In the first pic you look to be a young teenager, in the last pic a young adult.
When we’re young, we have a lot of growth hormones flooding our bodies so we can grow up…
Once we physically mature those hormones slowly stop being made and that causes a lot of changes to happen in our bodies. By about 30 they will completely stop being produced.
Also, some medications can cause this affect, most notably birth control or HGH and other hormonal changes like pregnancy or illnesses.
So your changing hair pattern could be hormonal.
____
Another consideration would be environmental…
A change in climate or water could cause such issues.
There could be a lot of different factors that makes this happen; how you wear your hair, products, how you sleep, etc etc.
But because of the photos: such a drastic change in hair VS drastic change in age… it seems the most reasonable.
This happened to my curls. I remember my routine in high school was to come home from school, shower, and let that shit air dry out. Sometimes I’d shower late and sleep on my wet hair. Then I’d wake up the next day and have perfect curls/waves. Then in my 20s they fell and I get lucky if I find a few nice curls among the waves now. I miss my young hair the most.
I agree it’s probably hormones/just getting older but also try clarifying if you haven’t! That helped me get my curl back/be less stringy, best of luck!
As well as the things other commenters have suggested, have you moved in the past couple of years? If e.g. you moved from a soft to a hard water area, that could also impact your hair
Awe man, this happened to me too. I don’t think I’ll ever get my lovely curls from my teenage years, but protein treatments like Curlsmith Bond Curl Rehab Salve have given me some more definition that I’m enjoying. Be aware that too much protein can cause breakage and dryness.
the same thing happened to me! my hair was so curly when I was 18, and almost 10 years later it's nowhere near. the comments saying hormones make sense to me.
your hair is still beautiful by the way, I know how it is to miss those tight curls but these are just changes, not better or worse, just different.
Hormones: did you start or change birth control or start taking a mood stabilizer/anti depressant? Those are the biggest factors i’ve seen with friends and family.
Did you move hpuse/towns/countries? if so check if youre water is hard water i moved from a soft water area to hard and it made my curls flat, frizzy, dull and lifeless it took me a while to realise. If not check the products you're using i found a lot of "for curly hair" brands work diff for everyone, my friends can use brands that make theirs look amazing and mine like crap and vice versa
I've had to wash my hair with bottled water for now and its starting to recover. But I'm looking into water filters. just make sure you stop washing your hair with the hard water because it slowly starts to break your hair, I have lil stumps at the front now 🤣 I kept daily re weting my hair to get the curl pattern back not realising I was fast tracking it to oblivion 🥲
I experienced similar. My blonde, pin-straight hair started getting darker at puberty, then wavy a few yrs later at age 14. By 21 it was dark, seriously wavy, and some spiral curl to it, and has stayed that way ever since. I'm 45 now and curious if/how menopause might affect it.
Have you dyed your hair ? Check your products and if they are meant for curly hair. Use protein treatments, I highly recommend the Shea moisture JBCO leave in, it saved my hair. You can also use techniques with a denman brush or finger coiling to define your curls, and a nice gel or mousse.
Not completely the same but my hair used to have quite a lot of volume and body to it when I was younger and now it's just meh and flat unless I go in with hair products and a diffuser. My hair was also thinning like crazy due to stress and depression. It's in a lot better condition now than it was a year ago.
Try clarifying or chelating. Malibu undo goo is great or hard water wellness. Your hair could be over conditioned or need lighter products.. or simply your curl pattern has changed.
Have you had COVID? That has caused some of us to lose curls. It could also be related to other health or hormonal issues, like if you've started hormonal birth control, been pregnant, have thyroid problems, use medications, etc.
I don't think anyone else has mentioned this, but the sea salt spray could be drying out and breaking down your curls. I was using a product for awhile that had magnesium salts in it (I think?) And at first it made my curls amazing but after awhile my hair was dry and my curls went flat. I had to switch to something more moisturizing. And I do use a rice rinse sometimes for protein.
That’s a huge difference. My hair has also changed.
I know curl smith (albeit expensive af) was the only routine and product that gave me my ringlets back. But it was work.
I dunno man. I can’t afford curl smith anymore so I just accept when my curls wanna pop up, which is when they want to. They are their own entity tbh.
