11 ways to tame curly, frizzy hair in Singapore

Ever looked at a your girlfriend’s straight hair and had feelings of resentment for your own twisted, tangled locks?

Well, don’t! Learn to manage your hair and you’ll realize how awesome your curly hair actually is.

To help you on your hair journey, we talked to stylists specializing in helping ladies manage curly hair to find out what you can do to manage yours.

1. Haircut + use the right styling products

You don’t have to go for any chemical hair services if you get a great haircut and know which products to use.

A great haircut is crucial as it sculpts the curls into the right shape and gives it direction to fall well.

Annie from Gene by Ginrich suggests for curly haired ladies to avoid over-thinning their hair.

Although thinning can help reduce the puffiness, it can also make the hair go out of shape more easily and make the hair appear more frizzy, like this customer below.

Haircut and treatment by Annie from Gene by Ginrich

Instead of over-thinning your hair to achieve volume, Annie suggests to get only a slightly layered haircut (in this case, she gave her a slightly graduated bob) and use styling products to achieve volume and curls.

“Styling products are key to managing curls. Don’t shy away from styling products because they are your friends.Master its use and you’ll find that 5-10 minutes a day is sufficient for you to make your curls look good without rebonding,” says Annie from Gene by Ginrich.

For this customer who loves her curls, Annie guided her to apply the right amount of AVEDA Curl Enhancer from the ends upwards before blowdrying to give the curls more volume and definition.

To minimize frizz further, she also used a diffuser to blow-dry the hair,

2. Keratin treatment

If you really hate your curls, but do not want to permanently change your hair texture, keratin treatment is a great option!“ - Ryu from Flamingo Hair Studio.

If you have strong SS curls like this customer above, you may find that keratin treatment will be very effective in helping you tame and manage your curls.

The keratin treatment may last two to five months depending on how well you care for it.

Basically keratin treatment works by wrapping the hair cuticle with keratin to make it resistant to water and frizziness.

3. Chez Vous resculpting supreme

Keratin treatment is often closely associated with hair straightening, but for the first time, Chez Vous is using it to maintain curls.

Resculpt is the first ever keratin-infused retexturizing experience which transforms unmanageable hair into soft, natural-looking tresses.

Instead of the usual straight effect you see from typical keratin services, resculpt allows you to enhance your natural curls or reshape your hair texture while removing much of your natural frizziness.

Before

After | Read Agent C’s review here.

Just because it is a keratin service doesn’t mean no after-care is required.

“The keratin coating will drop with each wash - so make sure you use at least the keratin shampoo, conditioner and mask to replace the lost keratin,” says Shawn from Chez Vous Hair Salon.

4. Rebonding

Many ladies who hate their curls find rebonding a godsend because it lasts longer than keratin treatments and can help to remove the curls without much styling required.

Not all rebonding are the same though. There’s normal rebonding and there’s volume rebonding.

“Volume rebonding may sound exotic and nice but it may not last as long for you if your curls are strong and stubborn. Instead, find the right stylist who can use traditional rebonding techniques without making your hair look flat,” says Annie from Gene by Ginrich.

Shiseido rebonding by Agent J at Gene by Ginrich

Other than the rebonding process, the accompanying haircut is even more important.

A good haircut should help to soften the entire look and give your hair more movement. For Agent J, the addition of a few layers framed her face much better than the previous blunt haircut.

Soft rebonding at Flamingo Hair Studio

Ayumi from Flamingo Hair Studio suggests that you can even give the fringe a slight perm to give it more a wave.

For those worried about damaging your hair, you can also opt for the low-damage Tokio de Sinka Rebonding which incorporates lots of treatments within the rebonding process so that your hair doesn’t feel dry afterwards.

Tokio de Sinka Volume Rebonding by Koinonia Salon

Alternatively, you can also visit rebonding specialist Focus Hairdressing for MUCOTA Omega Rebonding which also deals lower level of damage during the rebonding process.

MUCOTA Omega rebonding by Focus Hairdressing

5. Perm

“It may seem a little counter-intuitive to perm your hair (since you already have natural curls) but a perm can actually enhance your curls and make them more balanced,” says Bro from Act Point Salon.

A lot of ladies love curls but find that their curls are stronger on one side or are so loose, the curls don’t look good. In that case, a perm can help to reinforce the curls and even things out.

Do however, choose a low-damage perm chemical to avoid frizzing your hair after the perm.

Tokio de Sinka perm may be a viable option as it allows the perm to be done at temperatures of 60-80 degrees celsius (compared to up to 180 degrees for typical perms).

The lower temperature, together with the 4 types of keratins and fullerene repairs your hair even as it perms.

6. Texture control by Salon Vim

Like what its name suggests, Texture Control is a treatment that contains some retexturizing elements.

By using similar principles in Rebonding, it breaks the bonds only partially and fills the hair shaft with essential amino acids. This inhouse technique can help ladies straighten their hair or even create curls.

