Wavy or Just Frizzy? How to Tell

There is a kind of hair that is called straight because nobody has checked. It is puffy when brushed, flat at the roots, frizzy in damp weather and bent in odd places by the end of the day. Its owner has usually spent years trying to smooth it.

Often it is not straight hair at all. It is wavy hair that has been treated as straight: brushed dry, washed with strong shampoo, blow-dried flat. Waves are the most easily disguised curl pattern, and the signs are easy to miss.

Seven signs your hair is wavy

1. It dries with bends. Left alone after washing, it forms kinks and S-shapes instead of lying smooth.
2. Brushing makes it bigger. Straight hair brushes sleek. Wavy hair brushes into a soft, triangular puff.
3. The underneath is curlier. Lift the top layer. The hair at the nape often has a clear wave, or even a ringlet or two.
4. Humidity changes it. It gains volume and frizz in damp air and falls limp in dry air.
5. It waves by the sea. Salt water and air drying, with no brushing, bring out a pattern you do not see at home.
6. It holds a braid pattern for days. Truly straight hair drops it within hours.
7. It was curly when you were a child, or changed at puberty, during pregnancy or with age. Hormones can shift curl pattern in either direction.

Two or three of these are suggestive. Four or more, and it is worth running the test.

The three-wash test

One wash will not tell you much; hair that has been brushed flat for years needs a few attempts to show what it can do. Follow this for three consecutive washes.

1. Wash and condition

Use a gentle shampoo on the scalp and conditioner on the lengths. Detangle in the shower with your fingers or a wide-tooth comb, while the conditioner is in. This is the last time anything goes through your hair.

2. Do not brush, and do not towel

Step out with your hair dripping. Do not rub it with a towel.

3. Add hold

Scrunch a generous handful of mousse or a light gel upward into soaking wet hair, squeezing toward the scalp.

4. Blot and dry

Scrunch out excess water with a T-shirt. Then air dry without touching, or diffuse on low.

5. Scrunch out the stiffness

When fully dry, scrunch your hair in your palms to break the cast.

If your hair forms an S when you stop fighting it, it was never straight.

Reading the result

After three washes	You probably have
Smooth, with at most a slight bend at the ends	Straight hair, prone to frizz
Loose, stretched S-shapes through the lengths	2A waves
Clear S-waves from the mid-lengths down	2B waves
Deep waves from near the root, some ringlets	2C waves, or 3A curls

If you see definite waves, your pattern will usually tighten further over the following months as you stop brushing it out and as damaged ends are trimmed.

If it turns out to be straight

Frizzy straight hair is real, and it has different causes: dryness, damage, breakage or a haircut with too many short layers. It responds to conditioning, heat protection and smoothing products, not to scrunching.

If it turns out to be wavy

Wavy hair has one governing rule: hold without weight. It is the pattern most easily flattened by products made for curls.

• Choose mousse and light gels over creams and butters.
• Condition the lengths only.
• Wash more often than curly-hair advice suggests; every two or three days suits most waves.
• Clarify monthly.
• Never brush it dry.

From here, the Wavy hair guide sets out the full routine, and Why Your Curls Fall Flat covers the most common wavy-hair problem.