Trying the Flip Section Method by SophieMarieCurly on my Low-Density Curly Hair

Have you heard of the “flip section” method? It was coined by SophieMarieCurly, another curly hair creator who has a unique technique of sectioning her hair, brush styling upside down, and separating the curl clumps with a comb for a fuller look. I love how this routine is for volume and definition and is designed to make brush styling faster.

How to do the “Flip Section” Method

1. Start with clean, damp hair. Spritz water.
2. Apply a leave-in if needed and brush through.
3. Flip hair upside down and apply a curl cream. Brush through.
4. Shake the roots some and run fingers through. Divide hair into 3 sections, starting around the ear and clipping the back section up. Then create a middle section and clip it back. Depending on how thick your hair is, you may need more sections.
5. Brush through the front section and apply some light tension so that the hair wraps along the edge of the brush where it curves. This creates clumps. Spritz more water if clumps don’t form.
6. Take a wide-tooth comb and comb through the section to separate and thick curl clumps if desired.
7. Glaze gel over the section and scrunch.
8. Continue through each section, using your hand as a divider so you are only brushing one section at a time.
9. Scrunch all over, then gently shake roots while still upside down.
10. Place hands into the roots in the back of your head, then flip right-side up. Shake your head gently to lift the hair off the scalp.
11. If hair is still sticking to the scalp, use your wide-tooth comb to gently lift the hair off the scalp throughout.
12. Use a brush to define some face-framing pieces if needed.
13. Scrunch out excess water with a hair towel or T-shirt
14. Diffuse until dry.
15. Apply a little oil and scrunch out any unwanted gel cast. Fluff roots.

Products Used

• Bounce Curl Avocado & Rose Oil Clump and Define Cream, 10% off with code GENAMARIE10
• Kinky Curly Original Curling Custard
• Tangle Teezer Naturally Curly Detangling Brush
• Bouclème Flarisol Mist Spray Bottle, 15% off with code GENA15
• Wide tooth comb
• HairRepear The Ultimate Hair Towel
• Shark HyperAIR Hair Dryer with IQ 2-in-1 Concentrator and Curl-Defining Diffuser

Who this routine is good for:

• Low to medium density hair, preferably medium density hair. Low-density hair may struggle with scalp showing when upside-down styling. High-density hair will need more sections.
• Short to medium length hair
• Any hair textures: fine, medium, coarse
• Low to medium porosity. High porosity hair that is also fine textured may struggle with hair sticking to the scalp.
• Those who don’t have time to brush style their whole head

Who this routine may not work for:

• Those with neck/back problems.
• If your curls don’t go in the same direction within each section, brushing all at once may not spring them up in the right direction.
• Those who struggle with shedding and breakage. I personally experience more shedding with upside-down styling.
• Those whose hair sticks to the scalp (very fine and/or high porosity).
• Those who struggle with root frizz on top.
• Very thick (high-density) hair types may need more sections.
• Very long hair may be hard to brush in sections.
• Those who don’t like their hair falling in their face.

Tweaks I would make for my hair type:

• Style damp instead of soaking wet so that my hair won’t take so long to dry.
• Brush each section upwards and back, not forward towards the face.
• Create an additional section at the nape of the neck so the back section isn’t so large, resulting in stretched-out roots underneath.
• Apply cream and gel before brush styling for more even coverage and to reduce root frizz
• Plop diffuse and hover instead of only hovering to encourage shrinkage on the ends.

Final Thoughts

Overall I ended up with great results, I just had to fix a few things at the end. I think with more practice, I would be faster at it and it would be easier. I had great definition and lots of clumps, and I was glad they were more separated. However, I had much more frizz than usual up top due to upside-down styling. I also really struggle with my hair sticking to the scalp and my scalp showing, especially where the sections were. Even with picking out the roots the lines still showed. I think by incorporating the tweaks mentioned above, I would get even better results. I’m definitely taking some techniques from this method, such as combing through clumps to separate them.

What do you think? Did I do this method correctly, and would you change anything?

What method or routine should I put to the test next? Leave your requests in the comments.