Agent J’s experience with texture control

Note however that this procedure includes retexturizing so your hair texture will be permanently altered!

Image via Salon Vim

7. Picasso’s Anti-Frizz Reconditioning Treatment

Primarily used for straightening, Picasso’s Anti-Frizz Reconditioning Treatment contains both hair treatment and retexturizing elements to help iron out those kinks in your hair.

During the retexturizing process, the bonds are only partially broken so the process itself isn’t as damaging.

It also contains the best of Picasso’s treatments from Collagen to Redken CAT Treatment and Kerastase Treatment to repair the hair during the retexturizing process, allowing the hair to sustain the effect of the treatment for a longer period of time.

Picture via Picasso Hair Studio

8. Tokio Inkarami Treatment

Picture via Koinonia Salon

For those of you who are not keen to retexturize your hair at all, Tokio Inkarami is another viable treatment that has been really popular in Japanese hair salons (both in Singapore and in Japan).

When you see stylists hitting the hair with their fists, well, you know its an Inkarami treatment

Although Tokio de Sinka also contains 4 types of keratins, it is not a keratin treatment. Each of the keratin has a specific function which is to:

• Penetrates deeper into the hair core, making the hair stronger.

• Protect hair from heat while at the same time improving strength and lustre of hair.

• Lock in the previous smaller keratins to prevent protein loss from the core. It also penetrates into damaged hair, recovering damaged hair to a nearly virgin hair condition.

• Act as the final seal to pump up your hair to make it more elastic, smoother and easier to manage.

Due to the different types of keratins, hair is repaired, allowing it to be less frizzy and making it more manageable.

It is however, still "just a treatment”, so the key ingredients; keratin amino acids and fullerene may be stripped off over a few washes.

That’s why the Inkarami IE Shampoo and Treatment is crucial to make sure that the results of the Tokio Inkarami lasts longer.

Although the typical Inkarami treatment can last for more than a week, using the shampoo and treatment can lengthen the effect till a month or so.

Therefore, we would highly recommend that you include the shampoo and treatment in your daily haircare routine if you want to commit to this treatment option.

9. Manually straighten your hair with HairBeauron Straightener

For those who have the time, you can also manually iron your hair every day. This is usually not recommended because it can be rather damaging for your hair.

That was true until we came across the NEW HairBeauron Straightener at Branche Hair Salon.

We don’t usually gush over hair equipment but we were just amazed when Kai from Branche Hair Salon used the straightener on Agent S.

Before (left) vs After (Right): Look at how natural her hair looked after straightening!

Forget Dyson hairdryer or even GHD straightener.

This straightener made Agent S’ hair softer, smoother and more moisturized than before the hair was straightened!

We went back to check more about this miracle straightener. Apparently it uses proprietary technology to activate dormant genes and molecules within the hair to reprogram your hair’s natural quantum density to its golden ratio.

While it is most effective at 180 degrees celsius (this is the temperature when hair protein changes), your hair will look smoother even if you just run your hair through it with the power turned off.

In fact, they promise that your hair will become healthier and healthier over time if you use it every day.

As impressive as it is, HairBeauron is retailing at $480 at Branche Hair Salon, which makes it out of the budget for some of us.

(FYI, we have no links to the manufacturer of Hairbeauron… we’re just super impressed.)

Remember, don’t use any styling or heat protection cream with this straightener as it may cause unintended chemical reactions.

For all other straighteners though, Shawn from Chez Vous Hair Salon suggests that you invest in a bottle of KMS Hot Flex Creme if you are intending to straighten your hair frequently.

This is a heat-activated smoothing and shaping product that provides heat protection, anti-breakage and humidity resistance for coarse and unruly hair types.

10. Use the right shampoos to minimize frizz

Your daily haircare routine plays a huge part in taming your curly hair.

“I couldn’t find a satisfactory shampoo and treatment to recommend my curly haired customers. That’s why I worked with the top haircare manufacturer in Japan to create a special shampoo to help ladies fight humidity frizz in Singapore,” says Yohei from Rubik Hair Salon.

Agent G has personally tried this shampoo and am very happy to report that her hair is significantly more moisturized after using it consistently.

It is not surprising given that it contains industry-leading ingredient platinum keratin amino acids and ceramide cholesterol to seal the hair cuticle (instead of silicone) to keep it closed.

She is however, not that big a fan of its bergamot smell, so do take note of that.

11. Keep Redken Frizz Dismiss Fly-Away Fix Finishing Sheets in your bag for emergency de-frizzing

Another recommendation by Chez Vous Hair Salon to combat frizz when you are out and about is the award-winning Redken Frizz Dismiss Fly Fix Finishing Sheets.

It contains ingredients such as hydrophobic, which repels humidity for lasting frizz control while the ingredient hydrophilic keeps hair shiny and healthy by locking in moisture.

How do you care for your curls? Let us know in the comments below!

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