Natural hair is having a moment.
Celebs and influencers (and by extension, us) are leading the charge away from over-processed looks towards haircare routines and waves that follow hair’s natural pattern.
Think Miley Cyrus, Lola Tung and Hailey Bieber, all of whom have embraced waves in the last few months, according to top stylist Tom Smith. ‘Ghost waves’, as he’s dubbed them, are waves that look natural and casual. They are definitely having a moment – which is good news for me, as I’ve spent the last few years trying to get a handle on my own.
For the first twenty-five years of my life, I didn’t use any product. Shampoo, conditioner – that was enough, I thought, aggressively towelling my hair dry after showering. And yet, why was it always so frizzy?
Actually, frizzy was an understatement. Cursed with woefully fine hair until my teens – at which point it exploded and became thick and unmanageable – I never really learned how to get a handle on what I should do to tame it. On paper, it’s 2B, which means it falls in a loose corkscrew when cared for properly. Left to its own devices, though, it can quickly become frizzy – especially when you have thin strands like I do.
Friends affectionately poked fun; it was a running joke how unmanageable it was. Huge knots, especially after washing, were all part of the deal. I had a chunk that stuck out horizontally from my head when it got damp; I dealt with the problem by primarily tying it into a ponytail.
All of which is to say, that after years of putting the issue off, discovering ‘proper’ haircare was a revelation.
It was intimidating, but at least these days wavy haircare is actually a thing. Merwave has built its whole brand on wavy hair care, while established brands like Davines offer a really excellent selection of haircare products that I’ve come to rely on. Over the past three years, I’ve invested in Ouai’s Detox Shampoo (which probably stripped more moisture out of my hair than anything else, leaving it exceptionally dry; £28, theouai.co.uk) tried brushing before, during and after showers, and gone through mousses (Hersheson’s; £16, hershesons.com), curl creams (Aveda was good, if a bit heavy for my finer hair; £29, aveda.co.uk) and hair masks (Davines’ LOVE Curl Hair Mask has been a godsend, because it actually works; £28.50; uk.davines.com).
All of which is to say, the internet is bursting with advice, but it’s not always helpful. I was at a loss how to deal with it – or bring out the curls without the frizz. Wavy hair is a difficult beast: without proper product, dying it will result in an untameable mass. It turns out that effortless beachy waves actually take a lot of effort to create.
Enter the experts — with whose advice I’ve finally learned to love my hair. If you’re a fellow wavy hair girl hopefully some of this rings true for your locks as well.
How to handle wavy hair
“Wavy hair is really reliant on moisture. So what gives the waves and curls bounce is the moisture level,” says Zoe Irwin, the creative director at the John Frieda salon in Mayfair. She recommends using products specifically for wavy hair – she uses Virtue, or shampoos and conditioners which “gives curls strength, but also gives moisture.” For me, that’s been Davines LOVE Curl range (shampoo, conditioner and especially the conditioning hair mask), but that’s taken several years of trialing different products and routines.
“My top tips are to give the hair a really good brush before you go into the shower, so take something like a scalp brush or a really good bristle brush, and give a thorough, thorough brush. This is to remove excess dirt, pollen, etcetera.” Plus, she says, consider investing in a water softener, or something that helps mitigate the nastiness of London tap water, such as the Hello Klean shower head – all of which can help “make a massive difference.”
After shampooing, the keyword for wavy hair is moisturise.
Irwin goes for a moisturising mask (though conditioner also works in a pinch), targeting the mid lengths and ends, using something like a Manta brush to work the product through. “I would always leave the product to work for a couple of minutes. So… take your head out of the water. Brush it all through, leave that to penetrate and then go back in to rinse it off. Using a specific hair towel like a micro fibre hair towel is really good.”
Aftercare
The party doesn’t stop when the shower is over; that’s when you get to work. Irwin recommends applying a curl cream – though with my fine hair, mousse has generally proven better for adding a bit of volume without weighing it down.
Put the product on your palms and rub together, says Irwin, “then you want to work [it] through, almost stroking that down the middle and ends of the hair. What I find works the most is to almost like clump the hair up. I take individual sections, twist them around my fingers and let them fall, and you do that before drying.
“I’m a big fan of sprays, leave in mist conditioners, like the Sam McKnight Cool Curls Refresh and Revive Mist (£28; sammcknight.com). And then it's really down to how you want to wear your curls.”
One thing she cites, which I’ve found really helps, is investing in a silk bonnet or pillows – as she says, “any kind of friction is what gives the waves a flyaway look and feel”, which silk helps mitigate. There are several out there; I’ve really enjoyed Silke (£55; silkelondon.com), whose hair bonnets are 100 per cent mulberry silk and generally just feel lovely to wear. On the second day, giving them a spritz with something like a curl refresher also helps add a bit of buoyancy back in.
Of course, one size doesn’t fit all. But it’s all paid off. Three years after I started my odyssey, I’m still learning – but the frizz is tamed now, and the hair days are better. My friends give me compliments rather than jokes these days; the journey has taken a while, but the destination is worth it.
Best hairdressers?
When it comes to cutting wavy hair, finding somebody who knows what they’re doing can be a challenge. Fortunately, London has plenty of curl experts, and these are excellent places to find them.
Salt Salon: Salt’s calling card is that they’re specialists in treating every type of hair. So it makes perfect sense that they’d be good at cutting wavy/fine hair as well. They’ve got branches in Borough and Hackney and (even better) they recycle and reuse all their waste product (yes, that includes hair). saltsalonlondon.com
Buller and Rice: This trendy chain of salons operate across east London and employ a vast and knowledgeable team. It’s run by the ultra-experience stylist duo Anita Rice and Stephen Buller, who have decades of experience between them: you’re in good hands. bullerandrice.com
Naedlae: This salon is promises an all-natural haircare approach: their first hair care products were created with nettles, harvested from a biodynamic vineyard in Kent. But in addition to whipping up their own products, they also do an excellent haircut. Stylist Lisa Ind is a pro at making curls look bouncy and full. naedlae.com
