Wavy hair
2A, 2B, 2C

The wave is the most misread texture on the curl spectrum. Too defined to be treated as straight hair, too soft to survive routines built for tight coils, it almost always falls between two stools — and drops flat.

Reading your wave

Type 2 covers three profiles, and the difference between them is not cosmetic: it sets the dose.

2A — a wave that is barely there, more of an intention. The hair looks straight at the root and forms a very open S from mid-length down. It drops under the slightest weight.

2B — the S is clear and regular, visible from around ear level. This is the wave that frizzes most at the crown the moment there is humidity in the air.

2C — the wave tightens, a few true curls appear, often mixed with sections that stay merely wavy. You are on the border with type 3.

The most reliable test is done neither on wet hair nor on styled hair: wash, apply nothing, and let it air dry without touching it. What you get is your real texture.

Why the wave falls flat

Two mechanisms combine, and they pull in the same direction.

The first is mechanical. A wave is an open curve: it has very little spring and gives way easily under its own weight. The longer the hair, the more the wave stretches out. Add a product that is too rich and the curve disappears altogether.

The second is physiological. On a barely curved strand, the sebum produced by the scalp travels down the shaft unobstructed. That is excellent news for the ends, which are rarely dry — and bad news for the roots, which turn greasy within two days and weigh everything down.

Hence the paradox that governs the whole wavy-hair routine: you have to hydrate the lengths without ever loading the roots.

On wavy hair the curl is not built. It is released — by removing whatever is crushing it.

The protocol in three steps

I. Cleanse — Hydra Curl, twice a week

The wash concentrates on the scalp, where the sebum gathers. Massage with your fingertips, never your nails, and let the lather run down the lengths on its own while you rinse: that is more than enough to clean them.

Rinse for a long time. Shampoo residue on a fine strand means a flat root by the next morning. Finish with lukewarm water, never hot: heat swells the cuticle and creates frizz.

Hydra Curl suits this texture particularly well because it is sulphate-free. A conventional shampoo would strip the fibre, which would compensate by producing more sebum — and the vicious circle of hair that turns greasy in twenty-four hours would set in.

II. Restore — Nutri Curl, once every two weeks

This is where most routines go wrong. On wavy hair the mask is not a weekly need: once a fortnight is enough, and it goes on the lengths and ends only.

Five minutes, not fifteen. Rinse thoroughly. If your waves look limp the day after a mask, you applied it too high or left it on too long.

III. Hydrate and define — Condi Curl, after every wash

A hazelnut-sized amount. That is the dose, and it does not change. Spread it between your palms, work it from mid-length to ends while carefully avoiding the roots, then scrunch the hair upwards, palm against palm, to wake up the memory of the wave.

Condi Curl works on damp hair and on dry hair alike. On damp hair it sets the wave as it dries. On dry hair, between washes, a touch on the lengths is enough to revive a wave that has flattened during the day — without going back to the shower.

The mistakes that cost you a wave

Too much product. By far the leading cause of limp waves. On this texture the right dose is always smaller than you think. Start with half and increase only if definition is lacking.

Mask at the roots. A nourishing treatment applied high on a fine strand means three days of flat hair.

The terry towel. Friction breaks the wave and creates frizz. Squeeze the hair in a cotton t-shirt or a microfibre towel, never rub.

Touching it while it dries. A wave sets as it dries. Every pass of the hand undoes it. Apply, scrunch once, then leave it alone.

Adjusting with the seasons

A wave does not behave the same way in January and in August. Humid summer air swells the cuticle and multiplies frizz — that is the moment to apply Condi Curl on genuinely wet hair, sealing the hydration in before the ambient humidity gets there first. Dry winter air, indoor heating included, calls for the opposite: a slightly more frequent mask, once a week rather than once a fortnight, always on the lengths.

If your hair is coloured, the fibre is more porous: it absorbs faster but holds less. The answer is not to load more product on, but to split the dose — a small amount of Condi Curl after washing, a second mid-week on dry hair.

One last thing, and it holds for every texture on the spectrum: a wave takes two to three weeks to respond to a new routine. That is how long the fibre needs to shed accumulated residue and find its balance again. Change nothing before then.