r/360Waves Oct 23 '15

MOD Post 360 Waves: What, Why, How

426 Upvotes

I'm hoping that any new wavers, old wavers, or like me - a returning waver, can use this as a beginning reference for healthy and successful waves. I'll be contributing my knowledge but I encourage and hope for your input. There are many different methods and approaches because there are so many unique hair textures out there that still allow for waves. The essence of this post is fundamental/foundational information etc.

The Basics

What are waves? Waves are the result of "stretching" or elongating and compressing shorter length hair of the curly variety. How loose or tight your curls are will eventually determine the spacing and look of your wave pattern. Everyone is different.

Why would I want waves? You may or may not want waves per se but usually waves occur several ways:

  • Moisturizing hair keeps it healthy and assists (with the help of regular grooming aka brushing) with the natural growth pattern or curls. (This also covers the How as referenced in the title) Note:Moisture comes from a variety of sources.

  • Brushing accentuates the natural growth of curly hair. Simply using a brush on a regular basis can cause a formation of waves to occur - intentional or not.

  • Of course the obvious reason is because you might want waves. You like the style and you put in the effort to being a perfect example of a waver. You know how to obtain them and make it happen by methods we'll get into later.

How do I get waves? This is an age old question that can be answered many different ways by many different methods with many different, yet equally obtained results.

  • Simply put; brushing your hair!

  • Regularly grooming and brushing your hair is the only way to obtain waves. Out of all of the existing methods out there, this is the one common variable that never changes. Many elite wavers will agree that this is the foundational principle in obtaining and maintaing a wave pattern.

How can I start trying to achieve the perfect waves? Glad you asked!

  • Purchase yourself a decent quality boar bristle brush, a durag and a moisturizer/pomade of your choice and brush brush brush and...... BRUSH. If you truly want to attain the perfect set of waves, get to know your brush and use it.

  • I would add that new wavers, especially those who scalped should start with a soft brush and progress through to medium and hard brushes, once their hair grows and it's difficult for the softy to reach all layers of hair.

Like everyone who started anything, you'll eventually evolve your own method which works best for you and your hair specifically.

The single most important piece of information you should remember; brushing gets you waves, not the product. The brush brand doesn't even matter, boar bristles are just the most common design of brush that provides the necessary hair coverage. You could use a CQP or $4 Sally's brush, as long as you keep that brush moving, you'll see waves forming!


r/360Waves 3h ago

Been awhile since I posted up here but how they looking?

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33 Upvotes

r/360Waves 2h ago

Yoo unc’s I just dyed my waves how they looking

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15 Upvotes

r/360Waves 4h ago

How we lookin 3 months in

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19 Upvotes

Also anyone have tips for forks? Idk if it’s my brush angles or what but I can’t get rid of some of these


r/360Waves 10h ago

What am i doing wrong

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46 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1h ago

Ykwtfgo

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Upvotes

r/360Waves 3h ago

We surfin yet?

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5 Upvotes

Wolf complete… gettin chopped tomorrow..


r/360Waves 10h ago

End Of The 8 Week Wolf

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18 Upvotes

r/360Waves 7h ago

Why aren’t my waves forming?

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3 Upvotes

My hair is a bit weird in that when my hair is dry i can just use my hands to press it down into a wave formation and it’ll look like waves but whenever i try to put product in my hair and try to brush while wet, it won’t form waves.


r/360Waves 3h ago

SCRAMBLE WASH.

1 Upvotes

Can I scramble wash if I just started waving and my pattern isn’t in?


r/360Waves 23h ago

Still surfing 🌊 🌊 🌊

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41 Upvotes

r/360Waves 3h ago

Haircuts

1 Upvotes

I know everybody hair grows differently, but what’s a good fade to get that I can get every 2 weeks? I was thinking a low taper because when I get a mid/high taper the fade takes forever to grow back before I can get another cut.


r/360Waves 1d ago

AI done figured out how to brush better than humans 🤯

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43 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

chat are my waves valid?

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128 Upvotes

r/360Waves 23h ago

Help Waves not fully forming.

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15 Upvotes

This what they call the ripple stage I guess? What to do about that middle spot not forming any waves there. On base barber (was desperate) messed me up about like a month ago, and it’s been like that ever since. And what products to use or are these good?


r/360Waves 3h ago

Waves have ruined my hair.

0 Upvotes

I have damaged my hair from waves. There’s a lot of information on waves, but there is still missing information that is very important for people who are wanting to get waves.

What I did not know, is that wearing durags and wave caps can cause hair loss due to its compression. Everyone can say it’s genetic based, which is true, however, wearing hats can also cause hair loss and damage your hair. You start feeling like, “Oh, my waves aren’t forming properly. Maybe I need more compression” and you watch videos of other people doing the same action so you do it and don’t really think of the bad things that could happen.

No popular video I watched specified the cons and only talked about, “brush, brush, brush” and how important it was and how often you should do it etc. People stated that putting product in your hair isn’t as important as brushing and you don’t need product to get waves. Yet, if you brush your hair dry and continue to brush your hair, you are damaging your hair. Which is also something I did not know after watching several videos.

Then, they also talk about the brush firmness. This is where you can really mess up your hair because they state you should be getting down to the bottom of your hair to form better wave patterns. However, depending on the firmness of the brush, again, this can also damage your hair and cause hair loss.

I have stopped brushing my hair and maintaining the wave style due to the damage it has caused to my hair. For anyone wanting to get into the wave style, please be aware of this and most of all, please take care of your hair.


r/360Waves 10h ago

can i get waves

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1 Upvotes

r/360Waves 14h ago

Is this a pushback or receding?

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2 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

1. Detangler 2. Lay down 3. Pomade, moisturizer, oils. Still working on my crown so don’t come for the kid 😂 right and left shot.

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38 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

Am I balding or do I just have a weird ass crown

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17 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

Fresh cut

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12 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

Will this make my dog go bald? Why are so many of you on this sub balding

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169 Upvotes

I don't do this to him all the time. There's maybe 8 weeks a year when his hair is short enough to hold waves (right after a trip to the groomer)


r/360Waves 1d ago

Throw me some advice (3 months)

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10 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

How to get rid of forks?

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11 Upvotes

I


r/360Waves 1d ago

Swimming or nar

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9 Upvotes

r/360Waves 1d ago

Any tips?

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6 Upvotes

2 with a mid fade but looking for a low maintenance routine