Adventures in…Taming Frizzy Hair

There have been many, many days when my hair looks like I stuck a finger in an electrical outlet just before leaving the house. Okay, maybe not that bad, but I do have a halo of frizz and years of split ends. As a #lazygirl, I dislike styling my hair every day…or even more frequently than once a month for a deserving occasion, so there’s no way that I’m going to blow dry and flat iron my hair every day or even once a week.

I’m not saying that I’ve figured out how to make my hair look better, but most days it now looks better than it looks worse. Growing up, the aesthetic focus was on being clean instead of being all dolled up, and I was involved in swimming instead of dance. So, each lesson I’ve learned to tame my hair is the result of quite a bit of time on YouTube, Pinterest and Google searches, and in front of the mirror. Many frizzy days were experienced while learning my lessons and hopefully my frizzy lessons can help you reduce your frizzy days without spending a lot of time with a blow dryer or straightening iron.

I have frizzy hair even when I style it!

Frizzy hair earlier this week

Lessons Learned

Here are most of the ways I’ve tried to tame frizz:

• Use a split end repair – It was a great day when I discovered this product at the store because it works! I used to have the worst split ends, particularly because I rarely get my hair trimmed. You just spray the stuff onto your ends after a shower while your hair is still wet, and then brush or comb it in. If you have a lot of broken hair, layers, or shorter hairs, consider getting it on all your hair, though you want to focus on the ends. You’ll want a product specifically for treating split ends (i.e., not a shampoo or conditioner) and these can likely be found in the hair styling aisle of pretty much any grocery store.
• Don’t wash your hair every day – Growing up, I washed my hair almost every day. Since then, I’ve learned that my hair doesn’t need to be washed every.single.day. or even after every workout (I mainly washed my hair every day because I become really sweaty every day or went swimming and needed to get the chlorine out). When I stopped washing my hair all the time, I could only go 1 or 2 days without washing it due to oil build up and it took a few weeks before I could go several days. Now, I can go about 5 days before I have to wash my hair. I’m not saying that I do this every 5 days. Not in the least! There are some days when I wash my hair every day because I’ve been out mowing and my hair is dusty and gross. But, when I’m not mowing or getting too sweaty, I let it go a day or 3. By letting my hair get a little bit dirty, the strands lay flatter and 2nd day hair looks much sleeker than 1st day hair.
• Use a shower cap – For years, I’d heard other girls talk about not washing their hair every day and I was completely dumbfounded about what they did with their hair in the shower. Did they just pile it up on their heads and hoped it didn’t get wet? Did they use a shower cap? Did they let their hair get wet but not wash it? I tried all the above options and the only thing that worked was using a shower cap. Now, I’m guessing that I’m in the minority based on the lack of shower cap options at the store, but this is the only way I know to enjoy the benefits of not washing my hair at every shower. If my hair gets wet, it’s akin to washing it – it still has to dry and it would still need to be dried.
• Don’t brush your hair all the time – this one is the newest thing I’m trying and it’s working out so far. Now, it’s really hard for me not to brush my hair because I was raised to brush my hair multiple times a day. However, I recently read that brushing hair is one of the culprits of the frizzy halo because that halo is made of broken hairs. Thankfully my hair is wavy enough that I can finger brush my hair to organize it, and it *seems* to be better now that I don’t brush my hair all the time.
• Don’t towel-dry your hair – It’s (arguably) alright to wrap your hair in a towel while your hair is wet, but don’t rub it. The friction causes more frizz (which nobody needs!).
• Use wax or pomade to tame the worst offenders – Mimi over at Luxy Hair had the best tip for getting those random hairs that like to stick straight up (you know what I’m talking about!). Lightly run your fingers over the wax or pomade, then lightly run them over your hair. Apply pressure where you need to tame the errant hairs, but be careful about getting a concentrated amount in one place or you’ll have a clump of white goo in your hair. I first tried this trick by stealing some of my husband’s hair pomade and it’s now the easiest, fastest way to tame my hair.
• Use hairspray – I used to use a light coat of hairspray every day to tame the frizz halo, but then you end up with a light coat of hairspray over everything. Hairspray was outlawed in my bathroom at home after we repainted the walls, so I would use hairspray that I had stocked at work. Now, I use the pomade trick most days unless the frizz halo is particularly bad.
• Use coconut oil – if you have some coconut oil at home, spoon some onto your hand and rub your hands together to melt the oil and coat your hands. Then, run your hands through your hair to coat it with coconut oil. You’ll probably have to do this multiple times to coat your hair thoroughly. I always do it with my head turned over the kitchen sink and then put it into a messy knot on top of my head so my oil-covered hair doesn’t cover anything else with oil. Do this about 15 minutes before you take a shower and then just wash your hair like normal. This absolutely helps tame my hair, hydrates my frizzy ends, and makes it very soft.

Coconut oil in my hair!

• Use a tiny amount of lotion – When I’m really hard up for taming frizz, I’ll get the smallest dab of hand lotion, lightly rub my hands together to coat both hands, then rub my lightly-lotion-coated hands over the trouble spots. These trouble spots can be the top of my head, the pouf right after a hair tie for a ponytail, and/or frizzy ends. The lotion, while not the best hair product for everyday use, works well in an emergency.

Tiny dab of hand lotion

Smoothed hair with lotion

• Use argan oil – I have a tiny bottle of argan oil, but haven’t figured out the best way to use it. I’ve tried multiple times, but either I don’t use enough or I end up using too much in one place. Still trying to master this one!
• Drink water – Frizz is allegedly caused by dry hair, so theoretically your hair should be better if you drink lots of water.
• Sleep on a satin pillowcase – I very recently started trying this (only because I already had access to a random satin pillowcase) and it seems to help some. However, it doesn’t seem to make a major difference.

A couple of other things I plan to try:

• Use a sulfate-free shampoo – sulfates are supposed to be bad for hair, particularly curly and wavy hair. So, as soon as my current shampoo runs out, I’m going to buy a sulfate-free shampoo (I’m too cheap to waste shampoo that is already paid for). I’ve already done some recon on Amazon and at my grocery store, so there are definitely some options! I’ll be sure to let you know how it works out.
• Use a conditioner bar – I ordered ingredients to make my own conditioner bar and am excited to try it soon once my current conditioner runs out.
• Wrap my wet hair in a huge tshirt instead of a towel – I’ve heard of using an XL tshirt before, but haven’t gotten around to trying it. The thought is that towels cause frizz (not sure why) and the cotton tshirt fabric doesn’t rub your hair as much.

What hair tricks do you use to tame your hair? Please share!