How To Sleep With Curly Hair: Our Mixed Hair Routine for Overnight Curls

It’s no secret that I love curly hair. It took almost thirty years of life and giving birth to a beautiful black baby with thick mixed hair to finally realize what a gift our tight ringlet curls are. Raising my biracial children to appreciate and learn how to care for curly hair is high on the parenting priority list. Today I want to share our nighttime routine and how to sleep with curly hair to prevent frizz and breakage as your little one lies in bed (or even as they nap in a car seat!).

But don’t think learning how to care for curly hair at night is a kids’ game – this overnight curls routine is also what I do to my 3b curly hair! Because of its curl pattern and hair type, I’d often wake up with second-day curls that looked flat and frizzy. I wasn’t able to keep hair curly overnight until I started this routine on my naturally curly hair. So if you’re looking for how to get curls overnight that are smooth and defined, this is definitely a method to consider.

Curly Hair Overnight Routine

Sleeping with curly hair isn’t complicated, but some attention before you hit the sack will definitely salvage your curly hairstyle a few days longer. When my daughter was a toddler, I learned that this night time routine for short natural hair helped define her ringlet curls overnight. Her short curly mixed girl hair was so much easier to manage after being banded and braided before bed!

In this post, we’re going to explain steps for what to do with curly hair after shower at night, how to protect your curly hair at night with our favorite protective styles for mixed hair (including braids and buns), and the best sleeping cap for curly hair – from babies to toddlers to big girls like us!

More Biracial Hair Routines By Age Group:

Check out our other mixed hair care routine posts for daytime styling tips, all of which include our favorite natural hair products for kids.

• Baby Curly Hair 101 – our mixed babies hair care routine
• Curly Hair Toddlers – our shampoo and conditioning routine for toddler curly hair
• How to Manage Curly Biracial Hair for Kids – a giant post answering the most common questions on biracial hair

Now that we’ve gone over the basics, let’s get down to business…

Curly Hair Bedtime RoutineHow to Sleep With Wet Curly Hair

Yes, I said wet hair! Our overnight curly hair routine starts each week with a deep condition and us going to bed with wet hair (really though, because she has low porosity hair, my girl’s hair is more damp than wet). I’ve had a few people ask me is it bad to sleep with wet hair (especially for the kids) or for tips on what to do with wet hair at night, so I wanted to explain a few important points.

First, my kids go to bed with wet hair on occasion and they’re totally healthy and fine. It’s never soaking wet – mostly just damp – but they’ve never gotten sick or anything like that.

Secondly, drying curly hair overnight is a super awesome method! Once I established this routine with my toddler’s short mixed girl hair, I pretty much never let it air dry down again. That’s right folks, no wash-n-go’s are happening over here! Doing protective hairstyles for curly hair at night allows you to set the curl pattern, even stretch the curls if desired, and pretty much curl your hair overnight without added heat or styling products.

The trick to how to sleep with wet curly hair is this: curly hair protection through the use of protective hairstyles for mixed hair and wrapping curly hair at night with material with slip material (like satin or silk).

Once my mindset on our night time hair routine for natural hair shifted to one of moisture retention and nighttime hairstyles that protected our curls, managing our hair became much easier. As instructed in the washing tutorials linked above (by age group), I do not rinse out conditioners. Much of it comes out in combing, soaked into a microfiber towel or stripped out as I style our hair into overnight hairstyles. This allows the porous hair to soak up every last drop of moisture overnight. Styling wet hair into protective styles help reinforce our natural curl pattern, even stretching the curls for my daughter’s 3c-4a hair, while sleeping in satin bonnet or hair wrap for sleeping protects ensures our curls don’t break.

Mixed Girl Hairstyles for Night

Overnight Hairstyles to Sleep In

Some of our favorite mixed girl braids and hairstyles to sleep to set a curl pattern on wet hair are below. Our favorite night hair styles for DRY hair are below.

• French braids overnight: perfect to set curls the next day or leave as an adorable hairstyle.
• Banded ponytail: this was our favorite toddler hairstyle to stretch curls while you sleep while maintaining a natural curl pattern.
• Two strand twists: learning how to twist biracial hair made all the difference to our natural hair night routine. This is a great wet hairstyle to create ringlet curls when dry.
• Bantu knots: for when I don’t want to braid, large sections of bantu knots are easy to do but usually more difficult for her to sleep in.

