Regardless of what your hair type is, we’ve all obsessed over achieving the sought after ‘shiny hair’.

Curly girls are no stranger to the promise of glossy, glorious curls. We've been told countless times that healthy hair = shiny hair.

But is there really a formula or magic elixir to get miraculous, shiny curls? Or is there more to it? As usual, Team LUS is here to delve deeper into this hair mystery!

What Makes Hair Shiny? 

Shiny curls start at the roots! Oils play a big role in the look and lustre of your hair. Your scalp naturally produces an oil called sebum, which nourishes and protects your kinks and curls. The sebum slowly travels down the length of your hair and coats each and every strand.

While this seems pretty straightforward, the reality is every curly girl is made different.

For tighter, kinkier textures it’s more difficult for the oil to travel from the top of your head to the end of each strand. Not to mention, some people naturally produce more sebum, while others produce less.

But that’s not all there is to it. The main ingredient of shiny hair is simply light. Thasss it! 💁🏽✨

Shiny curls are the result of light refracting (bouncing) off the strands and oils in your hair. Texture plays a huge role in this too. Light reflects best off of flat smooth surfaces. Kinks and coils have so many twists and turns, which is why they appear to have more of a soft sheen instead of a hard shine.

Which begs the question:

Does Shiny Hair = Healthy Hair? 

This is a common misconception and as you can see so far, it’s a lot more complicated than that.

Remember, your hair is shinier if you have smooth hair and a lot of sebum for the light to refract off of. Curly girls with loose waves or ringlets find it pretty easy to get shiny curls because their curl patterns are more stretched.

But, let’s say that you have a kinkier hair type. Because of all of the glorious kinks in your hair, it’s a lot more difficult for sebum to travel down the strands. Less sebum overall means your hair will probably be less shiny but that doesn’t mean your hair isn’t healthy. In fact, your hair probably still has a beautiful sheen. All it really means is that you’ll want to take some extra time to condition and seal moisture into your hair.

But what if your curls have neither shine nor sheen?

It’s likely that your hair may be trying to tell you something, so listen closely!

How-To Deal With Dull Curly Hair

In order to combat dullness, it’s important to take a second to assess the condition of your curls. Chances are, you could be suffering from either one or both of the dreaded D’s of Dullness: Damage and Dryness!

Damage

Don’t let the volume fool you, curly hair is fragile! Heat and colour damage can gradually break down the quality of your hair. At a microscopic level, heat stylers and chemicals slowly chip away at the outer layer of your hair and cause gaps in the strands. These gaps can widen with time as well as with consistent styling and manipulation, making it even harder for light to bounce off your curls and create shine.

Dryness

No matter your curl pattern, we can all fall prey to dryness. Things like heat styling, taking a dip in the pool, and even the change in seasons can suck the moisture right out of our luscious curls. So if your ringlets are looking a little dull and lifeless, it may be time to add some moisture back into the hair to restore its shine/sheen!

How-To Add Shine to Your Naturally Curly Hair 

Here are some tips you can use to pump up the shine factor and brighten your curls!