Spinny: Afro Puff Prep and Maintanence

[SoopremeBeing]

Hi all! I wanted to make a spinny thread from Jrsmith 's thread earlier today. I wanted to get more information about the Afro puff.

I have been transitioning for almost two years, and I can never get my Afro Puff right. I think my mistake is blow-drying my hair after I air dry. Its too straight to be a Puff.

How does one prepare their hair for a Puff properly? Or direct me to a previous thread if this has been discussed already?

 

[Lylddlebit]

I rarely wear my hair like this but when I do it just for a day to minimize tangles. When my hair is in a puff or fro at the very beginning or end of the style. Day before or wash day itself.

On straightened hair: I load my hair with water based moisturizers on everything except the ends and perimeter(so the edges look neat) then I pull my hair back with a band(for the fro with headband or ponytail) and put in big twist until almost dry. Once my hair is Very close to dry I take the twists out then comb through once with a wide tooth comb to shape.

On natural hair before wash day. I detangle hair then pull back with a band.

On wash day: Allow twists to become almost dry then shape with one pull through of a wide tooth comb. (sometimes I can make the perimeter straighter with a blow dryer, or flat on on dry hair)

 

[Poohbear]

After washing, conditioning, detangling, and towel/air drying your hair, you could put your hair in two strand twists and then wrap your twists around flexirods, perm rods, or rollers. After your hair is completely dry, take out the rods or rollers and unravel the twists, then fluff the curls with your fingers. Then apply your headband or ponytail holder to create the afro puff that your want. Hope that helps!!!

 

[NappyNelle]

I airdry in braids with moisturizer, then wear my puff. I make sure that my ends are lubricated.

 

[Nonie]

I airdry in braids with moisturizer, then wear my puff. I make sure that my ends are lubricated.

Ditto!

I have also combed out a puff immediately after washing my hair when I had to go to work. Hair combs as easily as it does with conditioner on when I apply S Curl to towel dried hair. So after using my "Power to the People Fist Pick" I use a large friendly elastic to push hair back...and as it slides back it gets bigger so I twist it under the puff at the nape and lift it over the puff to overlap itself. When I do a puff on damp hair like this, shrinkage is to a max and I get a very tiny puff--which my boss thought was very neat and becoming. Also apply S Curl No Drip Activator to damp hair leads to hair drying very hard. But that doesn't bother me coz no one is touching it and it looks cute. This is what I get when I do this:

At the end of the day, I just take out the elastic and then using fingers I section out a small section and spray it with S Curl to soften. I then stretch it out with one hand as the other guides a comb through the stretched out strands. Combing is as easy as thishttp://youtu.be/VCcoXph8tF4 once the S Curl is applied to that section. I then braid it up so it can stay detangled as I work on another section. If the section I did is too skinny a braid for easy undoing, then I will section out a bit more and soften it the same way so that I end up braiding a fairly good sized braid that I can undo with fingers easily.

Once all the hair is moisturized/softened again and in braids. I baggy for the night using plastic bag, plastic cap or Saran wrap.

In the morning, I take off cap and may let may hair airdry a bit so it has a bit of stretch coz if you undo it wet it will shrink up more (BTW you can't avoid shrinkage with S Curl but it'll be a lot less with each subsequent braiding.) I then undo the braids stretching combing through, then repeat the puff creation as before. This time the puff is a little bigger and fluffier, but still shrunken:

If you use a product that isn't wet like S Curl, something like an oil, then you would not get shrinkage like I get but you would still be able to create a puff. This was a puff created not using S Curl the same week I created the very shrunken one you saw first above:

​

I don't have to apply S Curl every day (nor any leave-in for that matter) when I'm baggying nightly. My hair combs easily every morning. I just make sure I comb and braid it at night. All this combing happens without snags and with the ease you saw in the video where my hair had conditioner on it. By making sure my hair ALWAYS detangled (before styling and before putting it to bed), I never need to detangle. Combing is how I ensure detangling never becomes a task I need to add to my regimen.​

 

[MzSwift]

Yeah, heat makes my hair floppy as well. I had never tried to do a puff when I was relaxed/texlaxed so I dunno how you'd get your relaxed ends to curl well. Maybe you could do a perm rod or straw set on your hair and then fluff that out to make a good puff.

GL!