I'm not a hair person. Really not. For all my interest in skincare and makeup, all I want from my hair is to look halfway decent with the minimum possible effort. Fortunately I've always had naturally very straight hair, so while I've envied wavy and curly hair, I also appreciate that my hair type suits my laissez-faire approach (a different kind of straight privilege). My usual "styling" involves applying a little smoothing/detangling serum to my wet hair, combing through it with my Wet Brush (briefly reviewed here), and letting it air dry. Often I use a big mascara wand with liquid gel or hairspray on it to smooth the flyaways on either side of my part. If I'm feeling extremely ambitious, I might blow-dry it with a round brush, but even then I usually get bored and stop before my hair is completely dry.
Some time last year I noticed that my hair was sometimes doing something that almost approximated waviness. Like, probably not enough that another reasonable person would apply the "wavy" label to it, but it had slightly more body and texture than it'd had in the past for some reason. I got a mini-tube of this Living Proof In-Shower Styler in a Sephora Play box, and when I used it, even with limited instructions, the waviness was amplified. Exciting! Once I'd finished the mini, I bought a full-size that came with more detailed directions for use, and finally I could achieve actual, noticeable waves with almost no work. I'll explain how I think it works best for my hair type below.
Recently I chopped off my long hair to just above my shoulders. While I'm enjoying the length, it's not the best shape. It has a tendency to flip out at the bottom even if I curl it under, and it puffs out to an annoying triangular shape. I know I could go back to get it fixed, but I really don't enjoy getting haircuts, and so I'm just dealing with it for now. I've found, however, that I like it much, much better wavy than straight. The waves seem to disguise the flaws in the cut, and I've always been enamored of a wavy or curly bob anyway.
As a point of comparison, here is how my hair looks if I use shampoo, conditioner, and a little smoothing serum, and then let it air dry. It's just a pyramid of meh.
Here's how it looks after using the Living Proof In-Shower Styler:
Much better, I think! (Why the color looks so much different, I don't know. It seems to shift a lot depending on the lighting.)
So, the way this stuff works is that you shampoo and condition your hair, and then you apply enough of it to completely coat your hair from roots to ends. You rinse it, but only very briefly. You should still be able to feel the slippery texture of the product in your hair after rinsing. If you use too little product or rinse it too thoroughly, you won't get much wave. If you use too much product, it'll be a little crunchy and wet-looking, rather than soft and natural. It takes some trial and error to get it right. You can lightly towel dry and then periodically scrunch your hair as it dries, with no additional product (which is what I usually do). (For others with straight hair who have never had a reason to scrunch, there are good gifs here to illustrate the technique.) If you want curlier hair, however, you can also try plopping, which I've done with nice results. (And here is how to plop your hair--a long-sleeved t-shirt works great.)
Here's how my (naturally straight! remember!) hair looks while it's still wet, just after towel drying and scrunching with the In-Shower Styler:
When it's dry, you can comb your fingers through it or scrunch it some more to soften the texture. That's it! It's very simple and not at all time-consuming. I usually get similar waves to the ones I can create with a straight iron, which isn't exactly labor-intensive, but that's a less lazy method for sure.
My favorite part is that I can wash my hair and use the In-Shower Styler before bed, do the whole scrunching thing, and go to bed before it's completely dry. In the morning, I can just wet my hands and scrunch it again to get nice waves back. I'm sure spritzing with water would work too. I do this on the second day, too, instead of washing again. (Dry shampoo forever!)
There are other products out there that will probably get you similar results, but this stuff has the advantage of only taking a few seconds in the shower and leaving me with smooth, fairly shiny waves in the end. It also happens to smell great, and my tube has lasted me for months of (not daily, but) regular use.
Here's another photo to show the air-dried waves from the side:
It worked when I had long hair too, but the waves were a bit looser, naturally.
For someone like me who has always wanted waves but has been too lazy to work at it, it's fucking sorcery. The cheapest place I've seen the Living Proof In-Shower Styler is on Amazon. ULTA also sells a travel size, if you're not sure you want to commit. Highly recommended!
Obviously the techniques I'm describing in this post will be familiar to many, if not most, people with natural curl, but in the past I'd never had occasion to use them, so I had to do a little research first. I'd be curious to hear how this product works for people who already have naturally wavy or curly hair, since the instructions say it can be used for a range of hair textures. Let me know if you've tried it!
