How Your Curly Hair will Steal the Show Looking Silky and Shiny

Curly hair tends to be dry and often shows a need of care. Curls do not tightly embrace the scalp like straight hair and therefore they have limited contact with the conditioning sebum on the scalp. The natural looping of the hair also results in a less even cuticle layer. As a consequence, curly hair is hypersensitive to damaging influences. These are all reasons to treat your curly hair with loving care while it is wet. Wrap a towel around your hair and softly press it to remove the water after washing. Never roughly towel your hair dry. A comb with widely set teeth works best to detangle your curls. Brushing your curls separates the hair strands too much and makes your hair look shaggy and big.

As far as hair care is concerned, curls love rich nourishment. There is practically no way to over-condition curly hair. Shampoos and rinses with natural lipids like Shea butter, Jojoba oil or Macadamia oil coat every individual hair with a shimmering protective film. This ensures that your curls maintain their structure. Your styling products should also be especially designed for curly hair. These styling aids give your hair hold and leave your curls springy without drying your hair out or gumming it up.

• Heat has an additional drying effect on curly hair. Ideally, you should therefore allow your hair to air-dry. Alternatively, you can blow-dry it using a hair dryer with its diffuser attachment at a low heat setting

• Flat irons are major stress for your hair. Use them rarely if ever and only after treating your hair with a thermo-protective care product

• Cutting your hair in soft steps gives your curls particular bounce. However, remember not to cut the top layer of your hair too short. You may otherwise create the dreaded 'poodle look'

• Do you prefer the soft waves of the 1920s over large curls? Then you should spray curl styling liquid into your hair, comb it into the desired style and use clips to hold it in place down to chin length. Afterward, blow-dry your hair using a diffuser attachment and then allow your hair to cool. Finally remove the clips and comb your hair very carefully

• Here is how you create the trendy undone curly top: Work a little mousse through your dry hair and roll thick strands of your hair in spirals over papillotes. Treat the rolled up hair with a blow-dryer for a few minutes, allow it to cool and then remove the papillotes. Use your fingers to pull your hair into the desired shape. Be sure not to brush your hair

• Is your hair kinky with very tight or matted curls? Rollers (hair curlers) will turn your hair into softly flowing curls. As a rule of thumb, the larger the rollers the softer and more generous are the curls

• Natural curls are less tangled if you comb them flat against your head after shampooing, spray a little hair spray over it and allow it to air-dry

• When you use rollers or papillons you should roll up your hair evenly with the same tension throughout. Also be sure not to sharply fold the ends of the hair strands