Curly Clipping

Clipping hair at the roots relieves the wet hair of its own weight as it dries, so you add lift and get a more even curl pattern from roots to ends.
-Curly Girl: The Handbook (expanded second edition, page 41)

Curly girls use many different methods of curly clipping, but the basics are always the same: lift hair from scalp and clip at roots, to give your curls a lift (and keep them out of your face) while they dry.  Here are a few more tips and photos to help you figure out how to clip your curls!

Criss-Cross

The criss-cross method helps to disguise a part and give the top of your curls a boost.  Take small sections of hair from either side of the part, criss-cross, and clip with a claw clip.

The top of your head should look similar to your backbone.

This exaggerated criss-cross makes it easier to see how to do it, but the more crisscrosses the less big curl clumps you’ll have.

Lift and Separate

Metal clips tend to slide out of your hair more easily, but if you can master this technique, it works well!  Clip parallel to or along the part, or at random across the top of your head.  Add gel to the clips for an even firmer lift.

Company-Style

What to do when company’s here and you don’t want to look like your hair’s half done? Rearrange your clips and criss-crosses at random, so they still lift and separate, but it looks like you planned to wear your hair that way. Take them out and shake your curls when they are dry, or leave them in to keep your hair out of your face.

See? It looks planned!