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Some like it short, and some like it long – the choice is yours. But for those who prefer short curly hairstyles or shrinkage over longer stretched curls, styles for your hair can seem limited. Don’t worry, I have four simple style ideas that embrace shrinkage.

Before we get started we need to understand what shrinkage is. For tight kinky curly hair, shrinkage is actually an indicator that your curls are in good condition. If you were to wet your hair then pull a curl away from your head and it sprung effortless back into place without breakage that is an indication that your hair is healthy, well moisturized and full of elasticity. FACT: Shrinkage can hide up to 90% of your hair length, so don’t be fooled by the actual length of your hair.

1. Wash and Go
I like to call this “The Usual Suspect”. It is the go-to style for most curlies that embrace shrinkage. How do you achieve a great wash-and-go? Well first you wash and condition your hair. Next, apply a generous amount of leave-in conditioner to dripping wet hair, use a styler such as Curl Keeper to help control the frizz and finish with Gel to better define your curls. After applying all your styling products, just SHAKE IT! Shake your curls, back and forth, side to side, to separate your curls. Last step is the drying process. There are three things you can do during this step: 1. Let your hair air dry – Recommended. 2. Sit under a hair dryer on a cool/low heat medium setting for at least 30 minutes. 3. Use a diffuser to help diffuse hair and speed up the drying process.

2. Pompadour Puff
This cute hairstyle is great for those with medium to long curly hair who work-out often and prefer to keep their hair up and away from their neck and clothing. This simple hairstyle requires four to six hair pins to pin your pompadour into place and a hair tie to tie your curls back into a ponytail puff.

3. Modified Fauxhawk
This is a personal favourite. Certain hairstyles look better on shorter hair and this is one of them. As someone with medium-long hair who constantly likes to go between longer hairstyles and shorter hairstyles, this style has become my go to hairstyle for when I want to style my shrinkage. This style is best achieved on freshly washed and conditioned hair. For this hairstyle you will need hair pins and a hair band. This hair style is achieved in three easy steps: 1. Gather hair on top of head using a hair tie. 2. Adjust head band to desired fullness. 3. Secure head band in place using hair pins. Tip: Reapply water to reactivate the product in your hair to better bring out your curls.

4. Accessorize: Head wrap + Curly Bang
Are you looking for a stylish alternative and want to achieve a casual or sophisticated look, this may be the style you’re looking for? The fun part about using head wraps is no matter the length of your curly hair there is a suitable and stylish way to style your head wrap. One way of styling a head wrap with shrinkage is by adding a (kinky) curly bang. In order to achieve this hairstyle simply section the front portion of your curls to your desired fullness and leave this section out. Then wrap the head wrap in the desired style around the remaining back portion of your hair.

Styling your shrinkage has never been this easy! Tell us how you style your shrinkage.