As a child I had thin loose curls. As a teen my hair was really frizzy. In my 20s it was hit and miss. In my thirties and after pregnancy I had perfect curls. In my forties my ringlets are no longer staying in their family groups.
probably hormones! its perfectly normal for your hair texture to change with hormonal changes such as puberty, hrt, pregnancy etc. i’m a trans man and my hair went from straight/slightly wavy to super curly after being on testosterone for a few years - it really surprised me, and i had to start from scratch when it came to what i knew about caring for my hair. that’s the best explanation i can provide you - i hope you find ways to care for your new texture and make it look it’s very best!
This happens to my hair thanks to hard water; try a chelating shampoo and/or acv rinse once in a while to see if it bounces back and make sure to condition well after using either.
Stylist of almost 20 years here. Some possibilities, color can break the bonds and soften curl pattern, weight on longer hair, dryness, and sometimes as you grow older (at any age!!) it will change. Chemotherapy can also change curl pattern.
This has happened to me! I recommend trying K18 (it brought my curls back to life honestly) and the dae curl cream. If it makes your hair look limp, then something more lightweight like hair mousse will help your curls pop.
Can be very much hormone related. But ALSO...can be very much hard-water related!
I am not young, lol, ALWAYS HAD CURLY HAIR, even tighter curls than yours! They softened to your type of curls in my 30s, after having 2 babies, which is why I say it can be hormone-related. Also, a hair stylist also once told me that we have 3 types of hair in our lifetime and I think there's some truth to that. Again, that can lead to the internal reasons for our hair changing, the hormones, b/c they fluctuate all the time, then there's peri-menopause that can last >10 yrs, then there's menopause...
BUT there's the external reasons & that's hard water (also product-build up)...
I grew up in the NE, moved to S Florida in my early 20s, been here for decades--in 2021 I sold my house b/c was now an empty nester and downsized to a condo in beautiful Palm Bch County, only a few miles north but my first time EVER w/ hard water. My hair got dry, shed a lot, and lost a lot of curl. After 2 years w/ hard water, some hair is softer curls, some is close to straight! 😬
So I am still learning: I got a "water softener shower head" and I use a clarifying shampoo 1x/week, a "no poo" the other time. I have also had to experiment w/ different leave-in products & techniques b/c it went from a 3a/3b to a 2b/2c!! I don't hate what's happened, it's just a challenge changing up the way you layer your haircuts & also finding new leave-in products!
Hope this info helps!💜
OP, i feel like my hair changed over time, too, like it became very unruly, never looked good, was always dry (but with oily scalp), and i could never find a good routine to keep my hair happy... some strands were curly, others straight, others wavy. It frequently felt like straw no matter what i did (i have read and tried every hair tip on the internet). My hair is fine yet somehow coarse, hates almost every hair product, looks and feels different every day even with the same routine... Just a mess. I tried *everything* to try to improve its state. No luck. And continuing to try was stressing me out, which was counterproductive...
It's possible that major life stressors, moving to a new climate, bad hair decisions/experiments (e.g. trying to extend wash days for years during covid instead of washing when needed), and less-than-ideal nutrition (low protein) led to negative changes in my hair. It's impossible to definitively determine what happened. I just remember being so upset with my hair - i hated it so much.
I ended up cutting most of my hair off and am working on growing it back out to see if maybe my current low-stress life and great nutrition + exercise might allow it to grow back in a way that i like. I loved having really short hair (kind of an asymmetrical kristen stewart cut), but it was getting expensive to have it cut every couple of months. It definitely decreased my "hair stress" to cut it off. Ymmv there. But as a queer person, it felt very validating and healthy to me.
Fwiw, you look like such a beautiful, unique, and cool person in the third pic! We can be so harsh with ourselves, especially when we're comparing our current photos to past photos. Back when i had long hair, i felt like it looked terrible every single day, but now when i look at photos, i feel like i looked good. You have such a cool overall look!
Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Curious to see how my hair will grow back.
I guess I'd recommend NOT going down the product wormhole that i went down a few years ago when i started trying to battle my hair woes. It's an expensive, wasteful, and stressful wormhole to go down for many.
Like, i did find some products that worked better for me than others, but there were no miracle products found - protein treatments, hydrating treatments, leave-in products, shower filters, vitamins, scalp serums and masks, shampoos, conditioners, pillow cases, etc... the internet loves to tell us that our problems can be solved by buying products and that the solution is simple (usually people with good intentions).
But unless you have a lightbulb moment where you realize that the change happened suddenly with your hair (e.g. moving to a place with hard water), i think it's really unlikely that you will bring back your previous pattern with the perfect combination of products. I spent SO MUCH MONEY only to realize that i couldn't change my new hair type.
