Tips for THICK Curly Hair! | BiancaReneeToday

Hey curlfriends, I'm Bianca Renee and you're watching Bianca Renee Today. And today we're going to be talking about thick curly hair. Something that I personally don't have experience with because my hair is very fine. But apparently those of you that have thick curly hair have a way different curly hair routine than myself. So I asked you guys on Instagram what is different from your thick curly hair routine from my fine hair routine. And you guys gave me a bunch of tips and tricks. And as I was looking through all these tips, I realized you guys are basically telling me to do exactly what Alyssa Marie does in her routine. So we're going to do a little collab video today where I'm going to try Alyssa Marie's full wash day routine, how she does it for her thick curly hair, and she's going to attempt mine. I've kind of done this before with Chelly's Curls, with Frizz and Frills. They both have thick hair and it requires a lot of sectioning, a lot of product, a lot of water. Usually my hair is very defined but very weighed down. And if I had to guess, Alyssa's hair might end up being a little dry and maybe not as defined because my routine is very quick, simple, and doesn't require that much work. But I'm going to try it again today. So I have to go in through all your responses that you gave me on Instagram. Of course, I came prepared. I got a whole nother list of all the things that you guys do for thick curly hair and all the products and brands that you would recommend. So we're going to get into all of these as well. The number one thing that I got, I don't know, a thousand responses was, was to section my hair. Eight sections. Six sections. Twenty plus sections. A lot of sections. Way more sections. Okay. I get it. I have to do more sections. If you guys have seen my hair routine before, I do side one, side two. But today for thick curly hair, we're going to do a bunch of small sections and that's also what Alyssa Marie does. So starting off, my hair is actually up in a very cool, nifty little microfiber towel from The Perfect Hair Care. This is a collab from Amanda and Manes by Mel, their little sister collab. Very cute print. It says The Perfect Hair Care on it. I like it because when you put it up, it has a little zip tie. You just, and it keeps your towel in place. So I'm going to need this today because I'm going to need a lot of water for this routine and I feel like I'm just going to be soaking wet. Now the first interesting thing that I've noticed that Alyssa does is that she starts with conditioner first. That's a new one for me. We're going to condition our hair first, detangle out of the shower, and then I'm going to get in the shower and shampoo and deep condition. So let me just re-soak my hair. I kind of just dunked it in the sink. Oh my gosh, I was about to do my two sections. I have to do smaller sections! Okay, I'm going to need a lot of reminders during this video. So let's take a small section. Alyssa takes like this small of a section. Maybe even smaller. Let's try this pink one because it matches. Section number one. Luckily I kind of just washed my hair recently so it shouldn't be that tangled. I also asked you guys for a lot of product recommendations and one of the common brands that I saw was Design Essentials. So I'm going to use the Design Essentials Naturals Almond and Avocado Moisturizing and Detangling Conditioner to detangle my hair before we get in the shower. I'm going to use this conditioner to smooth in and detangle. Now see how I already want to like finger detangle because that's what I do? But another common tip that I got from all of my thick curly hair peoples is to use a brush, a wide tooth comb, or a wooden wide tooth comb. So my personal favorite brush is the Be Hairful brush as you guys may have heard of. I think it's the best. But I'm going to use the Tangle Teaser because this also seems to be a popular one. So I'm going to start at the ends and then work my way up, any knots, and there we go. This conditioner has really good slip and it does smell really good. Section one. How many do I have to do? It seems fair, right? If I do four per side, that's eight sections, okay? That's six more than I'm used to. Smooth this in. Now while I'm detangling let me actually read some more tips from you guys. Another one that I got is to use thick butters, creams, and oils. All things I usually try to run away from because my hair is so fine. It will just weigh down my hair. But today I'm going to style with a leave-in conditioner, a cream styler, and a gel. I don't even know where to include an oil. Maybe I'll put in an oil. Next tip is to finger coil the crown area. So I will agree that if you have any areas of your hair that aren't very defined, then that is where you should finger coil. It takes a long time, but everyone that I know that does it loves it and they get beautiful results. I personally just don't have the patience. And because my hair already is very curly, sometimes finger coiling doesn't make that much of a difference from my natural curl pattern. Next tip, cream before gel. Okay, yes, I will use multiple products. No problem. I'll give it a try. I do it sometimes. Can this be one section? Now this is interesting because I kind of would think that I'm not really into putting product on top of my dirty hair because if it's wash day, that means I've had product on my hair throughout the week, some gels, things can get a little crusty after a while. So I feel like the ingredients of the conditioner aren't really penetrating into my hair because there's a bunch of stuff on it, but I can see how this would be better to