The lengths are neat when you leave the bathroom. The next day, a halo of small puffed-up hairs has risen around your head, and the tame strand from the day before is going its own way.
Frizz is neither a broken hair nor a sign of a damaged fiber. It is a strand that has separated from its group, most often because its cuticle is raised and it has absorbed moisture from the air. The causes are few and can be identified by fairly clear signs. The least understood is drying, and yet it is the one that makes the biggest difference. To place these steps within the overall method, our step-by-step tutorial details the six steps of the Rituel Texture®.
The mechanismWhat happens in the fiber
The surface of the hair is covered with scales laid one on top of the other, like tiles. When they are flat, the strand slides against its neighbors and the whole holds together. When they lift, the fiber catches, lets in moisture from the air more easily and swells: it gains volume, deforms and leaves the group it belonged to. This is exactly what we see when a halo appears on a rainy day.
This swelling of the fiber under the effect of water is a well-described behavior of human hair (Robbins C. R., Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair, Springer, 5th edition, 2012). There is nothing abnormal about it. What is corrected is not the fiber's ability to react to humidity, but the condition of its surface.
On coily and curly hair, the geometry amplifies everything: the fiber constantly changes direction, and each curve is a point where the scale lifts a little more than elsewhere. This is why the same gesture, on the same head, gives a neat result in one area and a halo in another.
Cause 1A fiber that lacks water
The sebum produced at the root does not travel well down the curves. It stops fairly quickly, and the lower half of the hair lives without this natural film. A fiber that lacks water then seeks moisture wherever it finds it, that is, in the air, and does so unevenly from one strand to another.
The sign is easy to read: the halo is present from the day of washing, it does not settle in over the course of the week. The lengths creak slightly under the fingers, the ends appear lighter than the rest, and the strand does not return to its place when you let go. If you recognize this, it is not a styling problem, it is a care problem.
The correction takes place at step 03 of the Rituel Texture®, the massage of the lengths and ends. We wring out, heat Le Masque Réparateur between the hands, work section by section from the ends toward the roots, then leave it on for ten minutes, under a bonnet if you have one. This is not a time to extend: a long leave-on time brings nothing more, and the fiber gorged with water for an hour often comes out softer, not more supple.
Lengths that creak and ends that are lighter than the rest signal a fiber that lacks water. A halo that appears only the next day, on hair that is supple to the touch, tells another story.
Cause 2Friction, day and night
These are what explain localized halos: on the nape of the neck, at the collar of a coat, where the head rests on the back of a seat, or on the front if you run your hand through your hair without thinking. Each friction lifts the scales a little more, always in the same places, and the halo ends up mapping your habits.
The terry cloth towel is the most costly case, because it combines friction and pressure on a fiber swollen with water, therefore at the moment when it is most vulnerable. A microfiber towel or an old cotton t-shirt, in which you press the lengths without ever rubbing them, solves this point at once.
Night then comes, and it counts for a lot. In the evening, undo the hairstyle of the day, put back a little of La Crème Coiffante insisting on the ends, without putting too much. The comb only comes out if the hair is really tangled, that is, rather in the middle of the week than the same evening as the Rituel Texture®. Then make six tight braids on themselves, never at the root, to lock the hydration in the hair. Tie them with a silk scrunchie or tie a silk scarf over them, and sleep on a silk pillowcase.
The scarf comes before the bonnet: it holds the hair without enclosing the entire scalp. And the pillowcase counts as much as what we wear on our head, since it is what receives the friction during the hours when the scarf has slipped.
Cause 3Drying, the decisive step
This is where the largest part of the result is played out, and it is also where the most widespread advice works against you. Letting a hairstyle air dry without having applied anything to it is like letting each strand shrink as it wants, in a room where humidity varies: the halo forms during drying, not after.
In the Rituel Texture®, drying is a step in its own right, step 05, and it starts with a product. La Crème Coiffante is applied to damp hair, over the entire length; it protects the fiber from heat. Only then comes the blow dryer, in small strands, from the roots to the lengths and ends, in bouncing movements. A short and strong drying, always in motion, without ever stopping on an area.
At the salon, I prefer a short and direct drying, the hand that never stops on the same strand, rather than a lukewarm heat maintained for hours. It is the time spent on an area that damages, not the gesture itself.
Ghana Elin, founderThen comes the question of the diffuser, presented everywhere as the natural accessory for textures. On coily hair, it only does you a favor in rare cases: it disperses the air without allowing you to work the strand, prolongs drying and lets each area shrink on its own. It is not the reference tool of the method, and it does not have to be yours by default. Between two routines, however, air drying works very well: it is then a matter of letting dry a hairstyle that is already styled and protected.
Between two routines
The temptation, when the halo returns in the middle of the week, is to rewet. A veil of water in the morning, a little Crème Coiffante, and you start over the next day. This is the gesture that most discreetly wears out the hairstyles we see: the fiber spends its time swelling and shrinking, and it ends up becoming more porous. Avoid wetting your hair every day. A full routine every seven to ten days holds hydration much better than a daily spray bottle.
To refresh without wetting, a dab of La Crème Coiffante pressed between the palms then placed on the lengths is enough: it is what helps maintain the hydration brought by washing. A drop of light oil can complete on the ends, where the halo is most visible, but it comes as a complement and not as a step.
Finally, a word on two methods that we encounter everywhere. Plopping and scrunching were designed for curls that reform on their own as they dry: they are suitable for curly hair. On a coily texture, they flatten the material without defining it.
What maintains the halo
- Rubbing the lengths in a terry cloth towel when leaving the shower.
- Running fingers through the strands all day, out of habit.
- Letting air dry a hairstyle without having applied anything.
- Spraying water every morning to wake up the shape.
- Layering products to flatten the halo: the fiber gets heavier and defines less well.
None of these gestures damages the hair at once. It is their repetition that ends up showing.
When the halo remains despite everything
A slight halo is normal, and all the more so as the texture is tight. A healthy coily hairstyle is not smooth on the surface: it has relief, and part of what we call frizz is nothing more than this relief seen up close. Seeking to remove it almost always leads to too much product and a duller result.
One situation, however, deserves a gesture: when the halo is accompanied by breaking ends, a frankly rough fiber and knots that return to the same place every week. It is no longer a surface problem but a worn length, and a visit to a trained hairdresser then does more than any product. See also our steps to protect the ends.
You don't know which of the three causes is yours?
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Why does my hair frizz especially the day after washing?
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Go Further
Sources
- Robbins C. R., Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair, Springer, 5th edition, 2012, chapters dedicated to water absorption and fiber swelling.
