About once a month I think to myself: I wish I was one of those Black girls that can do hair. While I get by with the few styles I’ve learned to execute, I can’t cornrow to save my life and my skills with curling and flat irons are average at best. I can’t even use flexi rods right because I never manage to properly wrap the ends of my hair. That means any time I’ve wanted a head full of curls that wasn’t a wash n’ go, I’ve had to go to a pro.
That’s why when I had the opportunity to try out Curlformers, I felt a sense of tapered excitement. I’d always wanted to try the hair curling system, but based on my history with curling devices of any and all kinds, my expectations were low. Sure, I’d watched my share of hair Youtubers achieve amazing results with the product, but I’ve also seen myself waste hours prepping, twisting, and rolling my hair at night only to excitedly wake up to a disappointing head full of tight second row pew church lady curls. But I decided to give Curlformers my best try and I’m glad I did.
I first attempted Curlformers on my natural hair exactly one month ago. Before I began, I consulted YouTube and I’m glad I did. The single most important tip to using Curlformers is to make sure you twist your hair at the root in order for the hook device to properly grasp your hair and pull it through the Curlformer without snagging. Otherwise, you’ll not only pull and tangle your hair, your curls won’t achieve proper shape. Here’s a little video on what I mean by that.
While the process was time consuming — it took about a little more than an hour to install all of the Curlformers — it was still quite simple, with the most difficult part being ensuring your hair is twisted tightly enough and the section of hair isn’t too big to fit in the hook and pull through the rod. With all of my Curlformers in place around mid-day Sunday, I hoped for the best when I woke up Monday morning around 7 am and was pleasantly surprised by my results. I had truly straight barrel curls on my natural hair and even my roots air-dried to straight perfection. All I’d used on my hair was LottaBody’s 5-n-1 Miracle Styling Crème and Setting Lotion which was great under perfect weather conditions (in my house, not moving in the AC). But after doing things around the house, by the time I was ready to leave my curls had taken on a fro-ish like quality and into a ponytail they went without me even bothering to capture a photo. Next time, I would definitely use some sort of custard or gel for better hold and frizz prevention.
This past weekend, I gave Curlformers another try with my weave install and actually found it a little more difficult to grip such straight strands of hair with the hook and pull them through the formers, but the amount of time to full installation was about the same. With both the weave and my natural hair, I’ve found the 30 Curlformers that come in the kit aren’t enough, so if you have thick hair I recommend buying an extra pack of for curl consistency. The first go ’round I found myself using larger sections of hair in the back as I ran out of devices.
The results above were achieved with the Long Barrel Curls kit and, like with my natural hair, I used the same LottaBody products and the curls had fully dried and taken shape within about 12 hours or less. Because I didn’t have enough Curlformers, I had to leave about 1/4 of my hair in the back straight over night. In the morning, I took out the Curlformers on the rest of my hair and then installed them to the dry straight strands in the back for about 2 hours, and though the curls were a bit less defined than the others, I would certainly consider installing a few formers on my dry hair before an event to give my locs a boost.
What I haven’t discovered, thus far, is how to maintain the curls. Not having hairspray and not wanting to apply a drying spritz, I let my hair do as it pleased throughout the day and, honestly, my curls didn’t fall much — even through a brisk walk to the park on a hot summer day. When I tied my hair down with a silk scarf at night and awoke the next morning, however, it was a different situation. The curls were flat and laying every which way and I knew I’d made a grave mistake in not resetting them in the Curlformers the night before or doing some kind of pin curls before bed. During the the day tho… my curls were popping. Curlformers will easily become my go-to for switching up my look, whether natural or weaved.