then clarify my hair with shampoo because then the shampoo is not going to make your hair any more tangled. So I mean, that makes sense. Okay, first side down, one side to go. Now here's the thing about having thick hair. The density of your hair definitely is important, but so is the porosity. So it is possible to have thick curly hair, but low porosity because the actual hair follicles of your hair may or may not retain moisture differently. So if you have low porosity, thick hair, even though your hair is thick, it might not like thick products. So having curly hair is obviously very experimental and it's best to just try things and see what works best for you. Today, I'm trying what I feel like I know doesn't work for my hair, but here we are. Another thing that some of you do during your wash day is cry internally during every wash day. Oh, come on, guys. This is the second time you guys have said you cry during your wash days. You gotta fix that. I don't like that. When styling your hair, you don't blow dry because you get too much volume. First of all, darling, there's no such thing as too much volume. I have to wash my thick curly hair twice a week or it gets too matted. I can see that. So I can get away with just washing my hair once a week, but it also depends on how often I'm refreshing, if I'm keeping it up in a bun or doing any type of styles. But I could see that if your hair is really thick, it probably gets more tangled easier. So that would mean more wash days. And last but not least, you do upper body workouts to make it through your wash day. Don't mind me. I'm just doing my pre-shower workout. It's wash day. You know what they say. Curls for the curls. Okay, I'm on my last section. I do like this brush. The Tango Teaser didn't always have a handle and that kind of like gave my hand a cramp. So I really like that they have a handle now because it just feels better. All righty then. My hair is now completely detangled, which should make a very easy wash routine now that I get in the shower. So now I'm going to get in the shower using some more product brands you guys have recommended. So let's get to it. I'm going to now rinse out the conditioner and now apply my shampoo. Going back to the OG Shea Moisture Curl and Shine Shampoo. Shea Moisture was a very popular brand that a lot of you said that you like for having thick hair. It always smells, you know, nice coconut vibes. And I'm going to split my hair into sections. You guys say sections for everything. So I'm splitting my hair into sections even for shampoo. But I must say, this is actually really nice. I feel like I'm really getting the back of my scalp nice and clean that usually just gets like a quick little rub over. But now I do feel like I'm getting a deeper clean by doing sections. So now that once my hair is completely shampooed, I'm going to rinse it out. Now let's go in for a deep conditioner since we already conditioned. And I'm going to use this one by Miel Organics. This is actually one of my favorite deep conditioners that I haven't used in a while. This is the Miel Organics Mongongo Oil Deep Conditioner and it's protein free. Now once again, I'm going to be splitting my hair into sections. I'm really bad at sectioning, you guys, as you can see. But I'm choosing small sections and applying a little bit on each strand. And I'm using a brush to really detangle once again and also make sure that every curl gets some love. So section, product, brush, section, product, brush. And this is really easy because my hair is already detangled. Another tip that both Alyssa and a lot of you guys like to do is to do twists. So I'm going to put my hair into several little twists and then put it up under a shower cap and let it sit for a good 10-15 minutes. In Alyssa's routine, she likes to leave in a little bit of the conditioner, which is fine to do so. But I would recommend only doing that if your deep conditioner is protein free. Otherwise, you probably want to rinse out that mask. So now I'm going to rinse out the rest of my conditioner and now it's time to style. And I'm back fresh out the shower. My skin is actually kind of glowing right now. So I think I'm going to keep this a makeup-less video. But now I'm going to try a little concoction that Alyssa Marie likes to do. She takes a bottle of water and she mixes it with the Maui Moisture Shine Awapuhi Conditioner. This is for dull hair. It's supposed to hydrate, detangle, and make your hair very gentle, silicone free. Ooh, smells like an exotic fruit. So I'm just going to squeeze some of that in there. I don't know how much. And then I'm going to shake it up. You can do this with basically any conditioner and water. And you kind of make your own leave-in conditioner detangler spray. I definitely recommend this for those of you that have kids that need to detangle all the time. Add whatever conditioner you like that has slip. Add some water and then spray it on there. That way you're giving your hair moisture and detangling help. Now for the dreaded sectioning. So I'm going to take this small of a section first. Put everything else away. And go in with this little Alyssa Marie concoction. Because she, just like you, suggested that you see the best results when your hair is soaking wet. This does smell really good. Okay, soaking wet. Now for my leave-in conditioner, I'm going to use the Melanin Hair Care Multi-Use Softening Leave-in Conditioner. It has baobab oil, turnip root, pro-vitamin B5, and no sulfates, no paraben, no silicone, no mineral oils, no phthalates, no formaldehydes. And Melanin Hair Care has been a very popular recommended product for both thick hair and type 4 hair. Moving it