How to Style Naturally Curly Hair: A Step-by-Step Guide

Look, I get it. All you want is to wear your hair down and curly (or wavy) once in a while. And yet, whenever you try to show off your natural texture you hate how it looks. You’ve done internet searches about caring for curls and have heard a fair bit about the Curly Girl Method, but it seems like such a big commitment. Can’t someone just tell you how to style naturally curly hair for that one day when you feel like wearing your hair out and down?

The answer: Yep. I can do that for you.

I’ve been following the Curly Girl Method for almost 20 years, and am often asked for my tricks. For me, though, curly hair care is a hobby. I am passionate about things like film-forming humectants and the comparative weight of different hydrolyzed proteins.

That’s not your thing, and that’s okay. You want to know how to style naturally curly hair and you want it to be easy. Okay! I’ve got you. Here we go.

The thing is… this article is long. Don’t let that scare you off. I’ve put the key points in bold. Feel free to only read the bolded lines if that’s your thing!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Shampoo (choose the most gentle one if you have options)
2. Conditioner (choose the most moisturizing one if you have options)
3. A styling product (mousse, gel, curl cream, etc. Stronger hold is best)
4. Any old t-shirt, the larger the better

This is me enjoying my balcony as I write this piece

And here’s how to style your naturally curly or wavy hair:

Step 1: Get in the shower

Get in the shower and rinse your hair well. Let the water cascade over your head for a while so your hair is good and soaking wet. A lot of the time we miss the underneath and middle layers without realizing it. Make sure the water gets in there well.

Step 2: Shampoo with hardly any shampoo

Skipping shampoo is a key part of most “how to style naturally curly hair” tutorials. I’m going to give you an alternative:

Use less shampoo.

If you can skip shampoo, do so. I trust you to know how long it’s been since you last washed, how oily your scalp tends to be, and so on.

But if you do want to wash your hair, only use about a quarter of the amount of shampoo you usually would use. Your goal here is to clean your scalp and roots but to leave the rest of your hair alone. You might need to add more water to help distribute the shampoo all over your scalp. The lather will be less dense than you’re used to, but that’s okay. Rinse.

Step 3: Condition with double your usual amount of conditioner

Now, grab your conditioner. You’re going to fully saturate your whole head with it, and you aren’t going to rinse all of it out. You’ll probably use double the amount you usually do. Get it in your hair really well. Add a little more water if you need to. You want your hair to feel completely coated and slippery.

Step 4: Dump your head upside down and use your fingers to detangle your hair

Now that conditioner is coating your hair and providing tons of slip, dump your head upside down. Use your fingers to gently detangle your hair while directing your hair away from your scalp, towards the floor of the shower. Add a little more water as needed if there are sections that are giving you trouble. You want your fingers to easily slide through your hair all over your head.

Coil your hair into a bun on top of your head. Leave the conditioner in while you finish your shower.

Step 5: Rinse some of the conditioner out

When you’re done with all your other showering tasks, dump your head upside down again. Unwind the coiled bun and run your fingers through it to break up the coil.

Put your head under the water flow with your head still upside down, and without touching your hair at all. You want the water to waterfall over your hair, and you want to leave most of your conditioner in. Your goal here is to use the water to get your curls to clump together, not to rinse all your conditioner out. When you can see the water has hit all of your hair you’re done. Turn the water off with your head still upside down.

Step 6: Start forming your curls or waves

With your palms facing up, press the ends of your hair up towards your scalp. Don’t close your hands into fists. This isn’t scrunching. It’s to get some of the water out and see where your curls are naturally clumping together. Only do this once or twice. You want your hair to still be dripping wet for the next step.

Step 7: Apply your styling product

Grab your styling product. Squeeze some into the palm of your hand, then distribute it evenly between your palms. The amount you will need will depend on the product and the amount of hair you have. You want your hair to wind up fully coated, though. Glaze the product over the back and sides of your head and down the lengths of your hair. Do this lightly so you aren’t breaking up the curl pattern you’ve formed.

Again with your palms facing up, press the ends of your hair up towards your scalp. Close your hands into fists as you reach your roots. Give your hair a little squeeze — you should be able to feel and hear a ton of product in there. Do this all over your head, turning from side to side to get the back.

You want your curls to be clumped together at this point. They’ll separate out quite a bit as they dry. Don’t attempt to separate them now.

If your hair doesn’t feel like it has a fair amount of product in it, you likely haven’t used enough. Don’t be afraid to use quite a bit more, in order to ensure you’ve covered every curl or wave with your product. Don’t worry about getting “crunchy.” We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Step 8: “Plopping”

Grab your old t-shirt and lay it on the toilet seat. Accordion your curls onto the shirt, then tie the sleeves to fasten it onto your head. Dry off your body, get dressed, do your makeup, etc.

Plopping is nearly impossible to understand unless you see it. Here’s a quick video that shows someone doing it. Do not touch your hair like this person does! You want to keep your hands off your hair completely; you’ll create frizz if you touch it. I’m including the link to the video only so you can see how to tie the t-shirt.

Step 9: “Unplop”

Turn your head upside down and gently take the t-shirt off. Stand up and shake your curls back and away from your face.

Use the t-shirt to gently scrunch your curls, leaning from side to side to make sure you get your whole head. Don’t forget the back! And don’t “over-scrunch.” You want to gently encourage curl formation. You don’t want to squeeze your styling product out or break up your curl clumps.

Now comes the hardest part:

Step 10: Do nothing

Leave your hair alone, without touching it, until it is dry. If you must use a blow dryer, use one with a diffuser. Keep the dryer on low. Hover the dryer around your head rather than touching your hair with the diffuser at all. If you don’t have a diffuser, please air dry. Blowing your curls around will ruin all your hair work. (Ha! I meant to type hard work! I’m not changing it.)

Step 11: Scrunch out the crunch

Ideally, your hair will get hard as it dries. A good styling product for curls will have a lot of hold. This means it will form a cast around your curls to protect them as they dry. It will also set curls in place so they’ll stay where you want them, rather than frizzing out or falling flat. When your hair is completely dry, you can get rid of this cast. In curly girl circles, this is known as “SOTC,” for “scrunch out the crunch.”

You must wait until your hair is absolutely 100% dry to do this, but it’s easy to do. Dump your head upside down. Gently start squeezing your hair up, from the ends towards the roots, like you did when you were applying product. Keep going until you can’t feel any crunch anymore. You’ll want to massage your scalp lightly with your fingers to SOTC at the roots. Doing this will give you more volume, too.

Stand up and shake your hair back from your face. You might want to move a few curls from one side to the other to get your part where you want it. That’s fine, but be okay with a messy part. You would have to break up some curls to get a straight line, and that would cause frizz.

However, if a group of curls is clumped together and it looks a bit odd, it’s okay to gently separate them out. Start at the ends of your hair and work your way towards the root, looking to see where the natural division is between the curls.

Step 12: Admire your shiny, hydrated, frizz-free curls

And… that’s it? That’s how to style naturally curly hair. It seems like a lot, I know. I’m sorry. I promise in practice it really doesn’t take long!

Give it a try and comment below about how it goes? I’ll be rooting for you!