There it is again: the spiny hair follicles shooting out like a scared porcupine. It’s okay, though; since we specialize in Asian hair, we know the best method to combat this.
- Cutting
- Gatsby Grey Hair Wax / Chronos And Creed – Certified Organic Hair Pomade
- Maintenance
- Sleeping Posture
Cutting
For a guide on flattening puffy side hair, you can find our sister article here.
Getting the right haircut from your barber is the most important step in styling puffy Asian hair. If you don’t get this right, it’ll make the rest of these steps much more difficult.
Make sure to ask for your barber to –and we know this is repeated in every styling forum on the internet—have the sides short and the top long. You want the hair to grow into the right style. The haircut you get from your barber may not be perfect, but it’s about your hair developing into the style you want. (not just getting it from having it cut.)
Notice the sides of his hair in this photo? They’re not puffy because his hair grew into the length it needed to go downwards. The same goes for his top and front: it needs to grow and get used to a certain texture to achieve that look. This requires asking your barber for the correct type of cutting.
Yup. This means you’ll have to have your sides and back hair trimmed whilst you let your top and front grow as much as possible.
Once your hair has adapted to having more mass and weight on the top and front, you’ll have something easier to work with. It won’t be a stubborn afro that defies the laws of gravity and it won’t be a porcupine that doesn’t respond to the product that you put in it.
So, in short, ask your barber for short sides and short back-of-the-head hair. The top and front should be left alone and you should allow it to grow long enough for the weight to bring it down and make it more malleable.
Gatsby Grey Hair Wax
For styling puffy Asian hair, we highly recommend something with a strong hold. You want something with a strong hold to combat the stubbornness of puffy Asian hair.
For that, we recommend you use Gatsby Moving Rubber Grunge Mat in Grey.
The good thing about this particular brand of Gatsby is that it works perfectly for helping your hair adapt to being molded. With its strong hold, the wax will practically maintain its strength all day long. Unlike the green, purple, and other color of Gatsby waxes, this one has enough strength to style the stubbornness of puffy Asian hair.
This works just fine for people with thin hair; but chances are, if you have puffy Asian hair to begin with, you have thick hair.
Thick hair is stubborn and refuses to change. Prickly like a cactus? That head of hir isn’t changing. Looking like a hair brush? Not going away.
That’s the thing about using the Gatsby Grey Hair Wax: It’s meant for that thickness. Now, if you’re an aristocrat, we recommend “Chronos and Creed Hair Pomade.”
Chronos And Creed – Certified Organic Hair Pomade
This is for those who don’t mind spending a little bit more for a small tin. Chronos and Creed only comes in a small container, but don’t be fooled by appearances.
Despite the directions telling you to “scoop some out with two fingers”, that’s a little bit overkill. Just get a small dab the size of one and a half peas.
The hold on this is strong and works well for any hair length. Here, we recommend that you grow out your hair to make it easier to style, but this product works for both long and short hair. It also doesn’t leave nasty clumps of wax remaining in your hair.
Chronos and Creed also comes with a few other external benefits like protection from heat damage, scalp health maintenance, and organic materials; though, that’s not exactly required for styling puffy Asian hair. You really just need a good wax that can have the strength to hold your stubborn hair.
In short, the best options to tame stubborn puffy Asian hair is “Gatsby Grey Hair Wax” for basic, no-nonsense styling, and “Chronos and Creed” if scalp health, heat sensitivity, and organic stuff matters to you.
Maintenance
If you feel your puffy Asian hair is still too puffy and spikey to style, then you should consider using a beanie or a hat. The weight and pressure will train your hair into staying down and flat and malleable instead of just a big puffed up mass.
Using a hair straightener also works well. You might be thinking, “but Jason, my hair is already straight.” “Wouldn’t a straightener make my hair even more spikey?” Though that may be true, you need to use the straightener to curl your hair. Simply clamp onto your strands of hair with a straightener and twist the curler to make your hair wavy. Remember: this is just to train your hair into becoming more malleable so you can better style your puffy Asian hair.
Though, as a side note, twisting your straight hair with a straightener is a great way of making your hair look wavy and more stylish over time.
Remember, when you’re training your hair to be malleable enough to be able to be styled, make sure not to use wax or pomade or other products every single day. Keep it to a minimum. Usually, the more natural your process of changing your hair is, the better. I usually recommend having product applied about once or twice a week. This ensures your hair isn’t being overloaded with unnatural external parts and that it doesn’t grow out poorly in the future.
Also, make sure to have your hair moisturized every few days or so. We recommend using either argon oil or coconut oil. Conditioner during a shower doesn’t count, mostly because conditioner contains an awful lot of ingredients that seem to end up doing too much work and damage to the hair in the end regardless.
Note: This is sort of self-explanatory, but don’t use a straightener or other tools on your hair AFTER having put on hair wax, pomade, or other products.
Sleeping Posture
This one is pretty important despite the fact that most people forget it. You need to make sure you sleep correctly with your hair facing the right direction. If you don’t put your hair in the right direction whilst you sleep, you’ll end up having a lot of weight and pressure pushing your hair in the direction you don’t want it to go.
For instance, if you sleep with your side hair puffed out and you don’t bother flattening it before resting your head on it, you’ll risk making it even more messy than before.
So how do you know the right posture and hair direction for sleeping? It’s simple. Just stand up straight and flatten your hair from all sides. This means your sides, back, top, and front. You should practically be going to sleep looking like a lawyer with his hair slick back.
The reason you want to do this is because everyone –or at least most people—tend to roll around in their sleep. Having your hair in this neat position minimizes the chances of pushing your hair into unruly directions and ruining your hair’s malleability.
This may seem like obvious advice, but it’s a great surprise just how many people there are out there who actually sleep without straightening out their hair and end up waking up with hair that looks like a bird’s nest.
And that’s it! Make sure to follow these guidelines in order to best style your puffy Asian hair. This is the best method of making sure your hair adapts to a more malleable state and making sure it can be styled properly without fail. The haircut gives your hair the right mass, the product trains it to keep it malleable, the maintenance streamlines and enhances the styling process, and the right sleeping posture ensures your hair doesn’t go back to being a puffy porcupine.
