“My hair is flat; you can see my scalp in the light.” You say it or you think it. Almost always incorrectly: your hair isn't any less dense than it used to be. It's flattened, retracted, or weighed down.
The volume of an afro hairstyle depends on three things. Density, which you can't choose. Fiber stretch, which you work on with every styling session. And the weight of what you put on it, which can be corrected in a week. For the latter two, there's plenty of room for improvement, and it all starts with a fiber free of anything weighing it down: our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®, in order.
Why an afro flattens
The first cause is mechanical. When dried without being guided, a coily fiber retracts: the strands tighten, bunch together, and the hair appears twice as short as it did when you first got out of the shower. It's not a loss, it's a retraction, and our article on the shrinkage of coily hair explains it in detail. A voluminous afro is almost always a stretched afro: as long as the strand remains folded in on itself, the hairstyle takes up as little space as possible.
The second cause is a matter of weight. Thick butters, heavy oils, layers of cream added day after day without anything ever being removed: after fifteen days, the roots no longer lift. You think it's a loss of density, but it's just a buildup. The sign is easy to recognize: the hair puffs up when you wash it, then sags a little more each day, and the scalp becomes visible first on top.
The third cause is the outline. Thinning, broken, or split ends give a sparse edge, regardless of the thickness of the rest. This is what tricks you the most: the mass is there, but the silhouette isn't defined, and no product can fix a damaged line.
One case falls outside this. If the scalp is thinning, especially at the temples or along the hairline, it's no longer a question of volume. Read our signs that a protective hairstyle is damaging your hair, and seek the advice of a doctor or dermatologist.
Step 1Starting with a clean base
Nothing puffs up under a layer of product. The complete routine therefore starts with a gentle clarifying wash, without sulfates, followed by The Repair Shampoo: two consecutive washes, the first to remove what has accumulated since last time, the second to clean and hydrate a finally bare fiber.
This first wash is not a major occasional cleaning to schedule once a month. It opens every complete routine, and it's often this single change that brings back the volume, without buying anything else. When the buildup is significant, simply let the clarifier work a little longer before rinsing.
The product is applied to the scalp, never by rubbing the lengths, which are cleaned with the water that runs down. The frequency remains seven to ten days; in between, The Repair Shampoo alone is enough, up to twice a week if you exercise, and without a clarifier beforehand.
Step 2Lightening what you put on it
The second step consists of reviewing what you leave on the fiber once it's clean. The Styling Cream helps maintain the hydration provided during washing: it's enough, and it doesn't flatten the roots when you use the right amount. Thick butters and heavy oils, on the other hand, have no role as a step in the Rituel Texture®, and it's precisely when seeking volume that they are most noticeable.
A drop of light oil can complete the ends between routines when they feel dry. Above the ears, however, nothing: that's where the weight pays off immediately, since that's the area that needs to lift.
The opposite reflex is just as costly. Re-wetting your hair every morning to revive the shape makes the fiber more porous over time, and an afro that has been wetted without being stretched will retract once again. If the hairstyle needs to be redone, it's redone dry.
Step 3Stretching with protective drying
The third step is the fifth step of the Rituel Texture®, protective drying, and it's the one that determines the height. The Styling Cream is first applied to towel-dried hair, all over the length: it protects the fiber from heat, and it's only under this condition that the hair dryer becomes a styling tool rather than a risk. Next comes the device, in small sections, from the roots to the ends, stretching each section all the way through. The heat is sustained but always in motion, never stopping on one area, and without a brush.
It's also the place to correct a widespread habit, that of drying upside down with a diffuser to lift the roots. The diffuser only does real service in rare cases on coily hair: it lays the fiber instead of stretching it, and you get a dense but short mass. Our article on drying with a hair dryer explains why, and how to do it.
Between routines, if your hair is simply damp, air drying works very well. There's no reason to take out the device outside of the complete routine.
Step 4Stretching without heat
The fourth step extends the third and allows you to hold for several days without going back to it. Vanilla twists, flat twists, or bantu knots are placed on still slightly damp hair, after The Styling Cream, and undone once the hair is perfectly dry, never before: a section undone while half-dry will retract immediately.
The section then keeps the shape it was given, and the hairstyle gains in height as well as width. The size of the sections determines the result: large vanilla twists give a wide wave and a lot of volume, small vanilla twists a tighter texture and more apparent length. Our four stretching methods detail each one.
Step 5Lifting at the roots
The fifth step takes one movement, and it's the one we fail most often. On perfectly dry hair, we prick Man Dol's Comb at the root and lift outwards, section by section, never going down into the lengths. Its teeth, wider than those of combs from the past, pass through without snagging the cuticle.
Combing the lengths produces the opposite effect of what we're looking for: it separates the already shaped strands, undoes the stretch, and creates frizz. Volume is built at the base, the length is left alone. If an area resists, we go back to the fingers rather than insisting with the comb. See also which comb to choose.
Every woman in my family had her own way of thinking about volume, her own hand. The common point was always the same: a well-hydrated hair, that holds until the next treatment.
Ghana Elin, founderStep 6Restoring the outline
The sixth step belongs to the hairdresser. Thinning ends are cut, and a cut designed for the shape of the hair does more for volume than any product: it gives the edge a clean line again, and it's this line that draws the silhouette of the hairstyle.
It is worked on stretched hair, after protective drying, so that the lengths fall where they will really fall once the hairstyle is worn. Cutting on retracted material is like cutting blindly. And if you're not sure you want to cut, you don't cut: length remains a decision made together, with your hairdresser. Our article on when to cut your coily hair helps you choose the time.
Step 7Maintaining the shape overnight
An afro sleeps poorly flat. The seventh step consists of gathering it before going to bed: the hair gathered high on the head, or large soft vanilla twists, folded in on themselves and never at the roots. We add a little Styling Cream, focusing on the ends, without putting too much, and we only take out the comb if the hair is really tangled.
We then tie a silk scarf, and sleep on a silk pillowcase. Ghana prefers the scarf to the bonnet: it holds the hair without enclosing the entire scalp. Cotton, on the other hand, snags the fiber and undoes the previous day's work in one night.
Upon waking, we undo, separate the strands with our fingers, and redo the roots with the comb. Three minutes are enough to regain the previous day's shape. Our nighttime hairstyles detail the possible setups according to length.
What flattens volume
- Passing the comb through the lengths rather than at the roots.
- Adding cream every day without ever removing what accumulates.
- Undoing vanilla twists or braids before the hair is perfectly dry.
- Re-wetting the head every morning to revive the shape.
- Sleeping with loose afro hair, without gathering it.
- Delaying the cut of a visibly thinned outline.
You don't know which of these steps you're missing?
Our experts review your routine with you online and identify what is flattening your volume.
Book a consultation
