A closer look at hair texture and wave size.

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   Many potential wavers wonder about what kind of waves they will have once they start spinning.  Well, the answer to that question is determined by your hair texture.  Basically, the nappier your hair is the more "micro," smaller, your waves will be and the straighter your hair is, the more "macro," larger, your waves will be.  Your wave size comes from the curl/nap size of your untrained hair.  More specifically, the straightening and subsequent recoiling of a nap/curl, by brushing, is what creates a wave.  The difference in the amount of hair strand recoiling determines your wave size.  The more recoiling you have, the smaller your waves will be and the less recoiling you have, the larger your waves will be.  

For the most part, you are stuck with the wave size that your hair determines.  But there are some ways to adjust your wave size, somewhat.  One way is to comb your trained waves with the grain. 

Combing can help straighten your waves and thus increase your wave size, if it is used in moderation and is followed by intense brushing.   If you overcomb your waves, you risk straightening them too much.  Basically, overcombing can decelerate the recoiling of the individual waves causing you to experience dead spots.  Each wave has to recoil after each brushing motion to obtain waves, but combing causes the recoil to lessen more than it previously did.  The lessening of the recoil is what causes the wave size to change.

Edited by wave connection - June 27 2007 at 1:39pm