worked for me. The one you could try is a diffuser. Now this will probably make your hair bigger (volume) versus longer. Good luck.

 

[LadyRaider]

Thank you Ms. Verde. I am not complaining about the shrinkage. Like I said, that is cute too. But I was wondering if there is something else I was perhaps missing. Thanks for letting me know.

 

[lwilliams1922]

I think that is one of life's eternal questions. Lol
I do get different results with different products but for the most part I need a twist out to reduce shrinkage.

 

[manter26]

The only way to have your hair dry and not shrink is to diffuse it and pull on the strands while doing so. Depending on the products you use, it might still be crunchy. My hair is still relatively short so I don't worry too much about having it hang.

When I have my hair in a pony or puff I pull on random strands around the perimeter when it is mostly dry. This way I have the appearance of more hang and less shrinkage.

 

[EllePixie]

Also, many talk about their hair being weighed down the longer it gets so it doesn't shrink as much.