For some, the question brings them to madness. It goes through their heads daily and they want an answer so that they know why their hair curls up at the ends.
Often without any success, they look for an answer on the internet. You would expect many people to have to deal with this and this question would have been answered several times already. Nothing could be further from the truth!
When Eloise, a regular reader of this blog, wrote me an email with this question, I thought it was crazy that she hadn’t found an answer yet! At least not the answer she was looking for.
No problem of course because I love doing research (off- and online) and giving her some pointers. I thought it would be a good idea to put the answers and the advice I found in a piece of content on the site! The question of why hair curls at the end and other relevant questions will be answered today.
- So, why does my hair curl up at the ends?
- How do I stop my hair from curling at the ends?
- Some things that can cause your hair to curl up are:
- Why does my hair curl up when it gets longer?
- Final Thoughts
- Reading material
The curl at the end of your hair often happens because of the weight distribution of your haircut. You see, when external layers are cut, all the weight of your hair is removed from the outside of your hair. This way you can say you “lose balance” and this can be difficult to tame. Controlling the shape of your hair then becomes difficult. Let’s put it simpler: When you don’t have weight in the right places of your hair, your hair will do all kinds of crazy like curling up at the ends.
How do I stop my hair from curling at the ends?
Stopping the curls at the ends of your hair can be a difficult thing to do. That is why I went to my hairstylist to ask her for advice.
In some instances (if you have longer hair) it can be really helpful to eliminate the excess weight that is in your hair. This will enable you to get a more textured style much more easily. If you want to straighten hair (so no natural curl at all) you can do so, but the lighter layered pieces will be hard to tame. They are more susceptible to go back to their natural state.
If you have mid to short length hair, it is also the weight you have to care about, but in another way. If you have mid to short length hair it is important to maintain the weight of the hair at the bottom of your hair. The beveled bob style is an important example of this. If you Google this haircut you’ll see that the hair is straight (without curl) due to the weight at the bottom of the hair.
My hairstylist also said that the other day someone walked in with shorter hair and told the stylist that she wanted to change her hair. She had fine and frizzy hair with an uneven natural curl. Even though the stylist told her that it looked fabulous on her, she wanted to change it because her hair does not always hold its style. Now it looked fabulous because it did nice things for her jaw structure and overall face type.
Now, if you have frizzy hair, you can also try to use an oil-based hair serum to weigh down your hair so that your hair won’t curl at the ends anymore.
Top oil-based hair serum picks for frizzy hair OGX Nourishing Coconut Milk Anti-Breakage Serum Besides it fixing rough and damaged hair, it also fight frizz so your hair looks and feels healthier. Marico’s Hair & Care Silk-n-Shine Leave-in Conditioner This Silk-n-shine from Marico is an oil-based hair serum that is enriched with fruit vitamins that work to soften dry, rough, and damaged hair. Loreal Smooth Intense Frizz Taming Serum L’oreal Paris Smooth Intense Smoothing Serum is infused with silk proteins and argan oil that nourish your hair from root to tip. This rejuvenating serum tames down frizz, reduces split ends, and adds shine to your dry hair.My hairstylist told her that the only way she could change it was to cut her hair above her shoulders. This was because of the way she was styling her hair. If she wouldn’t do that, it wasn’t going away. If she would’ve cut it to the shoulders it was game over and the flip already happened.
Now if the curling of the ends of your hair is something that noticed recently, there can also be other reasons that I want to mention here just so that you can think about them. Maybe the answer for your specific case is in it.
There can be a lot of reasons (not the only weight of the hair) for hair to start curling at the ends.
Some things that can cause your hair to curl up are:
Changing shampoo: It can be that switching to a new shampoo caused your hair to curl up at the ends. If this is the case I would try to revert back to the shampoo you were using before it happened.
Change in season: I kid you not. Some people’s hair change with the seasons! This can be because the humidity in the air changed, maybe the air is wetter and the season overall windier. All factors that can change your haircut so that it starts curling at the ends.
Hormonal change: It can also be that a hormonal change has changed the texture of your hair
Food and stress: This last one may surprise you but even a change in diet can make changes in your hair. Your hair needs all kinds of vitamins and minerals, changing your diet drastically can sometimes make a change in your hair. Stress can also be a factor in hair change.
Bonus: Bleaching or coloring! Bleaching or coloring your hair can lead to changes in your hair. Bleaching and coloring your hair are both chemical processes that can affect your hair in different ways like how it curls or falls. If this is the case you can see if after a couple of weeks the changes revert back to normal.
I tell you this because you need to know that there is almost always an answer to your problems. If you have longer hair, you can fix it with the right haircut, do you have shorter hair? You can also fix it…
The most important thing to take from this all is to take a good look at what you changed (see the things above). If there’s nothing there you can go to your hairstylist and tell them what happened. He or she should be able to tell you how to stop the curl from happening.
Why does my hair curl up when it gets longer?
There are different theories about this. I talked to a couple of people about it and they all said something that was slightly different from the people before or after them.
Some women report that when they keep their hair on armpit length or shorter, their hair is perfectly straight, but when they let it grow longer than that the curly and waviness starts to kick in. This confuses them because normally you would say that your hair should get straighter the longer it gets (there’s just more weight involved).
The closest thing that I can come to an answer is this:
This happens because there are patterns involved that you just don’t see when your hair is shorter. The waves and curls patterns only set in when a couple of patterns have repeated themselves. Loose waves and/or big barrel curls need way more length for the pattern to repeat itself. So when your hair is above shoulder length, there isn’t enough length for the patterns to repeat itself and therefore you don’t see the curling up happing right away.
When your hair is really long the roots get pulled out by the weight of the hair. This does mean that the curl “stop” because of too much weight, but sometimes the ends still curl up.
Final Thoughts
So now you know a lot more about why your hair curls at the ends. I think you can read through the article that it was difficult to find a definite answer because it is not easy like that. All kinds of factors can have an impact on how your hair behaves. I hope you at least now know where to look if you need a definite answer. You can experiment with diet, shampoo, stress, and even just your normal hair behavior.
If you’re still unsure about why your hair curls up at the ends, you can always visit your local hair salon. They can give you advice specifically for you because they can see and feel your hair!
Reading material
If you found this article helpful, you might also find the articles below interesting! I have selected 3 articles for you that I think you would enjoy reading.
Do you want to start coloring your hair? Learn how you measure hair dye and developer.
Do you think that your diet has something to do with your curls at the ends of your hair? read
the 10 juices that are great for your hair!
Happy reading!