How I Style My Wavy Hair Upside Down Without Making The Back Messy

"I can't style my hair upside down because it makes the back messy!"
"I can't plop. Plopping makes the back of my head a total mess!"
"How on earth does anyone style upside down without having huge tangles in the back?"
"Everytime I try to style my hair, the back is a disaster!"
"I can't get my hair to cast in the back"

These are all things I see posted on wavy or curly communities all the time. I've blogged about how I style upside down for volume, so I have received some of these questions via email and blog comments, too.

When I was new to the curly girl method, I had a mess in the back of my head, too! I've learned a variety of tips and tricks to avoid it, though. So this video is me showing my styling routine from the end of my shower until I scrunch out the crunch. I try to put special attention on the techniques I use that help avoid a mess in the back of my head.

[aicerg]

I found your video in your blog after trying to figure out how not to get a rat's nest in the back of my head, and ended up following the whole routine, even the plopping time and roughly the amount of mousse, and oh my god, I had never EVER seen curls like these on my head before this routine. The back of my head is so much more alive and the curls look so soft and lively. Thank you for sharing, it was well explained, simple to follow and it yielded great results!

[rubykhayyam]

Your hair looks just like mine and I learned some new tricks from this video that I'm excited to try--thank you! I hope you make more videos in the future!, I'll watch for sure!

[tamarapace]

I learned several things in this video. I love the idea of the "part" to separate the front and back! It makes so much sense.

[tomarcrauswell]

These are some great tips. I'm excited to try them. I hope to see some more videos from you soon.

[emilytran]

This was so helpful, thank you! I've been applying mousse before I plop and while it's made my upside down wave clumps look amazing, since they hold in that position when I turn right side up the backside of my head then has pieces that stick out and form loops at the root. I'm going to try these techniques, thanks again!

[ericaalbright]

I don’t follow the curly girl method. Tbh I usually heat style my naturally curly hair and I use silicones. The only way for my hair to look good curly would be for me to plop because it’s long and easily weighed down if it dries right side up. But only the front and top ever looked good; the back never came out right- I would get the rats nest.
I found the video on your blog. I tried your method of making the parting at the ears and making sure I was upside down and not just leaning when scrunching and plopping. I used no products, just shampoo and conditioner and plopped for several hours in a turbie twist, took my still damp hair down a few hours later by making sure to use my hands and fingers in the back of my head to lift my hair up off my scalp while flipping it right side up and gently shaking it out and let me tell you my hair has never looked better! 😍 the volume! The definition! The juicy curl clumps in all the right places! The curls started higher up the hair strand and I had so much definition from plopping and best of all NO MORE RATS NEST!!
You are a fountain of wisdom and deserve a Major Award for this information. Bless you for this. I may start wearing my hair curly more often…

Now if only I knew how to detangle my curly hair every day without having to completely re-wet it. No matter how I sleep, my hair will become a rats nest if I don’t detangle it every day and re-soaking my hair every day is not the business. Leaving detangling for my once or twice weekly wash day is also not the business- I get such bad knots by the time wash day comes that I end up snapping my hair trying to detangle it in the shower, even with silicone laden conditioner. I figured that blowouts were less damaging than trying to detangle it and when my hair is straight, I can brush and detangle it every day with no problem and I don’t have to re-soak my hair every day to do it. So if you have any tips on how to detangle daily without re-soaking that would be great.

[julieschultz]

As soon as I get out of the plop I'm in right now, I'll try your separating trick. I didn't discover Curly Girl until AFTER my husband treated me to a rather expensive perm (not to mention all the DevaCurl products he probably spent a small fortune for) a few months ago.

After using those products only five times, I was broken-hearted to realize the back of my head was now almost bald and I can no longer wear my hair loose. 😭Maybe your trick will help a little bit. I don't have a hair dryer, though (just can't afford one right now), so I have to air dry it. Wish me luck.