What to look at
Look at when the frizz appears. If it is there as soon as your hair dries, the cause is usually on wash day: how wet your hair was, how much hold you used and how you dried it. If curls dry smooth and frizz later, humidity, sleeping on cotton or touching during the day are more likely.
Look at where it is. Frizz on the top layer only often means the top got less product or more friction. Frizz all over often means styler went on hair that was already drying.
Change one thing on your next wash
Pick one and keep the rest of your routine the same:
- Put leave-in and styler on before your hair starts to dry, in the shower if you can, as wet as their labels ask: soaking wet for some, damp for others.
- Add a gel over your leave-in, or use more of the gel you have, for a firmer hold.
- Blot with a T-shirt or microfiber towel instead of rubbing.
- Don’t touch your hair until it is completely dry; then scrunch out the gel cast.
- Diffuse on low heat and low airflow, or let it air-dry, rather than blasting it.
- Sleep on a satin pillowcase or in a satin bonnet.
Humidity, dew point and frizz
Relative humidity says how close the air is to holding all the water vapor it can at its current temperature, so the same percentage means much less moisture on a cold day than on a hot one. The dew point is the temperature the air would have to cool to before it is saturated: the higher the dew point, the more moisture is in the air. The National Weather Service’s own example: 30°F with a dew point of 30°F is 100% relative humidity, while 80°F with a dew point of 60°F is only 50%, yet the 80° day is the muggier one. When you want to know how much moisture is in the air, the dew point in your weather app is the better number.
Hair takes up water from the air and gives it back as the humidity changes, and in lab tests bleached and permed hair did this differently from untreated hair (Breakspear and others, 2022). No one has measured a dew point above which curls frizz, so we don’t give one. A humectant such as glycerin on a label isn’t a rule for humid days either: the register lists what an ingredient is used for, not how a finished product behaves in the weather.
What does help is your own record. Note the temperature and dew point beside each wash, change one thing at a time, and look at whether your frizz follows the dew point. If it does, save the firmer gel or the smoothing step for those days.
Your weather and frizz notes
Add a line on wash day with the numbers from your weather app. They stay on this device and are never sent to us. After a few washes, sort by dew point and see whether your frizz follows it.
Your washes
No notes yet. Your first wash appears here, and you can add one for an earlier day by changing the date.
| Day | Air | Dew point | Humidity | Hair | Notes | Remove |
|---|
We don’t turn these notes into a forecast or a product pick. The weather and your products both change, so a pattern here is a clue, not proof.
When this is not the answer
Some frizz is normal on curly and coily hair, especially in humid weather, and older, more weathered ends frizz more than new growth. If frizz comes with breakage or hair that feels rough and snaps, read the breakage and dry-hair pages first; that is a different problem.
Products that do this job
A gel gives the hold that keeps curls clumped while they dry. A leave-in underneath helps on dry or tighter curls.
Updated · The sources for this guide are on our Sources page. Report a changed detail.