Episode 5 of “What d’you mean you don’t brush it?” The podcast about curly and wavy hair.
A short episode on diffusing – that’s right.
Dylan @thecurlpusher
Lauren @lovecurlyhair_lauren
Ways to listen
Episode Transcript
DYLAN – What do you mean you don’t brush it?
LAUREN – The podcast about Curly and wavy hair with me, Lauren from Love Curly Hair
DYLAN – And me, Dylan Bray
LAUREN – Welcome to today’s episode. Today we’re doing a slightly shorter episode because
DYLAN – We’ve got to run for a bus
LAUREN – So today we’re going to be focusing on diffusing. So we’re just going to cover the one topic today
DYLAN – By the way, if you listened last week, Lauren was talking about her one cool thing was crispy cakes, which I’m now eating and it’s caught on. Everyone in Soho is doing it. Are you?
LAUREN – While Dylan eats that, I’m a curly hair Blogger and Dylan is a hairdresser who specializes in curly hair, so let’s get started
D – OK, so today we’re going to be talking about diffusing, which is a big, big topic and I love it. So, Lauren, you diffuse your hair regularly
L – I do, yeah
D – OK, talk us through your process. Oh, do you mind? Would it put you off if I the rest of this…
L – Please do. I’ll bring snacks every week. I don’t know if there is much of a process. I move my hair around quite a lot while I diffuse. I’ve actually taken to styling my hair when it’s damp rather than soaking wet. But I feel like we’ll talk about that another week. That means that my hair is already partially dry when I start diffusing it, I would say. So I’m not doing it from wet
D – When you say partially dry how dry?
L – It dries quite quickly
D – High porosity
L – High porosity, absolutely. So what I tend to do is apply leave-in conditioner and then I will plop my hair for about 10-15 minutes, then apply styling products and then diffuse. So it’s already had a chance to dry a little bit and I found that works better for me
D – Just in case anybody at home doesn’t know what plopping is, could you tell us about that? While I eat some more rice crispy cake
L – Wrapping your hair up
D – I’m not really
L – In a microfiber towel or a T-shirt to absorb some of the water and the way that you place your hair forwards into it also helps to encourage the curls as well because they sit on top of your head, sort of concertina down if you will, while they’re starting to dry. And then there are lots of different ways of tying it up onto your head afterwards, almost like a knotted handkerchief sort of thing. And you tie it all together. So by the time I get to diffusing my hair, it’s definitely already starting to dry
D – So how long would you leave that before you started diffusing?
L – 10-15 minutes, yeah, and then diffusing I tend to move my hair from side to side. Forwards a little bit. And I do tend to move the diffuser around quite a lot. But I’m definitely putting my hair into the diffuser cup and then pushing it up towards my head. I know you don’t do that, do you?
D – So I love diffusing. I think I have quite a philosophy on diffusing. It’s all about patience. I always say kind of treat it like it’s a meditation because if you follow these rules, it’ll work. And it’s a bit like a meditation. It takes as long as it takes. I never start from soaking wet. I don’t see the point. I would, certainly Squeeze the hair out
L – Yeah
D – So it’s manageable. Often I’ll use a leave-in condition and then a curl cream
L – Yeah
D – And I’ll work that through section by section. Get the product evenly distributed. Again, this takes a bit of patience. And then you want the hair away from the body. The hair away from the body would be with your head forward, with your head to the side. So your hair isn’t sitting on your shoulders with the head back. Really, you should be doing a combination of all that. As 360 as you can
L – Yeah
D – The better. And I always move the diffuser. I never keep the diffuser still. It’s quite hard. It’s because you’re describing a visual thing. Yeah, this is probably not the best thing for a podcast actually. Let’s talk about diffusing like on day two or after a refresh. Is that something you do?
L – Yes, it can be, yeah it varies. But sometimes I wet an area down and then add products, yeah, quite often diffuse that in as well. Just on a small area
D – What kind of area, which area would you
L – Well, I just sort of pull out a curl clump that’s gone a bit frizzy or straight or something. I don’t tend to do a big refresh. So a lot of people refresh their whole head of hair and
D – And how would they do that?
L – To do that, I mean you can spray water all over and then apply products all over diffuse again. And I feel like by the time you’ve done that, I mean that’s got to have taken you 20 minutes, half an hour. I don’t know. I’m sort of thinking you could just wash it again. So I’m very much about sorting out the occasional bit
D – How long would you expect it to take?
