3 Ways to Refresh Your Natural Hair

As licensed stylists and tight curl educators, we often get asked what’s the best way to “refresh” your natural hair. Let us be the first to state plainly—there’s no “refreshing” natural hair. A style that is properly set from the beginning can last anywhere between 5 to 7 days, given your individual lifestyle and unique Essential Elements.

Products that are marketed as “curl refreshers” and spray bottles filled with water do nothing and can actually disturb your set. By wetting the hair, you are taking a style out of its set and making it wet again. This can promote additional frizz, “crunchy” curls and less longevity.

We’re all about saving tight curlies + naturals valuable time and their hard earned coins, so this blog post will explain 3 ways that you actually revive your curls each morning.

First, Acceptance Is Key

We see curl dysphoria way too often in these natural hair streets. A client comes in thinking she’s doing something wrong in her styling routine because her results look nothing like her internet hair crush. Or the client that frustratedly shows us the picture of a loose spirally wig and expects us to be able to recreate the look on her beautiful springy, tight kinks. 

“Dysphoria is defined as a profound state of unease or dissatisfaction.”

Expectations of our hair are set up to fail from the get go. For product companies, the bigger and bouncier the curl in the marketing, the more $$$ that product is going to rake in.

Unfortunately, looser curls are an aspirational look for the natural hair target market and as long as the market responds more favorably to those images with dollars and views, images of loose, silky curls will be exploited for profit. It’s a symptom of us not wanting what is actually growing out of our scalps. 

There is no magic product, save for sodium hydroxide or ammonium thioglycolate relaxers, that can “elongate" the curl and give you a curl diameter that is not yours. It is up to us to truly see ourselves for the beauties we are, and accept 100% of us. Your best curl life is waiting for you there.

Option #1: Use a Handheld Dryer

For many tight curlies, especially those with shorter hair, will likely experience waking up with their curls smooshed tight to their head. Don’t freak out as this is normal.

You can actually use a handheld dryer for a few minutes in the morning to help fluff out your curls.

“Pro Tip: Before putting on your nighttime accessory, we encourage you to have your hair laying in the exact direction you want it to lay. This will make it easier to fluff out your curls when you wake up.”

Our Community & Brand Manager, Alisiana, shared a quick video with our SeeSomeCurls subscribers on how she revives her short hair in the morning using her Dyson handheld dryer.

If you would like more detailed on-demand video tutorials like these, they all live inside of our consumer education platform, The SeeSomeCurls Visual Library.

Option #2: Use the Steam from Your Morning Shower

Using the hot steam from your morning shower can also be a great way to help revive your curls. The steam will allow your hair to naturally expand and it can be a quick and resourceful way to help “loosen” your curls from sleeping.

Option #3: Use Your Fingers or a Hair Tool to Fluff

You can use your fingers or a hair tool (like a pick) to gently fluff out your hair. When using a hair pick, we suggest gently fluffing at your roots to ensure not to create any additional frizz or tension.

Our community members are loving Pattern Beauty’s Hair Pick to fluff out their curls, as it’s gentle, the teeth are long and it has a wide handle that makes it ergonomically friendly to hold comfortably in your hands.

Want more specific tips like this tailored to your individual head of hair? We cover all the natural hair fundamentals and more in our digital consumer education platform, The SeeSomeCurls Visual Library.

Our 1.2K+ course community of tight curl + naturals are shaving more than 50% of time off their wash day, being showered left and right with hair compliments, and are receiving direct support of a very encouraging community of tight curlies + naturals who have been exactly where you are.