This is a sub for people with naturally curly hair so we likely won't know about what to do to straight hair.

Do you put your hair in rollers while it's wet or dry? All our products are applied wet.

Mousse before drying! It will help with hold and hairspray well while in the heat less curler and after removing

Idk about products but I just wanna say these turned out gorgeous!!

The curling headband by robecurls is dope. It tames all of my frizzies / flyaways. The rest out there are made of cotton interior and make my hair even frizzier oddly enough.

I have super fine hair and find products weigh down my hair — even dry shampoo. But with all that said I find that adding olaplex smoothing serum to the ends keeps my ends from feeling dry and that’s my main concern these days. then I just wrap my hair In the curling headband.

I’m totally swept up in this Heatless curls movement. Can’t believe I’ve fried my hair for so long with a curling iron

Not what you are hoping for, but try not to put it in those wet if you can. Wet hair is like a wet tshirt, you pull on it wet and it will be damaged when it dries. In products, mousse helps it flex hold hairspray

Commenting to stay on this thread! I’m trying to get better at them too!!

After trying several different methods, I can say I finally figured out what works for my hair (pin straight Asian hair). After I shower, I put a leave-in conditioner or mousse, blow dry to 80%, split my hair into two sections and then wrap them around socks. I spent a lot on heatless curl rods, bands, ribbons etc and find that actually socks worked super well haha. The next morning I brush them out with a comb and add some oil. The next day I just mist my hair and do it again

Have you tried Oribe Maximista Thickening Spray? I have fine hair, but it’s wavy and very flat. This spray works great with my Dyson air wrap, unless it’s 1000% humidity day in NC, the curls hold pretty good.

I love Jessicurl Spiralicious! It doesn’t have protein. If your hair likes protein, I also recommend AG Care Re:Coil!

For air drying I use Garnier Fructis Curl Nourish with a pump of Innersense I Create Curl after I apply a leave in conditioner. Idk what kind of results you will get after sleeping on it though. I sleep with a silk bonnet and most times need to refresh before leaving the house. 

I don't know of any research in this area, perhaps someone knowledgeable about fiber physics could chime in. There have been a couple of answers but none have cited any science. This might be better answered on a more practical level at r/haircare.

Edit: I did find one paper A mechanical model of overnight hair curling, but I'm not well versed enough in physics to understand it. If anyone wants to read it I'm happy to send it to them!

I know that typically, you can change the shape of hair by breaking the hydrogen bonds with heat or water. I think I read that tension can also break the bonds to some degree, but I don't think the new shape will last as long.

https://labmuffin.com/hair-frizz-science-water-hydrogen-bonds/

Just speaking from personal experience, if I braid my hair dry and keep it that way for several hours, it will come out with a slight wave. If I braid it very slightly damp, it will come out a bit wavier. And if I braid it slightly more damp, it will come out with a strong wave.

I don’t know what’s going on molecularly but I can believe that heartless curlers will work for some people, but probably not for everybody. You can probably predict if they’ll work for you based on whether your hair easily takes on a wave when braided dry, gets kinked from being in a ponytail, etc.

Some of them actually say in the fine print that they’re intended for preserving a blowout, not for creating curls.

Research porosity and figure out what yours is. Curlsmith has a decent guide on their website as a starting point.

I second the view about using a lighter leave in conditioner. There's a chance that cantu is too heavy. I use curlsmith's weightless air dry cream and even that can be too heavy at times so I dilute it with a few sprays of water.

I use Briogeo which you can order in the US. I like their curl charisma line and you can buy jumbo of their shampoo and conditioner which I like. I also now use a charcoal shampoo every once in awhile to get any build up out of my hair. Styling is also important. I follow Ingecurls on insta for tips. I find I have to style my hair soaking wet and upside down in the shower to get good definition

Figure out your porosity before you go experimenting with more products and spend more money. That is my number one piece of advice. Also, I would add a leaving conditioner, followed by your hold product, which would be a moose or a gel to seal in the moisture.

Cantu & shea moisture are most definitely too heavy for fine hair. I'd try something like bounce curl, Giovanni etc. you need light weight products for fine hair. Also id recommend YouTube videos; find someone with a hair type similar to yours & replicate their techniques.

Shampoos and conditioners: Trader Joe’s tea tree tingle, Maui moisture, not your mother’s, Giovanni.

Leave in: kinky curly knot today.

Mousse or hairspray.

Wash leave in and brush, brush style with tension or finger coil, scrunch and scrunch again with a cotton tshirt. Air dry plop or diffuse. Don’t touch.

Satin pillow case

Manes by Mel on YouTube

I use the robe curl method on freshly washed, dried hair, and leave them overnight, sleeping in a satin bonnet.

For me, every time I try to add product or start damp it just falls flat.

You will have to experiment for your own hair.

It all depends on the type of hair you have and the type of curls you want. Some people’s hair holds curls better than others.

You’ve written a whole post with no information on what kind of hair you have other than long (bc of the sub this is)

Hiiii when I do try and have heatless curls, I use a curling scrunchie. It’s even better if you have a satin cover for the bun!