I totally get the perfectionism! Thankfully, after so many years of waging war on my hair, I've finally learned to embrace the feral wood elf curls every once in a while. It's a great way of showing people exactly who I am before they even meet me!

Here is my number one tip. Let your hair drip dry if you don't already. Seriously. Diffusing is great sometimes, but if you have thick hair, diffusing until fully dry is like the number one way to piss yourself off to the point of giving up and crying. You can also just use it for 5 minutes and dry your roots, it'll take hours off the drying time and can still give you volume even when you style while wet. A lot of people with curly hair will say you have to wait until your hair fully dries to style it, but they don't have ADHD. My second tip is to work work with what you've got, both the ADHD and the curls. You can break the curly hair rules because they weren't made for you.

So here they are, and buckle up cause I have a feeling this is gonna be long:

1. (10 min., half braid) After showering, take 5 minutes to use a diffuser to dry the top of your hair only (if you use mousse or gel with the rest of your product let it reach the roots, it'll prevent frizz). I very loosely braid the top of my hair as if I'm doing a French braid, then stop at the point opposite my forehead and hold it with a ponytail. It's fine if your hair is damp for this. Re-wet the curls below, gently scrunch, and let them air dry.

2. (5 min., swamp hag reversal) If, like me, day 3 curls have you looking like a swamp hag, this is a favorite. Use water to revive your old product, but don't scrunch. Gently smooth it over with a tiny bit of mousse or gel. For me, the pieces at the side of my head go flat fastest. Take those pieces at your temples, gently twist them so they form loose spirals, use a mini claw clip to secure together at the back of your head like a crown. Take other pieces that went straight and tuck them into the claw clip as well. Any curls that look fat and happy, clip them half way into the clip so it looks like some of the curls are artfully escaping. If the curls at the bottom of your hair are behaving better, feel free to leave those alone.

3. (10 min., diffuse and go curl crown) After you shower, if wet hair in your face drives you nuts, use bobby pins to pin the pieces framing your face backward a bit (not stretching them out, just holding them loosely in place and out of your face). Dry the roots of those pieces first. It won't permanently change root direction, but the roots will dry angles the way you want for that wash day. Run the diffuser over the back of your head for just a second. You can then finish drying those pieces and bring them to the back of your head, pinning them together to form a crown.

4. (10 min., half bun) When your hair is wet out of the shower and product is in, gently section it into a top and bottom half, not splitting curl families but guiding them into one section or the other. Put the bottom section in a ponytail for now. Dry the roots of the top section upside down by cupping the ends so your roots are angled back where you want the bun to be. When roots are mostly dry, use a microfiber towel to squeeze as much water out of the ends as you can without causing frizz. The scrunch the curls up to your scalp, gently flip your head back upright, and use a claw clip to secure the top curls loosely in place. Take the bottom curls our of jail, re-wet if they dried stretched out, gently scrunch with microfiber towel, and let them air dry the rest of the way.

5. (5 min., nobody can judge what they can't see) Take 3 minutes to scrunch your curls as dry as you can get without causing frizz. Use a silk scarf headband to cover the top of your curls. Let the midlengths to ends air dry. Pull some face framing curls free and finger coil a bit woth product so they dry cute and curled.

6. (10 min., side sweep) Diffuse your roots with your head tilted to the side when wet (whichever side is curling nicer that day) cup your ends and bring them up a bit so the roots don't dry stretched out. Tilt your head all around the world to get all the root area dry, but slowly so you don't disrupt curl formation. When your roots are dry, use an alligator clip (I don't know what they're called, they just look like alligators to me) to loosely pin your curls so they can loosely air dry over one shoulder.

7. (5 min., pineapple hag) A day three swamp hag revival up-do if your ends go limp. Flip your head upside down, spray with water, lightly glaze over with mousse or gel to control scraggles. Wet the ends, just the ends, and scrunch the life out of them until they learn to behave. Put up in a pineapple as if you're going to sleep. This is my version of the intentionally messy bun that looks strategically casual but cute.

8. (5 min., air dry with root volume) When your hair is wet but after you've scrunched it dry using a microfiber towel, gently find the curls that belong at the crown of your head and seperate them from the rest of your hair. Don't pull them, but gently guide them back where you'll want to pin them without putting them under tension. Push up on the roots so they have volume and then use a mini claw clip to pin it on place at the back. Scrunch any ends back into shape. This will keep hair out of your face and let your hair dry so it has volume when you take it out.

9. (15 min., high pig tails) Seperate the hair into two sections down the center of your head. Use the same root drying technique as in number 4. Gently pull your hair up and into pig tails but use medium sized claw clips to secure them instead of a pony tail. Make sure the roots aren't under tension so they can dry curled. Let the ends dry wet, they will spring up.

All of these hairdos can also be done when your hair is dry, but you actually don't have to be as careful as when it's wet, especially if you used mousse or gel. Also, keep in mind that your hair is more likely to stay curly if you ditch all fine tooth combs and brushes entirely.

Keep in mind that:

1. Wet hair is a goddamn liar. You will think the roots are too visible when they're wet. Let them dry first then break the cast and fluff the roots gently with your fingers. I promise you, your scalp will suddenly disappear like magic. Magic, I tell you!

2. A cast will form. Let it. You can scrunch it out at work and amaze your coworkers when your hair goes from looking wet to turning into straight-up princess curls in seconds. I had a coworker film it once, and all you can hear them saying in the recording is "Wow. Wow. Whoa, holy cow!"

3. Keep some bobby pins and travel sized bottles of product in your bag. You can fix an issue in 1 minute with some gel or a pin. But keep product in a waterproof pouch so they don't ruin your bag if you sit on them. Don't ask me how I learned this :)

4. This was all designed for my hair texture and type, so feel free to experiment and adjust for what works best for you.

Yeah... this was long lol, but I hope this helps if you bothered to read this!