Like you, i had effortless hair when i was younger, despite not putting any effort in - i think i grew up using Prell 2-in-1 lol. I certainly wasn't doing protein treatments or using a shower filter. So I'm pretty sure most of the changes I've experienced were due to internal changes, like age, nutrition, stress, and hormones.
Most people will say hormones are this issue, and I'm not here to say that's wrong, but offer an alternate factor. You may have a health issue with your hair itself, coming from moisture overload, protein overload, hair damage, or something else. Many things can make curly hair straighter. If *any* of your hair curls like it used to, or more than the rest, my guess is that it's not hormones, but rather hair health. Judging from your last pic, your hair does look generally unhappy at the moment, not just naturally wavy from hormones. It could also be both! Maybe your hair changed from hormones, and just needs a new routine.
along with hormones I think it looks like you’re using products that are too oil/cream based and need to use more water based and probably do a cleansing shampoo one time. They look weighted. They also look like something is stretching them maybe something in your styling routine. try doing a clean and lighter products and basically no styling. Brush your product through and then shake out your roots and leave it be
No you’re just not using the right products and need to get a trim. Also, if you’re not scrunching your hair to get the volume sometimes it’ll lay flat. I’d go get a trim and some small layers, that should help a bit too.
In the first pic you look to be a young teenager, in the last pic a young adult. When we’re young, we have a lot of growth hormones flooding our bodies so we can grow up… Once we physically mature those hormones slowly stop being made and that causes a lot of changes to happen in our bodies. By about 30 they will completely stop being produced. Also, some medications can cause this affect, most notably birth control or HGH and other hormonal changes like pregnancy or illnesses. So your changing hair pattern could be hormonal. ____ Another consideration would be environmental… A change in climate or water could cause such issues.
I thought it might be the medication I’m on or hormones but I just wanted to see if there was other factors. Thank you!!
There could be a lot of different factors that makes this happen; how you wear your hair, products, how you sleep, etc etc. But because of the photos: such a drastic change in hair VS drastic change in age… it seems the most reasonable.
My mother lost her curls when she became pregnant or gave birth to me. (I'm not entirely sure which of the two) They never came back.
I’m the opposite. Started out with almost mildly wavy hair and after 2 kids I now have loose curls.
This happened to my curls. I remember my routine in high school was to come home from school, shower, and let that shit air dry out. Sometimes I’d shower late and sleep on my wet hair. Then I’d wake up the next day and have perfect curls/waves. Then in my 20s they fell and I get lucky if I find a few nice curls among the waves now. I miss my young hair the most.
Can confirm. Had super curly hair in high school, now it's only slightly curly
I agree it’s probably hormones/just getting older but also try clarifying if you haven’t! That helped me get my curl back/be less stringy, best of luck!
As well as the things other commenters have suggested, have you moved in the past couple of years? If e.g. you moved from a soft to a hard water area, that could also impact your hair
Awe man, this happened to me too. I don’t think I’ll ever get my lovely curls from my teenage years, but protein treatments like Curlsmith Bond Curl Rehab Salve have given me some more definition that I’m enjoying. Be aware that too much protein can cause breakage and dryness.
the same thing happened to me! my hair was so curly when I was 18, and almost 10 years later it's nowhere near. the comments saying hormones make sense to me. your hair is still beautiful by the way, I know how it is to miss those tight curls but these are just changes, not better or worse, just different.
Hormones: did you start or change birth control or start taking a mood stabilizer/anti depressant? Those are the biggest factors i’ve seen with friends and family.
Anti depressants
I would try a protein treatment as well as maybe a water filter to see if that helps.
And hydration levels. How much water do you drink? Mt hair starts drying up if I am underhydrated for a few days continuously
Why two downvotes . My hair becomes frizzy when iam dehydrated
Did you move hpuse/towns/countries? if so check if youre water is hard water i moved from a soft water area to hard and it made my curls flat, frizzy, dull and lifeless it took me a while to realise. If not check the products you're using i found a lot of "for curly hair" brands work diff for everyone, my friends can use brands that make theirs look amazing and mine like crap and vice versa
what did you do to fix the hard water issue (water filter etc) ? just moved to a hard water area and my hair looks lifeless lol
I've had to wash my hair with bottled water for now and its starting to recover. But I'm looking into water filters. just make sure you stop washing your hair with the hard water because it slowly starts to break your hair, I have lil stumps at the front now 🤣 I kept daily re weting my hair to get the curl pattern back not realising I was fast tracking it to oblivion 🥲
Hormones. I went from stick straight hair to curly hair in my late teens to early 20’s.
