curly hair FAQ
One year ago I couldn’t get my hair to grow, couldn’t fathom living without shampoo and couldn’t figure out how to get my natural curls to look good for more than one day. I was spending more time than I wanted blow drying and curling my hair. I had no idea that I had ringlets! One year later, my hair has so much more personality, is the healthiest it’s ever been and is so easy!
For a refresher on the curly girl method, you can read my first post here. The first few months were a huge transition, but I am so glad I stuck with it because it has been completely worth it. Honestly, I wanted to quit so many times. Having a curly girl cheerleader/coach was super helpful, so feel free to message me if you have any questions or need encouragement!
Today I wanted to give an update on my wash routine as well as answer some of my most frequently asked questions.
Q. WHY DO YOU LIKE the curly girl method?
A. Let me count the ways…
It’s low-maintenance — I spend less time on my hair overall
I am embracing the hair God gave me
I only have to wash my hair once a week (the longest I have gone is actually two weeks)
My hair is finally growing (even those baby hairs from pregnancy)
My hair is much healthier and happier
Q. WHAT TYPE OF CURLS DO YOU HAVE?
A. I think I have type 2c – 3b curls, but what’s more important to figure out is hair porosity. Hair porosity is how well your hair absorbs and holds moisture. You can figure out your hair’s porosity by taking a clean strand that has been shed and putting it in a bowl of water (I just put mine in the toilet, ha!). If after 3-5 minutes it is still floating, your hair has low porosity, meaning your hair does not absorb water quickly, but it also doesn’t lose water quickly. If your hair sinks halfway, you have normal porosity, and if it sinks all the way to the bottom, you have high porosity. I have low porosity hair. When I get caught in the rain, the droplets just bead up and sit on my head. It takes a while for them to get absorbed. And after I take a shower, my hair takes about 3 hours to fully dry.
The reason I share this is because my wash routine and the products that work for me may only help those of you who also have low porosity hair. I learned the hard way that I can’t use shea products as leave-ins as they are just way too heavy for my hair.
Q. HOW DO I GET STARTED?
A. The best way to get started is to do a “final wash” using a sulfate shampoo that doesn’t have silicones. This will help jump start the process by clearing your hair of any build up. You can skip this step — the build up will eventually wear off, but it might take a while, so it’s ideal to do this if you can. I used the Suave Tropical Coconut Shampoo, but I will admit it’s kind of a bummer to buy a huge bottle (even though it’s only $2) when you only plan to use it once.
Q. HOW MUCH PRODUCT DO YOU USE?
A. I thought it would be easier to show you, so I took photos the last time I washed my hair:
L.A. Looks Extreme Sport Gel (I apply this in the shower and again after mousse)
Q. WHAT IS YOUR WASH ROUTINE?
This is what I found to work best for me throughout the fall/winter. I am still figuring out how to handle the summer humidity (so far I’ve removed the mousse and doubled the gel I’m using). But this is what allowed me to work up to 7+ days between washes:
Wet hair completely. My hair has low porosity (see above), so it takes a while to get completely wet. I stand under the water for quite a while, letting it just soak in until it is fully saturated.
“Wash” hair with conditioner. Take a palm full (or three) of conditioner and massage it into your scalp with your fingertips (preferably not fingernails). I use a mixture of a massaging and squeezing motions for a few minutes until I can feel that my hair is “refreshed.” Rinse.
Condition. Flip your head upside down again and get your hair dripping wet. This is when I detangle with a wide tooth comb. Then I take a palm full (or two) of conditioner (I use the same Suave conditioner as in step 2) and this time focus on the ends of my hair by scrunching and squishing the conditioner up into my soaking wet hair. I turn my head side to side to make sure I’m covering all angles. I leave this in for a few minutes and finish up with the rest of my shower.
Rinse/leave in conditioner. When I’m ready to rinse out my hair, I flip my head upside down again and let a little bit of water fall over my hair while I use the same scrunching motion to rinse out a little bit of the conditioner, attempting to leave some in. You will start to get a feel for how much conditioner is left in your hair. Another way to do this step is to rinse your conditioner out completely and then add back in a tiny bit of conditioner.
