I chanced upon a new routine on curl talk (by Naturallycurly.com) for wavy hair type called ‘Scrunch n Pump‘. As per the discussion in the original thread, this method enhances clumps in wavy hair. Here are the steps and a short demo to show how to ‘Scrunch n Pump’ and also check how you can customize this method after the video.
- Wash your hair with shampoo/cowash. Detangle hair with conditioner.
- Rinse hair by leaving some conditioner in hair (check my conditioner clumping video.)
- Coat your palms with the gel (use good amount of it).
- Scrunch the gel in your hair and keep holding it near scalp and pump (squeeze) hair 8 times as shown in the video below. You will hear the ‘squish’ sound while squeezing. As mentioned in the article, doing it 8 times helps in distributing the gel. You can see in the demo below how it creates clumps. Repeat it on all sections of hair.
- Once you are done applying gel either plop (if plop works for you) or diffuse hair to create volume and maintain clumps and avoid hair falling flat. You can use diffuser at cool setting to avoid heat. Check here how to plop and diffuse.
The main idea of this method is to scrunch hair gently and squeeze hair (which is called pump here) for 8 times and avoid over scrunching hair again and again which might break your clumps.
The key point as I always say in any method is, your hair should be
- Very wet
- Use enough product to create/enhance clumps.
- Make sure to cover all hair.
Whatever method you follow, these are the most basic mistakes which we need to rectify.
Always try to customize a routine by experimenting with the way you apply your styling products. For example, you can customize the above routine and add more styling products and apply them either with praying hand (as explained below) or may experiment with scrunch-in all the styling products or rake-in too followed by scrunching hair this way.
- Wash your hair with shampoo/cowash. Detangle hair with conditioner.
- Rinse off your conditioner by massaging the scalp so that it remains clean. Whenever you do it, most of the conditioner is washed away. That’s why we apply it again in step 3.
- Apply rinse off conditioner again on hair (not on scalp, always try to keep your scalp clean from products) and rake it in. You must have noticed in the video above that hair is clumped before applying the gel. Because conditioner and water together help hair to clump. So, raking here won’t separate clumps.
- Apply a leave-in conditioner with praying hand, if you need more conditioning. You can skip one of the conditioner (in step3 or leave-in conditioner) if it is too heavy for your hair.
- Apply gel with praying hand if you feel that scrunching the gel in as per the original method above is not able to cover all hair properly. Make sure to use good amount of conditioner and gel.
- Lastly, scrunch hair gently and keep holding it near scalp and pump (squeeze) hair for few times (as shown in the video above). You should hear the squish sound that means your hair is wet enough. Repeat it on all sections of hair. No need to scrunch hair again and again as it will break the clumps.
- Once you are done applying gel either plop (if plop works for you) or diffuse hair to create volume and maintain clumps. You can use diffuser at cool setting to avoid heat. Check here how to plop and diffuse.
If you have wavy hair, then try it in your next wash and give your feedback whether it worked for you or not. If you have curly hair then you can try this method as well. Although with curly hair you can follow any method and it all works perfectly fine.
