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Here are some of the questions I get asked the most, and what my answers have been. This way you can get your answers immediately, without having to wait on me. And you never know, you might find answers to a few questions you didn't even know you had yet.

*This is still a work in progress. I'm continuing to add many more questions, and we are still ironing out a few quirks. But we wanted to make this available as soon as possible.

There are several ways to choose the question(s) you'd like answered:




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Question:
How can I keep my short to medium length hair from drawing up when it dries?
Answer:
Since our hair is curly, there will always be some shrinkage. The shorter our hair, the more shrinkage you will probably will experience. As our hair gets longer, it will begin weighing itself down at the scalp, but your ends will always shrink up some because they are often the curliest part of your hair (which makes them the most beautiful part of our hair as far as I'm concerned). And it does take a few years before our hair starts weighing itself down at the scalp (the ends usually stay curly, and it's the ends that weigh down the rest of your hair as you get more length.

For me, it was the moment I left in a good, heavy conditioner that my hair suddenly hung down instead of puffing out. I discovered leaving the conditioner in my hair when it was past my shoulders, though, so I already had some length. But it was leaving in that conditioner that's made the biggest difference in making my hair hang down instead of puff in humidity. That and putting it up at night.

If your hair is long enough, put it in multiple braids or buns at night and sleep on them, this (plus leaving in a good combing conditioner) will help stretch out your curls. I think this would be worth a try. Braid your hair up firmly (without pulling too tightly) when it's dry. After you sleep on your hair overnight, then undo it in the morning and don't comb, brush, fingercomb your hair, your curls will look more stretched out.

In the morning, you don't have to wet your hair to refresh if you don't want to. Especially if you've put your hair in braids at night, you may get a bit of the wavy braid texture in your hair. If you're washing your hair about once a week, and if you braid up your hair every night, it will hang longer and longer as the week progresses. Or, you could smooth on extra conditioner in the morning to keep your curls clumped together and heavy.

I'm not sure of your routine with your hair, but if you're wanting length, it's best not to refresh your curls during the week, or use only a little water. Since water helps our curls spring back up (which I love, but if what you want is a looser curls), refreshing your hair less often or not at all between washes, and braiding it at night will keep your curls stretched out.

A great way to style shorter hair is to twirl little sections around your fingers when it's wet, after combing it with a good combing conditioner. The tighter your curls, the smaller you should make your little twirls. Then let your hair totally dry, without combing, finger combing, or brushing your hair. This will give you lots of striking little Shirley Temple coils. For pictures of this technique being done, you can check out what Aja is doing with her hair. For more examples of how stunning this style is, you can look at Chi, Mya, and Frances
 

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