Time for gel! While I’m still in the shower and my hair is dripping wet, I take a dollop of gel and scrunch it into my hair. The gel will obviously get “watered down,” but I feel like this helps trap some of the moisture in my strands.
Plop with a T-shirt. After I get out of the shower, I flip my head upside down and wrap my hair on top of my head with a T-shirt (which creates less frizz than a regular towel) for five-ish minutes. You can also use a microfiber towel, but for me I find it removes too water from my hair.
Add more product. After five-ish minutes, I take a palm-full of mousse, flip my head over to shake off the T-shirt, coat my hair all over from my roots down, then scrunch up toward my scalp. Once I feel like I have touched every piece of hair, I do the same thing with another dollop of gel. Then I flip my head back right-side up and shake my hair around to part naturally. It’s important for me to do not do any brushing with a comb or my fingers at this step to get the volume I want at my roots.
Air dry. Do not touch your hair until it’s completely dry! This is my least favorite part of the entire process because I don’t like the look or feeling of wet hair. You can use a diffuser, but I don’t often want to spend the time so I just air dry (my hair takes about 3 hours to dry completely). I try to not touch my hair, but to help create root volume I will shake my head side to side to change which side of my head my part is on while it is still drying.
Scrunch out the crunch (SOTC). Once my hair is completely dry, it is stiff and crunchy. I would prefer soft curls, so this is when I scrunch out the crunch (a few different ways):
Just like you scrunched the gel in, take a T-shirt in your hands and use it to scrunch your hair to break up the gel cast. I have even done this with a paper towel when I’m in a pinch at work. You can do this with your hands as well, just remember that your skin has oils on it that might affect your final look.
Another way to soften your hair is to flip your head over and clap your hands with your hair in between your hands. Yes, it’s weird, but it works!
My third and final (and favorite) way to break up the gel cast is to use a scalp massager I purchased on Amazon to fluff my roots. I flip my head upside down and slide the massager into my hair near my roots and shake/fluff to create volume. Again, you can do this with your hands as well, just remember that your skin has oils on it that might affect your final look.
Q. HOW DO YOU REFRESH YOUR CURLS?
A. Let’s talk about how to get good results on day 2, day 3, day 4, etc. I do my full wash routine every seven days. Once I actually went 14 days between washes and it wasn’t greasy at all!
To start, at night I put my hair up in a ponytail on the top of my head (curly girls call this a “pineapple”) and sleep on a satin (or silk) pillowcase. A cotton pillowcase will create more frizz on your hair, but if you sleep in a ponytail, at least this frizz will be on the underside of your hair.
Then, on my non-wash days, I simply take my hair out of the ponytail, spray it with water and give it a good shake. The water reactivates the gel from the day (or two or seven) prior. Once it’s dry, I scrunch out the gel crunch again. I am truly amazed at how well my hair stays moisturized and curly from day to day!
This summer I am going to play around with adding more gel on my refresh days to help me beat the humidity, but that doesn’t seem to be necessary during the drier months.
Q. DO YOU EVER BREAK THE RULES?
A. Yes. I personally have not used a hair dryer, straightener or curling iron on my hair in the past year, but my hairdresser has once (with my permission, of course — thankfully she has been very supportive of my journey!). I also still color my hair every couple months (I have a lot of gray hair) and we also have done subtle highlights which helped add some dimension. When my hairdresser uses shampoo on my hair I consider that my way of clarifying (some curly girls use shampoo once a month to clarify their hair). At my appointments I also have started to let her style my hair as she wishes (last time she blew it dry and curled it). This is when I get it out of my system of thinking that I want something other than my natural curls. I’m always eager to get back to them! I do have to deep condition my hair after these appointments if she doesn’t as my hair feels so much dryer afterward (even if she doesn’t use heat on it).
Q. HAVE YOU HAD A DEVACUT?
A. Yes, I have had two DevaCuts in the past year (a DevaCut is a method of cutting curly hair), and both times I left feeling sad about losing length, so as of now I am just going to let it grow as long as I can. I’ve learned that curls get a lot springier (e.g. shorter) with just a trim. My goal is to get my hair down to my armpits!
If you’ve wanted to try the curly girl method but have questions, I would love to help!