Spike Thick Hair
Thick hair always seems impossible to spike, especially if your hair is dry. Spiking thick hair can sometimes lead to hair products such as gel and wax just clogging up your hair and making it look as if you have just gotten out of bed rough. Here are a few simple steps to help in getting a good spiky look without making you want to just shave all your hair off.
Steps
- Wash your hair before attempting to style. If you have thick hair that is dry, then it is not going to help if you haven't given it a good shampoo and condition to make it soft. It is also important that you have washed your hair first if you have styling product still in your hair from the day before.
- When drying your hair, it is a good idea NOT to use a hair dryer, as this can dry your hair too much and make it feel as if you haven't even washed it in the first place. Simply towel dry your hair, leaving some moisture still in it.
- Make sure the hair on top of your head is slightly damp. Add water to it, if needed, and just rub it through - giving a slightly wet feeling but not to the extent of water dripping off. If your hair is long, then comb it forwards then backwards once to get it standing up slightly while untangling your hair.
- As you are applying product to wet hair on top, then it is best to use a gel to style with. Rub the gel through your hair, while making your hair go in to thin spikes as if you were applying a shampoo.
- Shape the top of your hair into which direction you want spikes going in different sections. It is usually best to work from the back, and finish at the front - fixing the fringe. Starting at the front and then moving to the back, usually ends up in the fringe being messed up and having to be fixed again.
- To spike the back of your hair, do not apply any water. The back of your hair is more tricky to get standing, and water seems to weigh it down too much, resulting in it falling back down normally.
- On the back of your hair use a dry product such as Matte paste to get spikes coming up. Matte paste doesn't require a lot of product to be used, meaning it has good hold but light enough to keep hair up instead of weighing it down.
- After styling, leave your hair to set naturally - blow drying will most likely just make it all look a mess.
Tips
- Trial and error: Simply mess around and if you can't do it first time, there's always tomorrow to try again.
- Matte paste is very helpful for adding extra definition to your hair. (i.e., fixing a bit that you think doesn't look quite right or a section you want to stand a bit more.)
- Blow drying is often a bad idea if you're going to spike thick hair as it makes your hair too dry and fluffy.
- Hair sprays can hold your style more if you feel you haven't used enough product to hold it or if you want a more wet look.
- Find out what works best for you. Everyone has their own tricks for managing to style their own hair the way they want it.
Warnings
- It is recommended to use a hair spray to hold your style after you have styled it. If applying hair spray, always spray at a good distance away from your hair as the spray can blow your spikes down if you spray it too close.
- Do not use too much product as it can end up just thickening your hair even more and making it impossible to style.