in there. My hair feels so, so moisturized. And on a wash day after deep conditioning. But I'm going to then also go through with my brush. Make sure the product really gets in there. And then for my gel, I'm going to use the Kinky Curly Original Curling Custard. Now this is the only thing that is giving me any hope that this routine is not going to be a total nightmare because I do like this gel. So I'm hoping that the hold from this gel will just kind of make everything better. I'm getting a lot of different scents here. This is like fruity and then this is kind of like minty. And then this is like sweet, like a cake or cupcake. But I need to do a little test first. I'm going to put a little bit of leave-in and I'm going to put this gel. I'm going to mix them up to make sure that this isn't going to flake. You know what? This might not work. I'm kind of glad I tested this. So see when I mix it together, it's kind of making white clumps. That means it can create some flaking on your scalp. Take a look at that. That's not what you want to see. So I'm really glad that I tested that because I don't think that this would have been a good mix. Let's switch it up. Okay, let's start experimenting. A lot of you guys also like the Pattern Strong Hold Gel. You like the Curls Blueberry Bliss and I have the As I Am Classic Leave-In Conditioner. Let's see if this leave-in will do better with the Kinky Curly. I'm going to put a little bit like that. Add the Kinky Curly Jelly. Mix them together. That's not exactly what we want either. Let's try Melanin Leave-In with the Pattern Gel. Some of you might be thinking that I'm wasting product on my hand. Better to waste a little bit on your hand than a whole bunch on your hair and also waste your whole wash day. Am I right? These two together. Ooh, see? Okay, I'm not crazy. That's what we want. Yeah, see how it's nice and creamy? That seems to be a better mix. That's what we're gonna do today. We're gonna do the Melanin Leave-In and the Pattern Gel. Guys, this is so juicy. Okay, one very wet section down. 100 more to go. Oh, so many steps. I'm forgetting the order. First, we soak it with our concoction. Some of you even like to add more water after applying your styling products. So I'm gonna add my Leave-In. One little squirt. Break that through. Especially on the ends. Add some gel. So much product. It's gonna squish. That's how much you want me to put? Okay, this is what you guys do, huh? This is what you guys do. Let's set a timer. It's now 4 30. Here we go. And another tip that you guys all mentioned is that you use a lot more product. Oh, this feels so heavy. You guys also said that you like to finger coil any sections, maybe like the crown of your head. So whatever's gonna be kind of like by your face. Gonna do a little twisty-do. And sometimes products are great on their own, but they don't get well with others, you know? We've all had a progress report card now in entry school. Now in Melissa's routine, she uses so much product that it's actually like white on her hair sometimes. But she says have no fear because that always goes away. So if you have low porosity hair, it might be looking like products just kind of want to sit on top of your hair, but eventually they will soak in. Goodness, this is gonna take 100 years to dry! Now the part that was unclear from asking you guys is if you like to diffuse with thick hair or if you don't. I would think that your hair is so thick that you have to diffuse or it's gonna take a million years for your hair to dry. But then some people said that they don't like to diffuse because since their hair is so thick, it just sucks up all the moisture. So it dries pretty quickly. That sounds like a porosity issue. So let me see what you guys said on Instagram. I put one last poll up. You guys are going to decide if I diffuse or air dry until Thursday today. The votes are in right now. 57% say to air dry and 43% say to diffuse. This is gonna take so long to dry. Let's see what Alyssa does in her last wash day routine. She's air drying. So here's the final results. Very, very juicy, very defined. I don't see any frizz in sight. This could dry nicely with the gel. I am very nervous as to how long it's going to take to dry, but I will come back in three weeks and it'll be fully dry. No, it's currently 437. So I'll come back when it's dry-ish and show you. All right, I see what you did there. You purposely chose air dry so that I would have to feel the pain of having thick hair. That was a good one because it is now 10 o'clock and my hair is now finally dry. So it took about five and a half-ish hours to completely dry and my hair looked completely shrunken up, which is usually what happens when I use a brush and use a lot of like moisture-rich products, which is, you know, good. My curls look very moisturized. Look at that. That's a thick, juicy curl. It's great. Like they do look great, very shiny. But when it comes to styling my hair, because it's so fine, it's a little bit harder to make it big and get the volume that I like and the length. Like this is not stretched out at all. My curls are extra poppin' though. Look at these little ringlets. Oh, these are some cute ones. Look at the twins. Yeah, the product application, each curl definitely got some more love than it usually does. There's like no frizz on my hair. You guys see this? Each curl is just immaculate. Very, very, very pretty. No frizz. But I mean, the shrinkage is insane. The weighed downness of my hair is a thing. I have zero volume. Let's see how big I can make it without even touching my diffuser. I'm even going to add an oil just for you guys. So this is the LUS Elixir Oil. Supposed