Choosing the best men’s hair products for your long curly mane
The Internet’s biggest guide on long curly hair for men would be devoid of its title if it didn’t include a comprehensive section on hair products for those folks with long waves, coils and kinks. Hence, it only makes sense to now talk about long-hair products for curly men since the previous sections on this guide have covered everything else that is needed to sport a great-looking head of long curls.
Earlier on I mentioned a golden rule of thumb when it comes to growing curly hair long: to not get a haircut until you achieve your desired hair-length goal. Well, here’s now a (golden) rule of thumb when it comes to using products for curly men: keep it simple!
As a long-haired guy with curly hair you have three stages of daily grooming that you have to go through and for which you use any given hair products: when you shampoo your curly hair, when you condition your curly hair and when you style your curly hair.
- Shampoo your long curly hair: this is the first thing that you do to your hair on a daily basis. Jump in the shower, wet your hair and shampoo your hair as you make sure that the lather penetrates your curls so as to cover your scalp.
- Condition your long curly hair: once you’ve finished shampooing your curly mane, you then rinse the shampoo off your hair and proceed to immediately coat your curls with a good hair conditioner. The conditioner is left on your hair for two minutes (while you continue bathing or showering) and then you rinse out the conditioner. That’s how you use a conditioner and you, as a curly dude with long hair (or a growing mane) will benefit tremendously from using a conditioner on your hair if you aren’t already using one (or if you aren’t using it as described in this guide).
- Style your long curly hair: it’s here where you can use a plethora of hair-styling products for curly hair. From hair gel to hair mousse, you can use any products that you want so long as they are curly-hair friendly. Fear not, however, for I will explain such curly-hair-friendly products later on in this section.
It’s imperative that you fully understand the daily grooming process (i.e. routine) for men’s curly hair as described above. This is something that you cannot skip if you’re looking to own the best head-turning set of long curls and regardless of which of the many long curly hairstyles that you decide to pursue as a curly-haired male. Plus this isn’t difficult at all nor is it inconvenient; just make sure that you’re shampooing your hair every day, following the shampoo with a conditioner and then styling your hair with a range of curl-friendly products.
Other than this guide specific to (long) curly-hair products, I highly recommend that you read the hair-product guides and books of Rogelio Samson from the website Manlycurls.com as Rogelio Samson has been the pioneer of curly hair for men and he has championed and published all on curly men’s hair. Related to this guide on men’s products for long curly hair, you can also study Rogelio Samson’s guide on hair products for men as his guide too is an excellent reading reference for curly guys growing their curls longer and looking for the best curly hair products.
With the same advice that you will find on this guide and with the understanding of the aforementioned curly-hair grooming routine, I’ve seen massive, prompt improvements on our curly-haired (barbershop) customers who have followed such a grooming routine and advice on curly-hair products.
This is due to men’s curly hair reacting very positively to correct grooming changes as published above and all throughout this guide. Implementing all of that you will be learning on this guide will totally transform your curls and yourself; I’ve seen it too many times to not be 100% sure about this!
So, after emphasizing the need for a correct (albeit-simple) daily grooming routine, it’s now that we’re going to go through the curly-hair products for men that ought to be in your hair-grooming arsenal.
Shampoo for Long Curly Hair
The best shampoo for curly hair is one that is moisturizing and that doesn’t dry out the hair too much. Thus, looks for the words “moisturizing” or “replenishing” in a shampoo’s label to know that you’re getting a good one for your curly hair.
There’s also a minor trend going on about shampoos that do not contain sulfate-based ingredients. In my opinion and that of many of my barber colleagues, sulfate-free shampoos are next to useless for men’s hair due to sulfate-free shampoos not being strong enough to cleanse the scalp and hair.
As of today, I’ve yet to see any sulfate-free shampoo that works conveniently on men’s hair, so there really is no real benefit to using these types of shampoos over regular shampoos. That isn’t to say that there may be, in due time, a good sulfate-free shampoo that actually cleans men’s hair, and, if I ever find one through my testing of men’s hair products, I will certainly let you know. Until then, use a moisturizing shampoo for your curly hair and call it a day.
Conditioner for Long Curly Hair
Conditioners are some very-useful products for curly-haired males, whether they have short hair, medium-length hair or long hair.
Conditioners improve the shape of your curls and add a natural shine to your mane that no other hair product can provide. Not just that, but conditioners lubricate the shaft of your curly-hair strands which means that tangles and hair knots are minimized. Moreover, conditioners can and should be used to detangle long curly hair as well as undo any hair knots that may have formed.
According to Rogelio Samson, hair conditioners for men are of the utmost importance for those males with curly hair and/or long hair; I fully agree with this statement and I strongly recommend that you always have a good hair conditioner at home.
