How to Refresh Wavy Hair In 2 Minutes

Hi wavy friends! Ever since transitioning to “curly girl,” well over a year ago, and then loosening up the rules a tad lately, the best thing by far has been how long my hair stays looking nice. Even better? How I can refresh my hair so fast. Now, I know how to refresh wavy hair in 2 minutes, and it’s time for you to learn! I’ve done this method at my work office, at the gym, getting ready while my toddler brushes her teeth, and even while in the hospital right after having our second. I could do this method on a plane, on a train, on a boat, with a goat…you get the idea. It’s so easy. So now it’s time to teach you how to refresh your wavy hair fast too! Take back your mornings. Enjoy your coffee, try that full glam makeup look, watch some netflix, get the kids to school on time, or get to your own class or job on time (or both!)….whatever floats your boat. But quit wasting unnecessary time on your hair!

I will say that some of this ease comes from having ALL former heat damaged hair off. I was delusional thinking I could keep my length and that my hair would just recover from the daily heat styling. ‘sorry wavy friends, if you have “straight ends” even after months of repair…it probably just needs to be cut off :/ I tried to convince myself it was my “hair type,” or “wave pattern.” It wasnt. But I did three separate “chops”to take it bit by bit. So if you’re frustrated because you don’t see the results you want, it might be time to consider another haircut (don’t hate me! I understand becuase I’ve been there too!). Look out for a future post on that.

Anyways, here’s how the method…

How to Refresh Wavy Hair in 2 Minutes

Start with bedhead. Here’s mine.

Unless I’ve just washed my hair….I pretty much just let my hair go overnight. I’ve tried satin scarves, satin scrunchies, clips etc. And my hair looks the same if I just sleep normally. Okay, so I do one thing, but it’s because of my skin more than my hair. Since I have oily skin, the hair directly around my face can get a little oily overnight, so I clip my “bangs” back. I don’t actually have bangs, but that area around my forehead is what I pull back in a medium sized claw clip. But that’s it! You might be thinking, “but I toss and turn all night!” Me too. I also have to get up to feed a 6 week old baby! I will say though that my hair is halfway between my shoulders and chest. When my hair was much longer (between chest and belly button), it did tangle more. So keep that in mind, long hair wavy friends. But in my opinion, try to just let your hair go a few times and experiment. You might end up saving yourself a ton of effort in the long run.

Spray down lightly

I use a mixture of ~8oz water and one pump of Devacurl B’Leave in. For the summertime I would recommend instead mixing in a dime sized amount of a hard hold gel. This is because of the humidity. I like this hard hold gel.  The good news is that my favorite hard hold gel is 1/10th the price of B’Leave in. Also the spray bottle is from Target years ago. They have these similar ones for $1.50.  No need to get anything fancy. Now this is important…okay, moving on to technique. I don’t get my hair “wet.” In fact, I barely get it damp. All I do is spray down frizzy sections. If any section looks okay, I leave it alone! “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I spray all sections that need it at once before moving onto the next step.

Use Mousse!

A controversial product in the curly hair community, mousse seems to be much better responded to by wavies. And with good reason! Mousse is weightless but offers a bit of definition. I will say that for me, mousse doesn’t work as a stand alone product on wash day. (2019 Update: Actually it DOES – see my updated routine HERE after you finish this post!) But it’s perfect on refresh days because of how lightweight it is! I’ve tried refreshing with gels and the result is weighed down waves and more build up. In fact, when I use gel I end up having to wash at least a day earlier because of excess build up. The good news is that mousse doesn’t have the same effect. There are different types of mousse, and I’ve linked some of my favorites for this technique at the bottom of this post. Today I’m using Herbal Essence’s Totally Twisted. It’s under $3 and it’s actually awesome. If you can’t tell, I kinda like when budget friendly products work as well or better than high end stuff.

Start with a golf ball sized amount of works, and add more as needed. You can see the texture of this mousse in the photo below. If you are using a watery mousse (like this one), between 2-3 pumps is the equivalent to the “golf ball size” I mention. You can always add more, but you can’t take it back out of your hair easily. Adding too much can lead to unnecessary buildup as the days go on, and can leave your hair crunchy today. Usually, I will do about three of the golf ball sized bits total.

Scrunch a few ways

This stuff might sound technical, but really it’s just becasue I can’t figure out how else to describe it.

First, I start with what you probably think of when you hear the word “scrunch.” I take that golf ball sized bit of mousse and lather up my hands. I lift a palmful of hair and scrunch upwards. I do this around my whole head. This is when I use the majority of the mousse for my refreshing process. Why? My 2a/2b waves need a bit of encouragement, so this helps the bottom portion.

Next I more to my roots. It’s essential to do this next part with only a little bit of mousse. If you use a lot of product here, your hair will end up weighed down by the next day. Remember, I’m able to take my hair through at least four days without dry shampoo (and with it looking perfectly clean).  When you use a teeny bit, you can repeat the process the following days and still have great looking hair. I do my roots with what I call the “S Scrunch” (this is only at my roots). At first I thought this was rope scrunching, but there is definitely a difference here. Let’s take a look, but first…this is really important for 2a/2b wavies who want more definintion at the roots. This technique may not matter so much if you’ve got 2C waves. My hair likes to lay super flat against my head, so this gives me a bit of definition. I’m going for just a little volume here. We aren’t going to get big volume like with root clipping because that just takes too long to bother with every day. Remember, this is the 2 minute refresh!

I call this technique the s-scrunch because you essentially work to form s-waves with your fingers. Only your fingers. My suggestion is to work with smaller sections of hair than with traditional scrunching. This will allow your fingers to give more of the S with the same amount of force than if you had a large section.  Take your fingers and basically squeeze your fingers along the length of your hair (this is why I thought it was “rope scrunching” at first). I squeeze and hold for a second or two to encourage the definition.  To help get a bit of volume, I will push my scrunched fingers towards my hair part.  Again, try to use minimal mousse at this point! Do me a favor and let me know in the comments if this makes sense, or if you need more explanation. Thank you!

With anything left on my hands, I flip my head over and get the rest of the product off by applying to my base layer. Usually I don’t mind what the bottom layer looks like because no one really sees it, but it’s nice to have a cohesive definition. I then flip up and touch up.

Touch Up Time!

I then arrange my hair to lay how I want. Typically it stays pretty well, so taking this effort is worth it. Usually a little shake through the roots (very lightly or you will just create frizz) and smooth down on the lengths. Again, this is using minimal

A quick check. I THOUGHT I was done, but a pesky section wanted to stay straight. That’s a pretty common issue for wavy friends! Touching up isn’t too hard, so I’ll just show you a few pictures here. If you want a more detailed explanation on this please let me know.

All Done!

This is how my hair looks most days lately, and I’m totally cool with it. I rarely clip my roots because it just takes too much time. Cheers to you other lazy wavies.