Question of the day: How do you shape your ‘fro?**Update: And speaking of shaping afros….
***UPDATE*** I just saw this on one of my favorite sites, Le Coil. This is Sheena Moulton, a model with Models1 in London. (www.models1.co.uk)
Check out the shapes on these fros.
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Interesting question submitted by BGLHer Sharifa…
“I’m feeling bored with my afro, and I don’t want to straighten it with heat or a texturizer… I wanted to go the the barber and “shape” it. I see some of the photos on your site and the fros look so shaped and wicked! I wanted to get that style, but not sure what to ask for when I go to the shop.
I was also wondering if you had any examples, cause Google and Youtube are NOT helping me out. Just wondering, it’s nothing serious, but I’m getting awfully bored with the fro and the twist outs without any shape to them. I love my natural hair, but I want it to work with my own style and feel you know?”
Sharifa, I totally feel you. I did a round ‘fro the other day with the use of a medium-toothed comb. Unfortunately I did have some light breakage (my hair hates combs). But what about you guys? How do you guys shape your fros sans heat?
And those of you who use clippers/cuts to keep your fro lined up, please speak up!
Oh I am in the same boat right now, definitely looking forward to what advice people have.
So I randomly had my boyfriend shape my fro up the other day. I had picked it out and it was all lopsided. So I let him take it down some with the clippers. Now I don’t know if that is the correct way to shape your fro. But he shaped it up based upon the shape of my head. And I think any skilled barber would be able to do that and my bf is not a barber. I tried in the past getting it shaped with shears but it didn’t work.
OKKKKK….so I haven’t done it in a while, but in the summer once, I threw a bunch of random two strand twists in my head after a wash and took them out and had a wild twistout. After that, to shape it, I just lightly misted the ends with water. This made them shrink up a bit. Then I just do a lil pat pat and BAM! Rounded fro…no heat. HTH
I know what you mean! When I do wear my hair out, I let it do what it wants. I look at my hair, see how it feels and work from there with my creative juices.
I have found that styling my twists/braids a certain way helps shape my fro better when I do my braid/twist-outs. For example, when I style my twists with a center part – I get a great fro with a center part. Or, I’ll style my twists with side bangs towards the front and clip the other side back. My fro holds the same style. I’ll spray water on my hair to help “shape” it (really to let it draw up). Like I said, it does it’s own thing and I go with it. You can also try adding accesories like clips, flowers and headbands or add a twist/braid in the front and pinning it back to spice things up.
Actually, I’m wearing a very “shaped” ‘fro today so I like this topic! What I did this morning was spritz down my hair with a good amount of water. Not enough to make it sopping wet, but just enough to soften it. Then I took good amounts of coconut oil, rubbed it into my hands, and then rubbed it all through my hair. I don’t know how dry your hair can get, but my own can get VERY dry, so I made sure to apply good amounts of coconut oil and water.
This made my hair very easy to pick a comb through so that all the parts of my hair were nice and stretched. Lastly, I patted the ‘fro down a little bit just to make sure it was nice and round.
I hope this helps and I’m sure that with a little bit of experimentation, you’ll find a way to make that perfect ‘fro.
http://www.notlikereallife.blogspot.com
i so know the feeling..I was 3 months into my BC and newly natural..i get bored easily so I was not feeling the shape of my fro..i went to a barber shop and asked for a temp fade..he tapered the sides and back shaped the top a little..its cute! and im loving the way its growing out ;o)
I am going through the same dilemma!! My hair/fro has a horrible shape! I looked on Miss Jessie’s website and viewed some before and after pictures and most of the clients had their hair shaped using the angle/balance cut. I don’t have an idea what the angle/balance cut is but I plan on taking a copy of one of the pictures to a stylist and mentioning the technique to her. I hope this works, I’ll keep you posted!
Great Question, Sharifa!
I’ve Googled everything from “styled afro” to “sophisticated afro” to “elegant afro” to “shaped afro” in order to achieve (i.e., copy) the kind of tamed yet fierce look that I want for my thick natural hair, but nothing satisfactory ever surfaces from Google Images. Either images of men and women sporting high-top fades or runway-model-type crazy hairstyles pop up.
NOT feelin’ the high-top fade!
NOT in the vicinity of a runway!
And the round afros are just a tad too 1970s for me.
I’m pretty sure that the best way to shape a ‘fro would be to go get it done at a barber shop (as some folks here have already suggested), but since I’m not always wedded to a shape or a specific style (thanks a lot, mood swings!), I’ve been shaping my fro by patting down my hair “here” more than I pat it “there,” stretching the top part of my hair or just the entire left side of it, thereby creating an illusion of a side part. In that way the afro is not as severe as a faux hawk, not as round as a 70s fro, but somewhere in between. I wish I had pics. I don’t. But it’s kinda-sorta like this pic right here:
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg192/suigeneris1983/dara-marinho-4.jpg
Hair accessories help to give an afro different shapes too.
Good Luck!
I had my hair cut at a natural hair salon. The stylist blew it out then I had her take some of the length off the back and only trim the top. It was done in layers so that the shortest layer at the back of my neck was 1 inch, above it was longer until the longer length was on top about 6 inches. If I did it again I would have also asked her to do the same on the sides. This creates a rounded effect. I also like to wear head bands to pull the hair back from my face a little and create a rounded crown effect. If you have our hair professional cut find photos of the look you want and be very clear about how much length you want cut.
I love all the info you guys have given me. This is the second time in my adult life that i have grown my natural hair and i love it. I permed it about 3 years ago and hated it. I LOST MY MIND. Now that i cut it all off and have my fro back i feel like me.
But now its so long it wont stand on its own. I have to put a headband or something..lol.. but i will try the spritzing with water on the ends to shrink it.
I did find that for me, after washing it , and heavy grease i would put like small dukie plats and when i take them out the next day. I would have these sexy curls for like 3 days. SUPERSEXY. and im going to try the spritzing with water.. maybe it would last longer.
love le coil…thanks for sharing!
WOW! Her hair looks fantastic!
Sandy…that’s totally what I would do when I would wear the fro out, and it’s great, because my hair is, and always has been crazy lengths since going natural, so a perfectly shaped picked out fro is no option.
It also seems that the more compact you can keep your kinks ( if you’re 4-b-c ish) moist in an afro is super compacted.
But lately as far as fro…it does not even count, I’ve been wearing about 6-12 large box braids, baggying in the morning, taking saran wrap off, having the braids dry, unravel, and *BOOM*
perfect chunky fro that flops around.
I shape my hair by go to the barbor shop. I get a box cut. I think that’s what it’s called. my sides and back are cut low and the the top is high and shaped. For styling, I co-wash and then pick my hair out to re-create the shape.