There are three types of conditioners for curly men that you, as a long-haired dude, need to know of:
- Rinse-out conditioners: these are the aforementioned conditioners that are applied to your hair for two minutes right after rinsing out your shampoo. As the name implies, rinse-out conditioners are too rinsed out once the two minutes have passed. Rinse-out conditioners must always be used every time that you shampoo you hair.
- Deep conditioners: these are super-strong conditioners that are left on your hair for fifteen minutes instead of the more-traditional two minutes of rinse-out conditioners. Think of deep conditioners as hyper-concentrated rinse-out conditioners that need to be used for a longer application time on your hair in order to yield a potent conditioning effect. Deep conditioners can be used anywhere from once per month to once per week for long curly hair.
- Leave-in conditioners: unlike deep conditioners, leave-in conditioners are the diluted form of rinse-out conditioners. As the name rightfully implies, leave-in conditioners are meant to be left on your hair and not rinsed out unlike rinse-out conditioners and deep conditioners. Furthermore, leave-in conditioners can be used to loosely style long curly hair, which makes leave-in conditioners behave as both hair-conditioning products and hair-styling products.
I recommend that you always have a rinse-out conditioner at hand, while a leave-in conditioner is always good to have to style your long curls down (i.e. have them hanging down and dangling).
Deep conditioners are optional for the most part, although they’re always a good add-on type of product as you will benefit from the extra hair-conditioning oomph provided by deep conditioners no matter how long your curly hair may be or what your curly-hair type may be.
Styling Products for Long Curly Hair
It’s a big error to think of hair-styling products as magic potions that will offer you the Nirvana of curly hair. Seriously, most of our barbershop customers think of styling products as such magic potions when the reality could not be any farther. Hair-styling products will make your hair look good, but if you’re using a shampoo and a conditioner as intended correctly as per this guide, only then will you achieve that lustrous mane of curls that you’ve been dreaming of for a long time. Put it this way, folks, hair-styling products alone won’t give you that dreamy curly mane that will have people turning their heads to!
Right, so we’ve covered shampoos for curly hair and conditioners curly hair, it’s time now to cover those hair-styling products for curly men that will put the icing on the cake to a good grooming routine.
Hair gel
Hair gel helps your curls achieve a hardened look that can have a high-shine effect or a dry-looking effect. You can modulate the amount of shine or hardness of your curls by using a specific type of hair gel (e.g. a high-shine hair gel) and by controlling the dampness of your curly mane prior to applying the hair gel. The damper the hair, the higher the shine and wet-effect that you will achieve.
For your long curly mane, do only use light-hold hair gels and medium-hold hair gels (also known as “firm-hold” gels). Avoid strong-hold hair gels.
Hair mousse
Hair mousse will give you a high-shine effect with better-shaped curls, so it goes without saying that owning a hair-mouse product is highly recommended for curly hair. Hair-mousse products have a firm hold which means that you can style your hair up and with volume; an example of a hairstyle that benefits greatly from hair mousse is the Jim-Morrison hairstyle.
Styling cream
Styling creams provide a high-shine effect with a low hold, which is beneficial for those of you curly dudes looking for a high-shine look with dangling locks. Styling creams are most suited for trendy long hairstyles that require the curls to be parted to the side or slicked back.
Leave-in conditioner
The conditioning properties of leave-in conditioners are highly contrasted, as so are their styling properties. Leave-in conditioners have no holding strength whatsoever and give a natural medium-shine effect to men’s curly hair. Thus, leave-in conditioners are highly recommended for long hairstyles that don’t need to be secured in place; most hairstyles that have the hair down and dangling will do very well when styled with a leave-in conditioner.
By the same token, up-do hairstyles that have the hair tied, such as the man bun hairstyle, do also benefit greatly from leave-in conditioners.
Natural oils and butters
Natural oils and butter behave very similarly to leave-in conditioners in that they condition the hair but can also be used as styling products; both natural oils and butters make for great products to use when implementing your very-own hair care and grooming routine since having well-conditioned hair is part of what constitutes having “healthy lustrous curls”.
With regards to hair-styling, natural oils and butters have no holding strength either, so they’re recommended for loosely-styled hairstyles too.
Some great natural oils and butters for long curly hair are olive oil (choose “extra-virgin” olive oil where possible), argan oil, coconut butter and shea butter.
Please bear in mind that using natural oils and buttes to style or conditioning your hair can rapidly go south as you use too much without noticing it. A couple of dabs or drops will suffice for styling your long curly mane with natural butters and oils.
