Help me get these curls under control?

i'd pay for the haircuts myself.

taking care of curly hair is hard IMO. my daughter is a curly girl, but she has been straightening for about 10 years.

i think one of the big no-nos is brushing. brushing gives you poofy hair. have him use his fingers to "comb" it after he showers.

there are tons of products for curly hair, but i don't really remember.

He should start with a good haircut from someone who knows how to cut curly hair. Then see if they can recommend a good product.

No brushes! My oldest's hair is about that curly. She's had major improvement since she quit brushing her hair. She actually uses a leave-in conditioner and product (gel? I think?) designed for ethnic hair. She does use shampoo. After she showers, she squeezes enough water out of her hair so it isn't dripping and puts in the product. No towel rubbing. Her hair looks fantastic now.

Absolutely no brushing or scrubbing it dry with a towel! Use a towel to squeeze only, no rubbing. Use a wide tooth comb or fingers to comb out tangles and add gel while wet then don’t touch it again.

I love your son's hair. He has awesome curls.

1. Use good hair product- I use deva curl products. My hair is more wavy than curly and the products work fine.
2. NEVER comb it or brush it. It just makes a huge bushy/frizzy mess. I haven't combed my hair in over 5 years. For some reason, curly/wavy hair does not form knots or tangles. Ever.
3. Once you have used your hair product on wet hair DON'T TOUCH IT. When your hair is completely dry, quickly and gently puff it up with your fingers.
4. DON'T TOUCH OR PLAY WITH YOUR HAIR once it's dry. EVER. This was and is the hardest thing to do.

My 32 year old son has wavy hair but refuses to use any product because it's too much work. Hope your son agrees to use good hair products. Without them, his curls will never really shine.

He can always get a razer for hair, get the attachment for a specific length, say an inch and buzz his own hair. There will come a time when he will want to look a little more professional and long curly hair does not fit. My husband does this for his beard. At 76 his beard is still very tough and hard to manage. With his tremors, he can no longer use a straight edge or blade.

He has my hair. Exactly. No brushes(!) no combs(!) lots of moisture, cowash if possible.

I have to switch from Deva Decadence line because I find the regular too drying.

Love your curls products. Shampoo, Conditioner, and a Leave-in treatment. Makes your hair soft, controls frizz. And like everyone else said, no brushing!

NO BRUSHING!
I just switched from Deva Curl to LUS brand and I’m loving it, no crusty product build up, soft natural waves...but it smells pretty girlie. Whatever he picks it needs to provide a lot of moisture. Conditioning instead of shampooing can be good but my roots get oily so I shampoo every other or every third day, condition the rest.

There is a way to nourish curly hair so that you don't control it but let it get healthier and healthier so it looks the best it can be. It's called the Curly Girl method and it's for guys too. It's started over 10 years ago with a book called "The Curly Girl Handbook" by Lorraine Massey. Now there's a website called naturallycurly.com and I follow this facebook group that super helpful Curly Girls! Support Group for Curly, Wavy, Natural Healthy Hair. Don't worry about the girls part, we have a couple of guys here too, and the information applies to both genders. Basically we follow a method called the CG (curly girl) method after the book. What that means is we use hair products without sulfates and silicones. While the book says to wash your hair with only conditioner that isn't true anymore. Since it's been published lots of CG safe shampoos or cleansers have come on the market. Most people use these now. Shampoos with sulfates will dry your hair out. Conditioners with silicones coat each hair shaft with plastic so while it may look shiny at first, it keeps the good parts of the conditioner from penetrating the hair shaft and it can't get in. 

If your son would like to try this a good first step is going to naturallycurly.com and taking the texture quiz. That will tell him what kind of curls he has. Then he will have to do a final wash which will get rid of the silicones he has in his hair so the good conditioners can get in. Most people use Johnson's Baby Shampoo for this. Follow this up with a Deep Conditioner. I really like Jessicurl Deep Treatment. You can get it on Amazon. It's for all types of curly hair and a tube of it lasts for many treatments. At first you'll want to do a treatment every week or two while his hair is getting better. He'll keep that on his hair for 30 minutes and then rinse it out. 

Then you'll want to find a good quality CG shampoo and conditioner and styling product to use. Deva products were the first so they remain well known but they are getting a bad reputation. They tend to dry hair out and contain a lot of protein. A lot of curly hair types don't do well with protein. My favorite currently is now jessicurl.com You can go to the website and get samples of most of her products. My hair really likes them because they don't have protein and her products have a great reputation. They are a bit pricey but I only wash my hair once a week, and as your son gets further along in this process he will wash his hair less and less too. She has free shipping the 15 of every month but other than that I get her products on Amazon because her shipping is high.  Another good line is Raw Hair Organics, but the conditioners at least in my hair contained too much protein. A lot of other people really like them. 

Of course there are less expensive products to try-I'm not sure of your son's budget. In the facebook group we discuss products all of the time. Either way you go about it by following the CG method his hair will look much healthier and his curls will look much better. 

Other hints-don't brush, use only a wide tooth comb and only in the shower when your hair is covered in conditioner. 

Don't use a towel when you dry your hair. I squeeze a lot of the water our of my hair when I'm applying my last product (I actually only use one styling product-most people use a gel but my hair is fine and it's wavy so I like to use a product called Original Curl Keeper). I rake it through my hair while leaning over and then squish it in with both hands and it forms curls while I'm doing this. I do it until no more water is dripping down. I then get out of the shower and use an old soft t-shirt to wrap around my hair. I leave it up like that for about 5-10 minutes. It absorbs a lot of water. Then I let it down and let it air dry. Towels create frizz. Using a really soft t-shirt eliminates the frizz. 

I wish your son luck, but he really doesn't need it. I can already see the potential for a head of wonderful curls. He will drive the girls crazy. I wouldn't cut it yet at all. 

Also dry hair=frizz  Using towels=frizz. My favorite product to reduce frizz is Original Curl Keeper by Curly Hair Solutions. It's a liquid product that you put in soaking wet hair. It acts as a bit of a curl activator (will bring out what curls you have) and really works well to reduce frizz. My favorite part-it reactivates the next day with just water. Often that's all I use as a styling product. Most people though like to follow it with a gel. 

His hair needs moisture which means a lot of good conditioning. As I said the only way to get the good ingredients in to do their work is to get rid of the silicones. 

The topic of using oils is up for debate. I personally don't like using oils. In my opinion oils and water don't mix. I've tried coconut oil in the past and it made a mess in my hair. It was so difficult to wash it out. I much prefer using a great, quality conditioner with shea butter, and other really good ingredients in the right proportions so they aren't too heavy to weigh the curls down. As I mentioned I love Deep Treatment as a deep conditioner. Too Shea is a great conditioner for using after shampoo. Both products are made by Jessicurl. 

My kids got my curly hair and my son's is like yours only longer.

I'll repeat what everyone says: NO BRUSHING OR COMBING

I think DS alternates between a leave in conditioner and a hair serum applied when wet, air dry, fluff with fingers if needed. DD uses 8351 products that no man is going to want to mess with.

Very humid weather inevitably produces some frizz.

My son has curls. I wash it with shampoo, then put conditioner in it. I comb the tangles out while the conditioner is in it. I rinse it. I’ll squeeze the water out and spring the curls back up with my hands. That’s it. In order to get the curls under control in the morning, his hair has to get wet and I use my hand to squeeze the curls again. But usually I just let it do what it wants to in the morning before school.