Curly hair tips and tricks

If you’re struggling to tame your curls or make them look their absolute best, read on. We checked in with two hair experts for tips on making your curly hair look fantastic day in and day out.

Haircuts for curly hair
“Curly hair needs to be cut differently than straight hair,” says Leland Olsen, celebrity stylist at Toronto’s Exit Salon. “Whether it’s thick and curly or fine and curly, it needs a high-precision cut. The ends of the hair need to have weight and the curl has to finish right to the end.”

If you’ve got wavy hair, Olsen says the cut needs to provide seamless layers to create soft movement and body without any choppiness. “Spiral curls need a completely different haircut,” he says. “This type of hair needs very clean straight lines throughout the entire haircut at whatever length you choose. This creates a definite ending at the bottom of each curl so that the curl looks finished from the root to the end of the curl, much like it would look when wet. When you texturize or thin curly hair, it becomes too light and hollow at the ends and you will see through the curls and it will look frizzy.”

Curly hair: Common mistakes
Charles Booth, founder and creator of LaCoupe, says that one of the biggest mistakes women with curly hair make is trying to overly tame or hide their curls. “The best way to avoid this is to learn to love your curls and to learn how to manage them, to make the most of the volume and wonderful texture you have naturally,” he says. “Another mistake is to not condition sufficiently. Like dry skin, your curls need extra moisturizing to be their best. The secret of this is often in the rinsing process, after conditioning; manage your rinsing time so as to leave some of those wonderful moisturizers and vitamins in the hair.”

Best way to care for curly hair
Olsen recommends a treatment at least once a week. “The more moisture, the better the curl will look and make it less likely to attract moisture through the air in the day and become frizzy,” he says. “Product is your friend. Find the right product to enhance, stretch or weigh down the curl. Now there are products that look like you have nothing in your hair. Once you have product in your hair don’t touch it,” he cautions.

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