How to Refresh Wavy Hair

How to refresh wavy hair is an important hack to master when you’re navigating the world of waves. No matter how you like to style your type 2 hair, refreshing your waves will enhance your curl pattern and help you make the most of your locks. Follow along to see a step by step guide on how to reactivate your waves. 

Table of Contents:

• ​​What Does Refreshing Wavy Hair Mean?
• ​How to Refresh Wavy Hair in 5 Steps
• ​When Should I Refresh My Wavy Hair?
• ​Best Products to Refresh Wavy Hair
• ​Refreshing Waves: What to Avoid​

What Does Refreshing Wavy Hair Mean?

Whilst our wash day hair might look bouncy and full, our day-to-day life, how we choose to wear our hair in certain styles, and sleeping on our hair, can lead to our wavy hair becoming flatter and more lifeless as the days wear on. This is why refreshing your waves is so essential!  

Refreshing your wavy hair doesn’t need to take long, but is the art of restoring definition, bounce and volume on days two, three and even beyond post wash day. Whether you choose to refresh using simply water, or incorporating wavy hair products into your refresh, a simple wavy hair routine can really bring those waves back to life.

How to Refresh Wavy Hair in 5 Steps

Whether you are refreshing first thing in the morning, or after wearing your hair in a ponytail all day, here are the 5 steps for how to refresh your wavy hair: 

1. Allow your hair to settle: Once you have removed any hair ties, clips, other accessories or sleep protection, allow your hair to settle for ten-minutes. This allows the hair to settle back into its natural shape meaning you can minimize your refresh. 

1. Lightly mist your hair with water: Dampen your hair with water to rehydrate those waves. You don’t need to get your hair wet at this point, only damp enough that the water helps your waves clump again and reactivates any wash day products in your hair. This step can sometimes be omitted, if you are using a refreshing mist to refresh with (see next step!) 

1. Add some product: If you have extra frizzy areas, or areas that are struggling to clump, scrunch in a little extra product to tame those waves and bring those clumps back together. Choose light products for this step, such as the Shake + Shine Refreshing Mist, to bring your waves back together without any added weight. 

1. Diffuse or air dry: Diffuse your wavy hair on low to medium heat to encourage as much bounce as possible or air dry if you are short on time. Try to avoid touching your waves as they dry as this can lead to frizz! If you are using the Shake + Shine Refreshing Mist, you won't need to diffuse - simply air dry after your refresh. 

1. Scrunch out the crunch: Seal those curls when completely dry by scrunching out any crunch that may have formed from your reactivated wash day products with a light oil, such as the Shine Oil. This will smooth your waves and add shine, helping them to last for longer. 

When Should I Refresh My Wavy Hair?

You may find you need to refresh your wavy hair between your wash days… 

• In the morning: Wavy hair can easily lose its shape once slept on, causing your waves to become flat, undefined and lifeless. To minimize the effects of sleeping on your wavy hair, it is beneficial to protect your hair at night, such as with a satin pillowcase. Sleep protection helps to reduce friction on your waves and movement of the hair during the night, meaning less frizz and loss of definition overall. 

• After exercise: Sweat, ponytails, various wavy hairstyles, and lots of movement can all impact how our waves look and you may wish to give those locks a quick refresh following exercise to minimize the impact of this. 

• Between washes: From frizz caused by humidity, to flattening oiliness, to damp or rainy weather, there are many day-to-day reasons that our waves may need refreshing. If you find your hair becoming excessively frizzy, undefined or flat throughout the day or during your daily activities, you may choose to refresh your waves to target and reduce these issues. 

Best Products to Refresh Wavy Hair

In order to restore and reactivate your type 2 hair between wash days, there are several products that you can use to bring your waves back to life. 

Shake and Shine Refreshing Mist (Bi-Phase Oil Product)

Made without drying alcohols, this Shake + Shine refreshing mist will immediately reactivate your waves, without adding any weight or post wash-day stickiness. There is no need to use water when refreshing with this unique bi-phase oil product, which contains 7 Hyaluronic Acids to increase hydration by up to 41%. The formulation also uses seaweed, known for its ability to lock moisture into the hair fiber, alongside aloe vera, pea peptide and cranberry seed oil to maintain hair hydration. It provides up to 71% frizz reduction on refresh days, and controls frizz for up to 24 hours until your next refresh! by up to 41%. The formulation also uses seaweed, known for its ability to lock moisture into the hair fiber, alongside aloe vera, pea peptide and cranberry seed oil to maintain hair hydration. It provides up to 71% frizz reduction on refresh days, and controls frizz for up to 24 hours until your next refresh! 

Moisture Memory Reactivator

This super lightweight spray is a miracle for reactivating second day waves, soaking into the hair strands to help give those locks life and bounce. Using ingredients such as apricot kernel, and avocado oil, this Moisture Memory Reactivator spray is perfect to help lock moisture back into the hair strand on a refresh day, nourishing those waves so that they are, once again, soft, bouncy and defined.

Defrizzion Dryer & XXL Diffuser

With its 8-inch diffuser head, the Defrizzion Dryer & XXL Diffuser is perfect for speeding up your refresh dry time. Time may be limited for your morning refresh, or after your workout, but that doesn’t mean that your waves need to suffer. The Defrizzion reduces dry time, whilst also giving an even airflow to keep frizz to a minimum.

Hair Clips

The Curlsmith Hair Clips can be applied to the root of your hair in sections to promote both root volume and definition during a refresh. Wavy hair, in particular, can become very flat between wash days so refreshing with hair clips can help to restore that lost volume and bounce. Apply these directly at your scalp to really encourage that fuller look. You can also use hair clips to section your hair whilst refreshing, helping to speed up your overall refresh time!

Continuous Spray Bottle

Traditional spray bottles can spray too directly onto the hair when refreshing, meaning that one area of your waves becomes too wet. Our Continuous Spray Bottle stops this from happening by omitting a light mist for a few seconds, allowing even coverage and balanced hydration throughout the hair strands.

Refreshing Waves: What to Avoid

Refreshing should be an easy way of restoring body and bounce to your wavy hair post-wash day. Be careful to avoid the following though, as these can turn a refresh into a disaster! 

• Avoid over-wetting the hair: Any water added to the hair should be done so sparingly. Remember, you are refreshing your waves, not rewashing them! Over-wetting the hair can make the drying process much longer and may dilute any product already in the hair, as opposed to just reactivating those products! 

• Don’t add too much product: Less is more when refreshing your waves. As there will already be some product in your hair from wash day, adding too much more can lead to weighed down locks and even flakiness – definitely not the look we’re aiming for! 

• Try not to touch your hair too much whilst diffusing or air drying: This will just create more frizz. When you’ve just spent all that refreshing time smoothing out frizz, creating more is definitely something we want to avoid! 

Trust Your Waves to Curlsmith

Maintaining your wavy hair between washes doesn’t have to be complicated and an easy refresh is the perfect way to add bounce and life back into those waves every day! Curlsmith’s lightweight, nourishing products are the perfect solution for an effective and simple refresh. There really is something for everyone in our wide range of cruelty-free, vegan products but if you are unsure what refreshing products might work best for your wavy hair, why not take our Curl Quiz?