If there’s one thing 2025 made very clear, it’s this: curly hair doesn’t like shortcuts.

This year, we spoke to thousands of curlies, watched routines evolve, products fail, techniques change, and confidence grow. Some learnings surprised us. Some confirmed what curlies have been saying forever. And some completely changed how we think about curl care at The Curl Co.

Here are our biggest curly hair learnings from 2025 – honest, real, and straight from the curl community.

1. There is no “one perfect routine” (and that’s okay)

In 2025, we saw curl routines get simpler for some and more detailed for others. And guess what? Both worked.

Some curlies thrived on a full routine – cleanse, condition, leave-in, cream, gel, serum, diffuse. Others got their best curls with just two products and a lot of water.

The biggest learning? Your curls don’t need to look like someone else’s to be healthy.

What matters is listening to your hair, not forcing it into a routine that looks good on Instagram.

2. Hydration solves more problems than we think

Frizz, dullness, undefined curls, unpredictable hair days – in most cases, the root issue was lack of hydration.

In 2025, curlies became more hydration-aware. We saw people:

• Using more water while styling

• Layering products on soaking-wet hair

• Refreshing curls between wash days instead of overwashing

Once hydration improved, curls behaved better, styling became easier, and hair felt healthier overall.

3. Hold is not the enemy

For years, “strong hold” had a bad reputation. Crunchy curls. Hard hair. Zero movement.

But 2025 changed that narrative.

Curlies started understanding that hold doesn’t mean stiffness – it means structure. A good hold product helped curls last longer, fight humidity, and reduce daily restyling.

The key learning? Strong hold + proper hydration = soft, defined curls that actually stay.

4. Technique matters just as much as products

This year proved one thing very clearly: the same product can give completely different results depending on how you use it.

Raking vs praying hands. Scrunching vs glazing. Styling upside down vs upright. Diffusing vs air drying.

2025 was the year curlies started experimenting with technique instead of immediately blaming the product. And once they found what worked for them, their results changed drastically.

5. Frizz isn’t always a bad thing

One of the healthiest mindset shifts we saw in 2025 was curlies making peace with frizz.

Not all frizz means damage. Sometimes it means humidity. Sometimes it means volume. Sometimes it just means you have curls.

Instead of trying to erase frizz completely, curlies focused on balance – definition and movement, shine and texture.

Perfect curls became less important than real, wearable curls.

6. Curl care is deeply emotional

2025 reminded us that curly hair isn’t just about products.

It’s about confidence, unlearning years of straight-hair standards, bad salon experiences, and being told to “control” your hair.

We saw curlies show up to events, workshops, and online spaces not just to learn techniques, but to feel understood.

Curly hair care is self-care. And that learning stayed with us all year.

7. Consistency beats perfection

The curlies who saw the best results in 2025 weren’t the ones constantly changing products.

They were the ones who:

• Gave products time to work

• Stuck to routines for a few weeks

• Focused on long-term hair health, not overnight miracles

Curls don’t change in one wash. And that’s okay.

What this means for us at The Curl Co.

2025 shaped us just as much as it shaped curl routines.

It pushed us to:

• Create products that work with curls, not against them

• Educate more, not just sell

• Listen harder to real curl stories

• Keep things honest, simple, and curl-first

Most importantly, it reminded us why we started – to help curlies feel good about their hair on regular days, not just good hair days.

Moving into 2026

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that curls don’t need fixing. They need understanding.

Here’s to more learning, more experimenting, more real curls, and more confidence in the year ahead.

Your curls are doing better than you think. 🤍

With love, Team The Curl Co.