Overall, I’ve found that my daughter’s natural curl pattern is really gorgeous and separating the hair into too many braids or twists creates a massive ball of frizz. Becuase of this, our overnight curl hairstyles are MAXED at 4 sections (1-2 when she was a toddler). When the hair is wet, I am most focused on setting a curl pattern, stretching the curl as it dries and protecting the hair from breakage.

How to Make Curls Last Overnight

What I’ve learned over the years is that we need two very different routines for maintaining curly hair overnight. One night time routine for curly hair that focuses on how to get naturally curly hair overnight when its wet…. and another curly hair bedtime routine for once the curls are set and the hair is DRY.

The main goal for your dry routine should be how to make curls last overnight to avoid frizz and friction (which happens when the hair shaft separate), as well as nighttime hairstyles for curly hair that prevents breakage.

Mixed Girl Hairstyles for Night

The pictures above were taken immediately after my toddler got out of bed the morning after a deep condition. She slept with wet hair that was in a banded ponytail. To remove the bands, I add oil to my hands and remove super gently to prevent tearing the curls and further sealing in moisture.

I love how moisturized and shiny her curls are (from the back) and that her curls are not separated or frizzed. The curls at her crown/hairline are frizzy because, at this age (around 3-4 years old), I was wary of using baby satin bonnets or a head scarf for fear of suffocation, etc. Who knows if those fears are warranted, but not too long after we started using a hair wrap for sleeping.

How to Wrap Natural Hair At Night Once Dry

Once the hair is dry and the curls are set, we need to figure out how to keep natural curls overnight and maintain the curly hairstyle. When my daughter was an itty bitty toddler, this was easily achieved with a banded ponytail. Her curls were less coarse and the natural pattern was easy to maintain. As her hair grew in length and thickness, and as her hair texture has become more coarse, learning how to braid mixed hair became a must-do. It’s been fun to experiment with various braid outs and twist outs to create longer s-pattern curls.

The photo below you can see the impact a night hair style can make. The left is my daughter’s natural curl pattern (now at 8 years old) when she slept with a banded ponytail (or just one section), whereas the right photo is after she had slept in two french braids and a sleeping cap for curly hair. The curls are longer, with a stretched s-pattern that is different than her natural curl texture.

A few ways to keep your curls in overnight

The Pineapple: a low twist at the nape of hair to bring all the hair up and on top of your head to resemble a pineapple hairstyle. Works great for my 3c-3b curly hair.

Multiple pineapples: if I am attempting to do the Pineapple method on my daughter’s hair, it usually has to be done in multiple sections because her coarse hair does not stretch as easily.

Loose inside a satin hair bonnet: once the curls are set, this is usually how to sleep with short curly hair. My daughter’s hair holds curls so well that my only focus is to prevent frizz and separating the curl by wrapping curly hair at night and then sleeping on a satin pillowcase. These days we just throw all her gorgeous curls into a satin hair bonnet and kiss her good night as she falls asleep on her satin pillowcase.

Satin Pillowcases and hair bonnets for biracial hair care

This might be the single most easy thing you can do to improve the look of your ringlet curls. Let inertia be your friend and get a satin pillowcase. Cotton is warm and cozy, but your hair pays the price of the static cling and moisture retention. Recently, during a trip to California, I learned how important a satin pillowcase and silk scarf are to Alina’s mixed hair care routine. Styling took so much longer, her fine hair was constantly in tiny knots (regardless of the protected style she slept in) and the curls were not as defined. Oh man, we haven’t even discussed how to keep hair from knotting while sleeping, which is a total nightmare. After a week without these hair tools, I am 100% a believer in satin pillowcases, hair bonnets, scarves and whatever tool needed to keep to maintain curls overnight.

And that’s all I’ve got for your folks! Night time hair care is not complicated. And though it can be tedious, the stress you’ll avoid by following a curly hair night routine focuses on curl definition, moisture retention and preventing hair damage will be worth it.