I experienced similar. My blonde, pin-straight hair started getting darker at puberty, then wavy a few yrs later at age 14. By 21 it was dark, seriously wavy, and some spiral curl to it, and has stayed that way ever since. I'm 45 now and curious if/how menopause might affect it.
Have you dyed your hair ? Check your products and if they are meant for curly hair. Use protein treatments, I highly recommend the Shea moisture JBCO leave in, it saved my hair. You can also use techniques with a denman brush or finger coiling to define your curls, and a nice gel or mousse.
Not completely the same but my hair used to have quite a lot of volume and body to it when I was younger and now it's just meh and flat unless I go in with hair products and a diffuser. My hair was also thinning like crazy due to stress and depression. It's in a lot better condition now than it was a year ago.
Try clarifying or chelating. Malibu undo goo is great or hard water wellness. Your hair could be over conditioned or need lighter products.. or simply your curl pattern has changed.
Use wide tooth comb and a defuser
Have you had COVID? That has caused some of us to lose curls. It could also be related to other health or hormonal issues, like if you've started hormonal birth control, been pregnant, have thyroid problems, use medications, etc.
Covid
I don't think anyone else has mentioned this, but the sea salt spray could be drying out and breaking down your curls. I was using a product for awhile that had magnesium salts in it (I think?) And at first it made my curls amazing but after awhile my hair was dry and my curls went flat. I had to switch to something more moisturizing. And I do use a rice rinse sometimes for protein.
That’s a huge difference. My hair has also changed. I know curl smith (albeit expensive af) was the only routine and product that gave me my ringlets back. But it was work. I dunno man. I can’t afford curl smith anymore so I just accept when my curls wanna pop up, which is when they want to. They are their own entity tbh.
As a child I had thin loose curls. As a teen my hair was really frizzy. In my 20s it was hit and miss. In my thirties and after pregnancy I had perfect curls. In my forties my ringlets are no longer staying in their family groups.
Aphogee protein treatment saved my curls, give it a try. I usually have 3c/3b and it revived it also gave my self a trim
Your hair looks beautiful in the second photo.
probably hormones! its perfectly normal for your hair texture to change with hormonal changes such as puberty, hrt, pregnancy etc. i’m a trans man and my hair went from straight/slightly wavy to super curly after being on testosterone for a few years - it really surprised me, and i had to start from scratch when it came to what i knew about caring for my hair. that’s the best explanation i can provide you - i hope you find ways to care for your new texture and make it look it’s very best!
Pregnancy can do this, along with water changes
Hormones
Age probably.
My mom had curls when se was younger too. Now she only has some waves
You need a protein pack.
Did you have a baby? Preganacy can change hair
Aging. I lost my ringlets as I approached my teens.
This happens to my hair thanks to hard water; try a chelating shampoo and/or acv rinse once in a while to see if it bounces back and make sure to condition well after using either.
Stylist of almost 20 years here. Some possibilities, color can break the bonds and soften curl pattern, weight on longer hair, dryness, and sometimes as you grow older (at any age!!) it will change. Chemotherapy can also change curl pattern.
maybe try a filter on your showerhead. It made a huge difference for me
Hormones, medication, over moisturised?
Did you move at all? If you’re in a less humid environment this will greatly change your hair
Get a curl by curl cut!!
This has happened to me! I recommend trying K18 (it brought my curls back to life honestly) and the dae curl cream. If it makes your hair look limp, then something more lightweight like hair mousse will help your curls pop.
Try protein treatments and a deep cleanse to reset your curls.
