Curly Girl Method
Monday, September 16, 2019
Earlier this year I tried out the Curly Girl Method on my hair to see what happened. If you're not familiar with this routine, it basically comes down to getting as much moisture as possible into your hair and styling it to enhance your natural curl as much as possible. Almost everyone in my family has some intense curls, but mine is this weird mix of straight with some high intensity frizz. I have spent most of my adult life just straightening the heck out or it, or putting it into a pony and having a halo of frizz, so I was curious to see how my hair turned out.
So let's jump into what the routine entails!
Here is a great image I stole from Pinterest (if anyone knows the original creator let me know so I can credit). I think according to this I'm either a 2a or 2b (but my mum is about a 4a! Weird genetics). Basically the different curl types can react differently to different products, so that along with how thick your hair strands are (fine to course) can help you work out the best routine for you.
For products you have to choose products that have NO sulfates, silicones or alcohols. Surprisingly hard to do. There are some great Facebook groups dedicated to this method that have some good guides, but otherwise you can use https://www.curlsbot.com/ to copy and paste your ingredients list and it will tell you if it's safe to use or not.
Here are the products I started with (I did acquire a LOT more, but I can since destashed and didn't tale photos...)
For a basic run down of what I did, although there are variants on this (if you want to try I suggest looking these all up on YouTube and look at https://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/no-poo/the-curly-girl-method-for-coily-hair):
1. To start you use a safe shampoo to do one final wash, and then from then on you only co-wash (ie scrubbing and washing your scalp only using conditioner).
2. Squish-to-condish (squishing in the conditioner to your hair and adding a little water at a time) and leave a little bit of conditioner in the hair.
3. While the hair is soaking wet, I used 'praying hands' (put your hands together lathered up with product and gently run them down the hair without pulling on it).
4. I then used a large amount of gel and with my hair upside-down, scrunched it in.
5. I then plopped it in a tshirt (lowering my head down onto the shirt so the curls naturally curled up together) and tied in onto my head to drain some of the moisture.
6. Diffuse with a hair dryer on low heat.
7. Once a week I did a deep condition, and left leave-in in my hair for 30min.
THIS is what it comes out looking like:
Pretty epic right? Yeah I love the look, and I kept to this for a few months but have now had to stop.
So what happened?
As you do this method your curls are meant to improve and your hair is meant to feel really healthy and soft. But this just didn't happen for me. I kept conditioning like crazy, even bought some rather exxy products in case it was the products I was using, but my hair just kept feeling dryer and dryer. All those beautiful curls started to turn into the worst dried out frizz ball imaginable. All I can think is either a)My hair type just doesn't mix with these products or b)we have a LOT of rust in our hot water, so my water may be too hard.
So since then I have gone back to my usual silicone-laden conditioners, and my hair is a bit better, but ever since I still struggle to get my hair back to it's normal full and soft self.
That said, if you have curly hair I TOTALLY recommend trying this out for yourself. I have seen so many amazing transformations, just sadly I wasn't one of them.
If this is something you want to try, I highly recommend joining this FB group, as they have loads of documents on products available in Aus and information on the routine, and of course support for anyone trying it out.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/curlygirlsaustralia/
Just for comparison here is my hair if I don't do anything at all:
So let's jump into what the routine entails!
Here is a great image I stole from Pinterest (if anyone knows the original creator let me know so I can credit). I think according to this I'm either a 2a or 2b (but my mum is about a 4a! Weird genetics). Basically the different curl types can react differently to different products, so that along with how thick your hair strands are (fine to course) can help you work out the best routine for you.
Here are the products I started with (I did acquire a LOT more, but I can since destashed and didn't tale photos...)
For a basic run down of what I did, although there are variants on this (if you want to try I suggest looking these all up on YouTube and look at https://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/no-poo/the-curly-girl-method-for-coily-hair):
1. To start you use a safe shampoo to do one final wash, and then from then on you only co-wash (ie scrubbing and washing your scalp only using conditioner).
2. Squish-to-condish (squishing in the conditioner to your hair and adding a little water at a time) and leave a little bit of conditioner in the hair.
3. While the hair is soaking wet, I used 'praying hands' (put your hands together lathered up with product and gently run them down the hair without pulling on it).
4. I then used a large amount of gel and with my hair upside-down, scrunched it in.
5. I then plopped it in a tshirt (lowering my head down onto the shirt so the curls naturally curled up together) and tied in onto my head to drain some of the moisture.
6. Diffuse with a hair dryer on low heat.
7. Once a week I did a deep condition, and left leave-in in my hair for 30min.
THIS is what it comes out looking like:
So what happened?
As you do this method your curls are meant to improve and your hair is meant to feel really healthy and soft. But this just didn't happen for me. I kept conditioning like crazy, even bought some rather exxy products in case it was the products I was using, but my hair just kept feeling dryer and dryer. All those beautiful curls started to turn into the worst dried out frizz ball imaginable. All I can think is either a)My hair type just doesn't mix with these products or b)we have a LOT of rust in our hot water, so my water may be too hard.
So since then I have gone back to my usual silicone-laden conditioners, and my hair is a bit better, but ever since I still struggle to get my hair back to it's normal full and soft self.
That said, if you have curly hair I TOTALLY recommend trying this out for yourself. I have seen so many amazing transformations, just sadly I wasn't one of them.
If this is something you want to try, I highly recommend joining this FB group, as they have loads of documents on products available in Aus and information on the routine, and of course support for anyone trying it out.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/curlygirlsaustralia/
Just for comparison here is my hair if I don't do anything at all:
And how I normally wear my hair (aka straightened with a bit of hair oil to weigh it down):
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