15 Curly Hair Tips I Tried as a Man
Three years of trying curly hair advice written mostly for people with more patience than me. Four things made a real difference, several made none, and one made everything worse for about a month.
In this article · 22
- What I Believed That Was Wrong
- How to Choose Yours
- The 15 Tips I Tried
- 1. Getting It Cut Dry
- 2. Squeezing With a T-Shirt
- 3. Applying Product to Soaking Hair
- 4. Halving the Product
- 5. Not Touching It While It Dried
- 6. Diffusing on High
- 7. Diffusing on Low, Cupping the Ends
- 8. The Satin Pillowcase
- 9. Washing Twice a Week Instead of Daily
- 10. Co-Washing
- 11. Gel, and Breaking the Cast
- 12. Picking at the Root
- 13. Brushing It Dry
- 14. Asking for a Taper Instead of a Fade
- 15. What I Still Do
- Styling and Upkeep
- Mistakes to Avoid
- FAQ
- Final Thoughts
Three years, a shelf of products I no longer own, and a small number of things that genuinely changed the result.
Most of what I believed was backwards. I thought more product meant more definition and that damp was close enough to wet, and both of those cost me about a year.
The changes that worked were free or nearly free. A different cutting method, a different towel, and less of everything else.
What I Believed That Was Wrong
That more product meant more definition. Weight is what pulls the clumps apart, so the opposite is closer to true.
That damp was close enough to wet. Water is the carrier, and product on damp hair sits on the outside and dries as a shell.
That a fade was low maintenance. A skin fade blurs within one to two weeks, which is a fortnightly standing appointment.
That shrinkage was a rounding error. It is about a third, which on a short cut is most of the haircut.
How to Choose Yours
Change one thing at a time. Curl takes two or three washes to show whether something worked.
Start with the free changes. Cutting method, drying method and product quantity cost nothing.
Judge it air-dried and untouched. Anything assessed while it is still drying is assessed too early.
Keep whatever survives a busy week. That is the only real test any of this has.
The 15 Tips I Tried
1. Getting It Cut Dry
The single biggest change on this list, and it applies to every shape in the curly haircut catalogue. Seeing the curls at their finished length while they are being cut removes the guesswork that had been shortening every haircut by a third. It takes longer in the chair because there is no comb to section with, and that extra time is the whole cost.
2. Squeezing With a T-Shirt
Second biggest, and it costs nothing. Towel loops catch individual strands and pull them out of their clumps, and I had been manufacturing my own frizz every wash for years.
3. Applying Product to Soaking Hair
Not damp, dripping. The same product and the same amount produced a visibly different result once there was enough water to carry it down the strand.
4. Halving the Product
Went from a palmful to a pea and the definition improved. Weight pulls clumps apart, so I had been paying money to make my curls worse. The bottle instructions are written for hair far longer than mine, which is where the overuse started.
5. Not Touching It While It Dried
Harder than it sounds and immediately effective. Every touch splits a clump that is still setting, so the hair genuinely looks better the less it is checked.
6. Diffusing on High
A short, expensive experiment. High airflow blows the clumps apart, which produces exactly the frizz the diffuser was bought to prevent. Air moves strands out of a clump faster than the heat can dry them into position, so the two halves of the machine end up fighting each other.
7. Diffusing on Low, Cupping the Ends
The same tool used correctly. Hovering first and cupping later adds volume without disturbing the clumps, and it cut the drying time roughly in half.
8. The Satin Pillowcase
Cheap and quietly effective. Cotton grips curl and eight hours of friction flattens one side, and swapping it removed most of the morning repair work.
9. Washing Twice a Week Instead of Daily
Took about three weeks to settle and then held. Curl carries its own oil badly because the spiral interrupts the path, so daily washing had been stripping what little reached the ends.
10. Co-Washing
Conditioner instead of shampoo, and a mixed verdict. It kept the hair softer and it built up within a fortnight, so it works as an occasional substitute rather than a replacement.
11. Gel, and Breaking the Cast
Gel dried into a crunchy shell that scrunched out soft. It holds the clump while it sets, which makes it the one heavy product that adds definition rather than removing it — see the looks it actually suits before buying any.
12. Picking at the Root
A wide pick used underneath at the scalp only. It restored the height that sleeping had flattened without touching the length, and it takes about fifteen seconds.
13. Brushing It Dry
The month everything went wrong. Brushing dry curls separates the clumps that create definition, and the only thing it is genuinely useful for is a full reset immediately before rewetting.
14. Asking for a Taper Instead of a Fade
Same silhouette, half the appointments. A taper bottoms out at a #1 at 3mm and holds three to four weeks, where the skin fade I had been booking blurred within two. Nobody has ever noticed the difference, which is the part I did not expect.
15. What I Still Do
A dry cut every seven weeks, a t-shirt instead of a towel, one pea of cream on soaking hair, and satin at night. Everything else came off the shelf and has not been missed.
Styling and Upkeep
Change one variable per fortnight. Curl takes several washes to show a result.
Keep the wash-day routine under five minutes. Anything longer stops happening during a busy week.
Refresh with water rather than reaching for product. Water reactivates and product accumulates.
Wash properly when refreshing stops working. A coated strand cannot be rescued with more of the thing that coated it.
Write down the cut you asked for. Worn length, cut length and guard number, so the next barber gets the same brief.
Mistakes to Avoid
Booking a wet cut. A third of the length comes back as it dries and by then the cut is done.
Using an adult-sized handful of cream. Weight is what removes definition, not what creates it.
Rubbing with a towel. It is the single largest avoidable source of frizz.
Committing to a skin fade without a fortnightly slot. It looks neglected for most of its life.
Brushing dry without rewetting. You have separated everything and left yourself no way back.
FAQ
Biggest single change? A dry cut, because it removed the third of the length that wet cutting kept costing me.
Does less product help? Usually, since weight is what pulls the clumps apart.
Is satin worth it? For the price it is the best value item in the whole routine.
Final Thoughts
If I could keep four things it would be the dry cut, the t-shirt, the pea of cream and the pillowcase. Everything else I bought was an attempt to solve a problem that those four had already fixed.
For the full sequence in order see the curly hair routine for men, and for cut lengths and shrinkage arithmetic read short curly hair ideas for men. More in Men's Haircuts.
