“They have to learn to stop touching their hair,” says Torch, who recommends his Curl Keeper because it dries with a clean feel. “And use the best products. It takes so long to acquire length. You don’t want to have to cut your hair to keep it healthy.”
Although curly men in the corporate world, like CEOs and lawyers, are less likely to want too much length, they still need a product that controls the curl, according to Christo, curl expert and Global Artistic Director of New York’s Christo Fifth Avenue salon.
“These men also want simplicity,” says Christo. “They won’t sit down and do a hair masque.”
Christo currently is developing products for what he calls more of a “sports line.” The line will include a treatment shampoo and crème conditioner that men will only have to leave in for one or two minutes.
“They won’t have to wait like ten minutes to do their treatment,” Christo explains. “Since men usually have shorter hair than women, they can do a treatment in two minutes and it works.”
Curl experts say men have to realize it will take at least some effort to care for their curls, but likely not as much as they think. Take Angel Rodriquez, who lives in the hustle and bustle of New York City. As a personal trainer, he’s always on the go and still manages to keep his raven curls in control.
“It’s just a little hard to handle because for men, we have to get used to it and make it part of our daily routine, like shaving,” Rodriguez says. “But it’s just an extra few minutes, and that doesn’t hurt anyone.”
The dilemma for Rodriguez is he’s growing out his curls, and it’s the waiting process that has started to test his patience. To help him get through it, Curl guru Lorraine Massey brought him into her Devachan Salon in New York to demonstrate a few styling tricks.
“Since Angel is a personal trainer, he’s working out and probably sweating too, so just a funky stretchy headband—especially in the same color as his hair—would look pretty cool,” Massey says. “Then, when you take it out, there’s a trellis effect and it will start to train his hair to go back, especially if he has gel in it.”