Hair spray
Up until the early 2000s, I would not have recommend hair sprays for men’s curly hair, let alone long curly hair (for men). No way. Hair sprays used to be hair-punishing products that would leave long curly hair looking and feeling like cardboard and which would also leave so much residue on the scalp that you’d spent half of your next day cleaning your hair as if your life depended on it.
No so anymore, thankfully.
Good hair sprays nowadays provide a natural shine to your curls while enhancing their curved shape and locking them into any hairstyle that you so wish. Not to mention that present-day hair sprays do not leave much residue and are thus easy to clean off your scalp; simply shampooing your hair will remove the hair-spray residue off your scalp, whereas twenty years ago you’d have to use several shampoos on your curls to get the nasty residue out.
Whatever you do, make sure that you choose a hair spray that emphasizes the flexibility of your hair and the volume of your hair (yes, they do state so in the product’s label), as these hair sprays will give you the best bang for your buck when it comes to styling those lustrous long curls of yours.
Wide-tooth comb
Wide-tooth combs are almost essential to curly men looking to style their curls in a myriad of side-parted and slicked-back styles. Wide-tooth combs also function as de-facto detangling tools (as explained earlier in this guide), so owning a good wide-tooth comb is a no-brainer for curly folks.
For the record, never use a hair brush (depicted below on the left) to comb, style and/or untangle your long curly mane as you’ll destroy your lustrous waves, coils or kinks in no time! Rather, stick to using a good-quality wide-tooth comb as depicted below on the right.
Ideally, you should purchase a wide-tooth comb that is made of long-lasting durable materials like the different wood materials used in the high-end wide-tooth combs. Plastic wide-tooth combs will break or chip easily, while a wide-tooth comb made of wood, plant-based materials or other durable materials will last you an eternity.
High-end wide-tooth combs are not expensive either, and, considering that they will outlive any type of plastic wide-tooth combs, it’s thus a good idea to purchase and use a good high-end wide-tooth comb to style and detangle our curly mane!
Hair accessories
Hair accessories become a necessity once your curly hair grows longer than six inches. Your curls will puff up and out, hang low in weird shapes (as you go through the awkward-hair stage) and there will also be times when you just want to keep your hair tied or pulled back for convenience. Hair accessories will also spice up your hairstyling looks as they serve as styling adornments to customize your own curly-hair look.
There are several types of hair accessories for men, let’s go through each one of them:
- Hair bands: also known as hair elastics or hair ties, hair bands will allow you to tie your hair into a ponytail, manbun, topknot and man braids, among many other up-do tied hairstyles. They’re very easy to lose, so always buy a bunch of them (i.e. dozens) any time that you go shopping for them.
- Scrunchies: these are the same as hair bands, only that they have vivid patterns, color and designs for decorative purposes.
- Headbands: these are useful hair accessories that allow you to style you hair back in different shapes, from high-volume styles to long slicked-back styles. Headbands are placed around the top of your head, going from the forelock (i.e. front of the head) and circulating around the sides of your scalp towards the low area of the back of your head. As with hair bands, headbands are very easy to lose, so always have a couple of them around just in case.
- Bandanas: these are textile accessories that are used as headbands but which usually have designs and are thicker. Since they are thicker, they can be used to cover all of the scalp or be left as mere back-styling headbands.
- Dorags: these are hair accessories that cover all of the scalp and which have a main hair-care objective as they protect one’s growing curls from the elements. Dorags are great men’s hair accessories when growing your curly mane and they’re also cheap, so there’s no reason to not have a couple of them at hand. Dorags have also been used as fashion accessories due to their bold appearance.
- Bobby pins: most men are unaware of the superb benefit that bobby pins bring to the table for long-haired males. Bobby pins allow you to pinch your hair and tame it when the rest of hair-styling products will simply not do. Bobby pins are also very discreet hair accessories, so you can use more than one at the same time on your curly mane and they’ll go unnoticed for the most part.
Concluding our guide on products for men with long curly hair
Instead of spending copious amounts of money on hair-styling products that will get you nowhere with your curly mane, all that you simply need is this guide and a place where you can buy your selected products (I tend to recommend buying online as it’s usually cheaper).
It’s crazy how so many curly-haired folks are so lost when the time comes to buy good men’s long hair products for their curly tresses. Luckily, the massive amounts of widespread misinformation regarding men’s curly hair are being replaced at a fast pace with the right amounts of (correct) information and knowledge that is needed to turn one’s curly mane into one’s own manly muse (so to speak!).
As always, questions are welcomed on this guide, so feel free to ask anything that is even remotely related to men’s products for long curly hair.
Last updated: 25th July 2020
This is the fifth part to our Long Curly Hair Guide – Please visit now the sixth part to this guide: Concluding Our Guide on Long Curly Hair.