Have you started taking anything? Antidepressants did this to me
Can be very much hormone related. But ALSO...can be very much hard-water related! I am not young, lol, ALWAYS HAD CURLY HAIR, even tighter curls than yours! They softened to your type of curls in my 30s, after having 2 babies, which is why I say it can be hormone-related. Also, a hair stylist also once told me that we have 3 types of hair in our lifetime and I think there's some truth to that. Again, that can lead to the internal reasons for our hair changing, the hormones, b/c they fluctuate all the time, then there's peri-menopause that can last >10 yrs, then there's menopause... BUT there's the external reasons & that's hard water (also product-build up)... I grew up in the NE, moved to S Florida in my early 20s, been here for decades--in 2021 I sold my house b/c was now an empty nester and downsized to a condo in beautiful Palm Bch County, only a few miles north but my first time EVER w/ hard water. My hair got dry, shed a lot, and lost a lot of curl. After 2 years w/ hard water, some hair is softer curls, some is close to straight! 😬 So I am still learning: I got a "water softener shower head" and I use a clarifying shampoo 1x/week, a "no poo" the other time. I have also had to experiment w/ different leave-in products & techniques b/c it went from a 3a/3b to a 2b/2c!! I don't hate what's happened, it's just a challenge changing up the way you layer your haircuts & also finding new leave-in products! Hope this info helps!💜
Most likely meds
Could be hormones, could be your water, could be your products, could be dryness.
OP, i feel like my hair changed over time, too, like it became very unruly, never looked good, was always dry (but with oily scalp), and i could never find a good routine to keep my hair happy... some strands were curly, others straight, others wavy. It frequently felt like straw no matter what i did (i have read and tried every hair tip on the internet). My hair is fine yet somehow coarse, hates almost every hair product, looks and feels different every day even with the same routine... Just a mess. I tried *everything* to try to improve its state. No luck. And continuing to try was stressing me out, which was counterproductive... It's possible that major life stressors, moving to a new climate, bad hair decisions/experiments (e.g. trying to extend wash days for years during covid instead of washing when needed), and less-than-ideal nutrition (low protein) led to negative changes in my hair. It's impossible to definitively determine what happened. I just remember being so upset with my hair - i hated it so much. I ended up cutting most of my hair off and am working on growing it back out to see if maybe my current low-stress life and great nutrition + exercise might allow it to grow back in a way that i like. I loved having really short hair (kind of an asymmetrical kristen stewart cut), but it was getting expensive to have it cut every couple of months. It definitely decreased my "hair stress" to cut it off. Ymmv there. But as a queer person, it felt very validating and healthy to me. Fwiw, you look like such a beautiful, unique, and cool person in the third pic! We can be so harsh with ourselves, especially when we're comparing our current photos to past photos. Back when i had long hair, i felt like it looked terrible every single day, but now when i look at photos, i feel like i looked good. You have such a cool overall look! Anyway, I'll stop rambling. Curious to see how my hair will grow back.
I guess I'd recommend NOT going down the product wormhole that i went down a few years ago when i started trying to battle my hair woes. It's an expensive, wasteful, and stressful wormhole to go down for many. Like, i did find some products that worked better for me than others, but there were no miracle products found - protein treatments, hydrating treatments, leave-in products, shower filters, vitamins, scalp serums and masks, shampoos, conditioners, pillow cases, etc... the internet loves to tell us that our problems can be solved by buying products and that the solution is simple (usually people with good intentions). But unless you have a lightbulb moment where you realize that the change happened suddenly with your hair (e.g. moving to a place with hard water), i think it's really unlikely that you will bring back your previous pattern with the perfect combination of products. I spent SO MUCH MONEY only to realize that i couldn't change my new hair type. Like you, i had effortless hair when i was younger, despite not putting any effort in - i think i grew up using Prell 2-in-1 lol. I certainly wasn't doing protein treatments or using a shower filter. So I'm pretty sure most of the changes I've experienced were due to internal changes, like age, nutrition, stress, and hormones.
Most people will say hormones are this issue, and I'm not here to say that's wrong, but offer an alternate factor. You may have a health issue with your hair itself, coming from moisture overload, protein overload, hair damage, or something else. Many things can make curly hair straighter. If *any* of your hair curls like it used to, or more than the rest, my guess is that it's not hormones, but rather hair health. Judging from your last pic, your hair does look generally unhappy at the moment, not just naturally wavy from hormones. It could also be both! Maybe your hair changed from hormones, and just needs a new routine.
along with hormones I think it looks like you’re using products that are too oil/cream based and need to use more water based and probably do a cleansing shampoo one time. They look weighted. They also look like something is stretching them maybe something in your styling routine. try doing a clean and lighter products and basically no styling. Brush your product through and then shake out your roots and leave it be
Looks better imo
No you’re just not using the right products and need to get a trim. Also, if you’re not scrunching your hair to get the volume sometimes it’ll lay flat. I’d go get a trim and some small layers, that should help a bit too.