5 ways I Get My Curls to Form Fat Chunky Clumps

This is perhaps the most requested post from you all; Most of the love shown on my Instagram hair shots are for my, and I quote, “fat, juicy, thick, bouncy, chunky curl clumps”. So here are my top tips and techniques for juicy clumped hair! Note : This may not work for very tight curl patterns owing to the properties of hair, but is definitely worth a try 🙂

1) (Amount of) WATER

I style my hair on dripping wet hair; Soooo soaking wet, that I do my styling in the bathroom itself. Water binds hair. The more the water in your hair while applying products, the fatter the clumps. (So whenever I want some volume, I have to wring out excess water and then apply products – that gives me thinner clumps. They sometimes look ok but my signature look is fat clumps :P)

2) (Amount of) Products

After water, the next thing to keep the clumps clumped are products. The more the product (especially conditioner, leave in and gel), the more the filler for your clumps to keep them intact and prevent them from breaking into thinner wispy strands.

Water and products act like a glue to keep the clumps together.

3) Type of Products

Because I use a good amount of product, I need products that don’t weigh my hair down. I can’t use rich heavy products sparingly and get the same results. For eg: I can’t just use 2 drops of olive oil instead of a lime sized quantity of curl cream and expect the clumping and bounce. Some of my favourite light weight products are :

• Devacurl One Condition – Buy here
• Oriflame Conditioners – Buy here or here
• Tresemme Botanique Conditoner – Buy here
• Devacurl B’Leave in – Buy here/ Review
• Devacurl Ultra defining gel – Review / Buy here or here
• Cantu Creamy Hair Lotion (THIS is the reason I prefer this to Cantu Curl Activator Cream :)) – Review / Buy here or here
• As I Am Leave in – Review / Buy here or here
• Eco Styler Green – Buy here

4) Squish to Condish

One way I ensure optimal hydration and filler in my strands is by Squish to Condish. It plumps up and clumps curls so beautifully! – Squish to Condish – The best conditioning method for curly hair

I keep telling readers who DM me with their not-so-happy hair pics – “Increase the amount of conditioner left in after squish to condish. Increase the quantity of leave in, cream and gel.” And they instantly see results on their next wash day! You need more products than you think you do 😀

5) NOT Raking

I always directly scrunch in my styling products. Tighter curl patterns need raking in (applying products by passing fingers through hair) to ensure product distribution. But even with my long hair, I’ve noticed scrunching in products always spreads my products really well. In fact, raking almost always breaks up my clumps to give me thin, out of shape waves. Yes, if your hair is optimally hydrated, your hair will clump back even if you rake in (This is in fact a bane for me when I need some volume!). But my curls go out of shape. My philosophy is that the conditioner has been spread well using your fingers for moisture, now just preserve the clumps that the water and conditioner mix automatically gave you, by not running your fingers through and thereby breaking the clumps. This is just my personal experience because I know more curlies who prefer raking in than scrunching in their products directly. But this has to be my favorite way to get those fat juicy clumps.

You can read about my curly hair routine here and see it all in action here in the video.