Thick Curls 101: Try our products and styling tips for your best wash day yet!

Thick hair is something that many of us wish we have - thick curls are so luxurious! But any curly with lots of hair knows that it can be tricky to manage. We’ve put together our best tips for looking after your thick curly hair.

Thicker curls can often mean the roots are quite densely packed. The Curl Cleanser does give a deep cleanse, but thicker curls may benefit from double-cleansing to ensure all of the roots are completely clean of oils and dirt. 

Thicker curls generally need more moisture. Our Cleansing Co-Wash is perfect for this - it is non foaming, and has more of a creme base (like a lighter conditioner), but unlike a conditioner, it includes cleansing ingredients which attract the dirt/oil that washes off with the product. So it cleanses, but it's not as deep of a cleanse as the All Curl Cleanser; it’s more moisturising. 

The beauty of these two products is that you can alternate between them. If your curls are in need of a deeper cleanse, go for the Curl Cleanser and double cleanse if needed. If your roots have a few more days left in them, opt for the Co-Wash instead to add in some extra moisture. 

Detangling thick curls will often take more time. We recommend detangling the curls on wash day with plenty of our Curl Conditioner, to add slip and prevent breakages. Apply your conditioner and begin working at the biggest knots gently with your hands. You can then use a wide-tooth comb to remove the remaining tangles, beginning from the very ends of the hair and working upwards. You may also wish to part your hair into sections and work on one section at a time to make detangling more manageable.

You can detangle using the Co-Wash too. Co-washing generally doesn’t require a conditioner, but you can add some conditioner to the ends to help with detangling if you need a little more slip. Another great way of using the Co-wash is as an alternative to the Hydrating Creme. Using a little of the Co-wash as a leave-in conditioner can add the extra moisture your hair has been craving.

Thicker curls can really benefit from our Deep Hydration Hair Mask. Thick hair can often be more coarse, or ‘high porosity’. High porosity curls will generally benefit from extra protein in your washday routine. Our Deep Hydration Hair Mask contains some amazing hair-strengthening proteins, with a perfect protein-moisture balance. The proteins will fill the gaps in the hair strand, strengthening them and in turn increasing definition. The nourishing ingredients will also hydrate the curls, which will keep the curls soft and reduce tangles. You can use this as a weekly/bi-weekly treatment - pop this on for 20 minutes before your wash day routine, or in place of your Curl Conditioner.

When styling, you may find that sectioning your curls will help to make the process more manageable. Try splitting your hair into sections around your head, and then apply the product to one section at a time. This will help ensure that the products will be evenly distributed throughout the curls. The Flip Section Method is a great example of this - check out this video showing the Flip Section method with our products here. 

Our Mega Hold Curl Gel is really great for styling thick curls. This is our strong hold gel which is slightly thicker to hold the curls tighter as they dry. This gel will create a cast once it’s dried down which you can gently scrunch out to reveal lovely, soft curls. We have a great guide to scrunching out the crunch which you can find here.

The thicker your curls, the more product you are likely to need. We recommend beginning with a 50p amount of our styling products, but you can increase or reduce this as you try the products out. For more on how much product we recommend beginning with, take a look this blog post.

If you have thick hair, you will know that the curls can take a while to dry. One way to reduce drying time is by using our Microfibre Towel. These are densely packed with super-soft microfibres to remove as much excess water as possible, while still being very gentle for soft, frizz-free curls. 

You may prefer to diffuse to speed up the drying process. Thicker curls tend to be naturally voluminous, and diffusing can often add even more volume. A particularly helpful diffusing technique if you’re looking to avoid adding extra volume would be hover diffusing. This helps to conserve the length of the curls without losing any definition. We have a great post on diffusing techniques including stretching here.

Lastly, a good curly cut is really important to help maintain thick curls and keep them manageable. If you’re in need of a curly hairdresser, we have an amazing network of Curl Specialists in salons across the UK. You can find your closest salon using our Salon Locator. 

If you have any questions on managing thicker curls, please do send us an email to hello@onlycurls.com and we’ll be happy to help. We love hearing from you!