to repair your hair. Has moisture for shine. I actually use this on my son's hair more than I even do my own. So I'm going to put a couple drops just so my hands don't create any more frizz than I need to. And let's just try to stretch these out a little bit. My hair does show really good. It feels more moisturized than it has in a really long time. Oh, look at that! Everybody's really clumped together. So I'm not getting any volume. Another note from you guys following me on Instagram right now, seeing my pain, is that you usually start your wash days earlier in the day because you know how long it takes for your thick hair to dry. And I did start at like 4.30, so that wasn't the smartest move. I do like how the pattern gel worked with that leave-in. I had a perfect amount of hold and my curls are very defined and moisturized. So product wise, I think we did a good job. Better, still really short though. Let's get a little more wild. No flakes, so our little test definitely worked. Now I'm bringing out the pattern pick. Better, much better. We're getting the volume, but we still got some clumpage. I am going to just gently break you guys apart. That's what we finger coiled. See, when I finger coil, it kind of makes them like almost stand out too much from the rest of my hair. So it's like I got to do it all or nothing. Stretch. It legit looks like I cut my hair when I did not. Just for reference, this is how my hair looks when I style it my way. This is how it looks now. So much shorter. I also want to let you know what were the top curly hair brands that you guys said that you love for thick curly hair. Once again, I got a lot of responses saying Pattern Beauty. I got a lot saying Cantu. I got Uncle Funky's Daughter, Shea Moisture, Mane Choice, Curls, TGIN, a new one called Balm Astro Curl Defining Gel. Sorry, that's literally the name of the gel. Talia Wajid Green Apple and Aloe Vera Curl Definer, Kinky Curly Knot Today, Camille Rose Curl Maker Gel, Melanin Hair Care, Curl Smith was actually on there a lot, Not Your Mother's, the Matcha and Green Tea Apple Blossom Hair Mask, Eden Body Works, Sultanix and Curls. So I am noticing a lot of similarities between the favorite products for thick hair and type four hair. I have tried a lot of them, but not all of them. So if you have any other product recommendations, specifically give me the brand name and the product that you love for thick curly hair and leave it in the comments below. Okay, so I'm going to stop here. This is definitely a product of me using a lot of heavy products, letting it air dry and day one curls. But I do like how my hair feels. It feels very soft, very moisturized. My curls are very defined. I just took a much longer wash day than I normally do. And being a mom, time is very precious. And I did lose a lot of my length from the shrinkage just because my curls are so moisturized and like healthy that they just shrunk up. But this was definitely a very fun experiment. I always love trying your guys's routines and at least you know what works for you. I always say don't just do what I do because I said it. Take what you can from my channel and my tips, try it out, see if it works for your hair. If it does, keep doing it. If not, switch it up. That's why we're doing the switch it up challenge this year where I'm challenging you to try new things and take what you like and leave what you don't. In conclusion, the biggest takeaways I got from you guys was if you have thick hair, you have to do your hair in sections. Granted, I noticed that even in Alyssa Marie's video when she grabbed a section, it looks as thick as my entire left side. So sectioning is great for definition in general, but a must if you have thick hair. You also could probably get away with using thicker products like creams or gels. Cocktailing using a leave-in or a cream before your gel. And I also would recommend trying detangling your hair before you get in the shower. That'll make sure your hair is wet with a conditioner so you have something to help you. But I did really love shampooing while my hair is already detangled and like doing it in sections so I am actually reaching every part of my scalp instead of just putting everything on top and just really getting like the top of my head. So I did like the sectioning for the shampoo. Pretty cool to detangle beforehand. It's just a little bit longer. Still don't know if I'm a huge fan of putting my hair in twists when I deep condition. I feel like it just makes my hair like more tangled and I just have to get rid of those clumps after to help me get my volume. But I know that someone even like High Felicia does the twist when she deep conditions and she does have fine hair. So once again, it's all about a personal preference. Give it a try. Try all these tips. Let me know what works for you. If you have any more tips for thick hair, leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. And don't forget to check out Alyssa Marie's video where she tries my easy, simple curly hair routine on her thick hair. And the next video in this little series is going to be about porosity. Trying techniques or at least explain techniques about high porosity hair versus my low porosity hair and how you guys say that your routine is different than mine. So if you want to make sure that you do not miss any more of my videos, make sure you are subscribed and hit that little bell so you're notified as soon as I post a new video. I post new videos every week, but you also can follow me on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok at MissBiancaRenee. I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for watching Bianca Renee today.