When you choose what hair goes into what curls to smooth, it's good to go with the curls that are trying to form at your scalp, not your ends. That's the true size of your curl-units. If you can't tell where the curls are, I just start dividing my hair in little units at the scalp, and try to choose ones that all feel like they are from the same spot, if that makes sense.

If you try smoothing each curl, and the hair at your scalp still looks fuzzy, you probably need to make smaller divisions of curls.

Like when I take a curl, if I feel at the base of it to see if there are some hairs that are stretching over from a bit farther away, I take those out, and just smooth the hairs that feel like they are all growing from the same spot.

When in doubt, split the curl up. Sometimes I have a piece that feels like all one curl, and the ends are all curled together. But then I feel it out at the scalp. And if it feels like lots of hair coming together to make that one curl, then I divide the curl in half, or even more. Like you want each curl-base to feel like it would fit neatly in a little circle or square. Gosh, I hope that makes sense!

If you want to check out a video of me smoothing my curls, you can check out the Curly Primer page. If you scroll about half way down, you can see the video, as well as photos of my tips on smoothing.