Curly hair
3A, 3B

Curly hair has one advantage over every other texture: the curl already exists. The work is not to create it, but to stop it from unravelling — and to cut short the frizz that blurs it the moment the air turns humid.

3A or 3B? It comes down to diameter

Type 3 is read against an everyday object.

3A — the curl has the diameter of a piece of chalk or a fat marker. Wide, soft, shiny, beautifully drawn when it is looked after. It loosens easily.

3B — the diameter of a felt-tip pen or a finger. The corkscrew is sharp, with far more volume and density. The hair looks drier, especially at the ends.

Plenty of heads mix the two, often with looser curls on top and tighter ones at the nape. In that case, dose for the driest texture: it is the one that decides how comfortable the whole head feels.

Frizz is not a flaw

It is a symptom, and it says only one thing: the fibre is looking for water.

Well-hydrated curly hair has a flat cuticle, a smooth even surface that reflects light. Dehydrated curly hair has a raised cuticle: it pulls moisture from the air, the fibre swells in places, and the curl turns into a blurred halo.

This is why "anti-frizz" products that simply coat the strand never fix anything for long. They mask it. The only real answer is constant hydration, delivered in a precise order and then sealed in.

Frizz is not fought. It is prevented, one hydration at a time.

The protocol in three steps

I. Cleanse — Hydra Curl, once or twice a week

Once a week on drier 3B hair, twice on 3A hair that turns greasy. Wash without sulphates, massaging the scalp, and above all: detangle under running water, while the fibre is slippery and pliable. Never before, never after drying.

Use your fingers or a wide-tooth comb, starting at the ends and working up section by section. Curly hair detangled from the top down is curly hair that breaks.

II. Restore — Nutri Curl, once a week

Five to ten minutes on towel-squeezed hair — not dripping, since excess water dilutes the product and stops it clinging.

That sitting time is also your most comfortable detangling window: the texture of the mask slides knots apart instead of tearing them. Work in four sections, with your fingers, while it does its job.

On hair that takes a beating — colour, heat, tight ponytails — you can extend the sitting time under a warm towel. Heat opens the cuticle and lets the butters and plant oils actually penetrate.

III. Hydrate and define — Condi Curl, daily

This is the step that decides everything, and it hinges on how wet the hair is when you apply it.

On soaking-wet hair, for maximum definition: apply with open palms, smooth the section between your hands, then scrunch upwards. The water still held in the fibre is what draws the curl — the product only sets it.

On dry hair, between washes: a small amount on the sections that have loosened or started to frizz is enough to wake the curl back up without going near the shower.

Dry in the open air or with a diffuser on low heat. And then touch nothing: every contact while it dries breaks the film holding the curl in place.

The most common mistakes

Applying to towel-dried hair. The instinct is natural, the result is a limp curl. For Condi Curl, the wetter the fibre, the sharper the definition.

Dry detangling. Dry curly hair is hair that breaks. Detangling belongs in the shower, never in the bathroom afterwards.

Terry towels and cotton pillowcases. Friction lifts the cuticle. A cotton t-shirt to squeeze, a satin or silk pillowcase to sleep on: two cheap changes you can see within a week.

Changing routine every fortnight. A curly fibre takes about a month to show what a routine is really giving it. Consistency beats novelty.

The refresh, the move that saves a week

Between washes a curl flattens where you sleep on it, loosens in the damp, loses its shape. The usual reflex is to wash again. That is a mistake: every extra wash restarts the dehydration cycle.

A refresh means lightly wetting the affected sections — a water mister, or simply damp hands — then applying a small amount of Condi Curl while scrunching. Two minutes, and the curl comes back. On 3A as on 3B, this is what turns a three-day routine into a seven-day one.

As for colour: coloured curly hair is more porous, and therefore thirstier. Being sulphate-free, Hydra Curl does not speed up pigment fade, and the weekly mask stops being optional.