L – Maybe 20-25 minutes, something like that. Yes
D – On your head. Do you know anybody that? Because if a listeners listening to this, yeah, thinking I’ve been doing it for 25 minutes and it’s not dry…
L – I mean I was gonna say I feel that’s quite a short amount of time from what I’ve seen from other people
D – Yeah
L – I know there’s a lot of very funny things on Instagram about people… You know the various things that you do while you’re diffusing because it takes such a long time. I’m imagining like 45 minutes maybe average something like that
D – When I do a Curlaplex, which is my curl specialist treatment from applying product to finishing diffusing, I need at least 50 minutes, right? The important thing is it doesn’t have to be perfect all the time. I always say this to clients, walk around, people with straight hair. They’re not walking around with perfect hair
L – Yeah
D – They’re not working well with catwalk hair
L – Yeah, yeah
D – So just be sensible and be a little bit kind to yourself in that sense, but accept that it is going to take a bit of time and I think that actually makes it easier. Then you’re not fighting it. It turns out how it turns out
L – Yeah
D – At the end of the day
L – Yeah, yeah. There’s always next time
D – There’s always next time, and this time is never as bad as you think it is. You know, because there is that thing where I think particularly if you are, if you’re very self-conscious about transitioning, you think you are going to be the centre of attention everywhere and it’s just isn’t the case. Unfortunately. There was some experiment somewhere where they had a class of 50 people. Whoever was set in the test tried to work out the naffest pop T-shirt you could have. So they’ve got these students to go in wearing a Barry Manilow T-shirt
L – Right
D – The first, their first time in this class. And they asked them how they felt coming out of the class. Oh my God, everyone was staring at me, you know, I just felt so awkward. Yeah. And then they did interview the class. Yeah. And something like 5 to 7 people had noticed it
L – Right? Yeah
D – These people thought everybody staring and it’s fascinating. And The thing is, you’re not as important as you think you are. That’s not my point. My point is that a lot of times people will tell me about the hair and they’ll go, but what about this? And you go. I hadn’t even noticed that
L – Yeah. interesting
D – That looks alright. It’s OK. Yeah. That’s really. I feel like I’ve talked a lot
L – I know. I know you love diffusing. In fact, actually I was gonna say if you wanna see some really creative diffusing you should look on Dylan’s Instagram account. Some great pictures of you on there. Boy_meets_curl. You getting into some very creative positions while you’re diffusing hair
D – Yeah. Yeah
L – it’s not just for show, is it?
D – No it is
L – Oh
D – No, no it isn’t. Sometimes you have to leap through a flaming ring of fire
L – Contortion
D – The one where I’ve got my head in that lion’s mouth. I think he was just walking past and I saw an opportunity
L – Yeah, yeah, why not? Makes a good picture. There’s one other tip that I’ve started doing recently and I saw this on Instagram and it’s Curly Kiet which is Curly KIET. She diffuses her hair until it’s dry and then there’s a gel cast on there and instead of scrunching away the gel cast with your fingers as people would usually do, she actually goes back in with the diffuser and uses the diffuser to break it up. So once the hair is already dry
D – How?
L – By going in and kind of doing the diffusing action, but maybe doing it a little bit faster because your hair is actually dry and I don’t know if the heat helps to get rid of the cast, I’m not actually sure, but it helps with the bounce and the volume. I find that’s a really nice way to remove a gel cast. Yeah. I’ve had some really good results from doing that. So I think that’s quite good little trick
D – That is a good trick. That’s something that I will often do a lot. I will bounce the curl
L – Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think sometimes actually do that almost. Instead of refreshing. Yeah. Livens it up again somehow. It just gives it a bit of extra…
D – And would you shake the curl?
L – Not with the diffuser, I don’t think
D – No, but with your hands?
L – . Yeah, I have done it with my hands. Yeah, I don’t mind the curls kind of not that defined and broken up and a bit fluffier
D – See, this is something that I think, you know, like we mentioned that there seemed to be a little bit of a swing against the Curly Person Method. And I feel that an appreciation of friction, we won’t say, frizz, no, an appreciation of friction is something that’s come in
L – Yeah, yeah
D – Back and big, which I think is really exciting
L – You know, people will be doing next, don’t you?
D – Crimping it?
L – Well I was going to say brushing it
D – Well, I think that is getting
L – Yeah. Yeah
D – Brushing. But OK, that’s a good point, actually. Because the reason we call this what do you mean you don’t brush it is not that you should never brush curly hair, because if you understand curly hair and you brush it, that’s a look. We’re talking about the people who think you can’t walk out without your hair brushed
L – Yeah
D – That’s right. But people should because you get quite disco hair if you
L – Yeah, I’ve done that. I love it. It’s a great look
D – Fantastic. What do you mean you brush it?
L – Yeah. Keep brushing it. Yeah
D – What do you mean you’ve stopped brushing?
L – Yeah. We should do an episode actually called that, I reckon
D – Is that going to be a mini episode? Or a really
L – Really extra long. Three hour episode
D – To make up for this one. Yes. Anyway, I’ve gotta go for the bus. OK. So thank you so much Lauren, for hosting, allowing me to be your co-host on. What do you mean you keep on brushing it?
L – If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to like and subscribe and review. Tell your friends, tell strangers. And don’t forget to mention the curly person method
D – And next week we will be back, and we have a guest, haven’t we? We have got a guest. Very exciting. Shall we tell them?
L – Yeah
D – We’ll see you next week when we have the founder of On;y Curls joining us, Lizzie Carter. So that should be pretty exciting. What do you think, Lauren?
L – I can’t wait. It’s gonna be great
D – And remember that you can catch us wherever you get your podcasts and all good subscription movie channels. And if you want to talk to me, then you can find me on Instagram at love curly hair_Lauren. Now leave me alone!