To think Curly Girl Method is just a huge amount of stress to look lank and greasy??

[TheOtherSideOfTheMountain]

I know the die hard CGM followers will lynch me for this.

I thought lockdown was the absolute perfect time to take up Curly Girl Method. So I've not only been doing it myself for 5 weeks now, but also avidly researching and following loads of social media groups to learn all about it.

The thing that has really struck me is...even those who get through the "settling" period of letting your hair adapt to no shampoo, no silicone and sulfates etc - because it's accepted that you have to become a greasy mess for a bit to come out the other side - whisper it just never end up looking that great.

I must have viewed hundreds of galleries of people showing before and after pics. Some of them DO look amazing- that's how I got sucked in. But what I've noticed is the ones who look fab with huge bouncy curls, when you really read their routines properly - often aren't following it properly. They're cheating with the odd shampoo, or a non CGM conditioner. Those who religiously only use the approved products and methods seem, even at their very best, to look a bit dreadlocky....sort of greasy and stringy. Even when everyone tells them they look awesome.

So why has this method got such a cult following? People are spending literally hundreds of pounds trying to find the holy grail approved product. They're beating themselves up if they accidentally use something which isn't CGM approved. I'm seeing people get really really stressed about not following every instruction to the letter. But nobody is acknowledging the fact that actually they might look a whole lot better if they just cherry pick the bits of the method that work for them?

I've said it before and I'll say it again - unless you enjoy spending ages playing with your hair, get it straightened. Curls usually mean really thick hair so it won't look thin, and it won't be dead straight anyway.

I have no interest in appearance faff. It does mean an annual day at the hairdressers and a fair bit of cash, but after that it is get up, comb, done. On hair wash days it is a few minutes straightening the next morning (so it is properly dry, hairdryers don't work on my hair unless I spend 30 mins doing it).

I thought I'd give CG a go while in lockdown as well but when I started looking at online resources the amount of products these people suggest you need to get is ridiculous! Also I have tried silicone and paraben free shampoos and conditioners before and my hair was horrifically knotty. My hair loves silicone and I am not ashamed!

I don't trust anyone who claims that they have some product/method that is a fix all for anyone, human bodies/hair/skin don't work like that. Take the bits that work for you but don't get into these beauty cults where the real driver is selling endless products.

The curly girl method doesn't really work for DP, DD or me, and we all have curly hair of different types.

I have been CG for 6 years. Wash with poundland conditioner, scrunch with tesco basics gel. Sometimes dry hair with diffuser, sometimes don't. Wash my hair every 5 days. I have never spent so little time and money on my hair and it's in much nicer condition. I used to have dry frizz.

Since lock down I have just been using sulfate free shampoo and non silicone conditioner, then plopping. No products at all. I really like how my hair looks.

I tried the Cirly girl method a few years ago. I didn't get on with it but like you say we are all different.

I wash mine with A good shampoo and conditioner then wrap hair up for half an hour. Air dry then when still slightly damp I use organic coconut oil. Makes it shine and tames the frizz.

I assume the CG people with manky looking hair are going for that look tbh...

I tried it for about a year, it’s not the best for my hair, but my hair didn’t look that weird greasy weighed down way either.

I don’t religiously follow it, but I have done. I’ve been doing it for around 9 years or so now.

Lorraine Massey is white so I doubt it was originally designed for Afro hair, but it is better for dry curls rather than greasy waves. I don’t think it works if your hair is naturally on the greasy side.

It works for me in that 4/5 of my products are CG approved. My finishing product is a wax which isn’t, but without it my hair just loses moisture over the course of the day and gets bigger and bigger and bigger!

It’s not worth doing it though if you’re happy with your current routine and products.

I think you need to use common sense with it. If you have fine, thin hair then loads of conditioner and no shampoo is not good for it, no matter how curly it is.

I think CGM has been incredibly useful in getting people to be more mindful of what's in their shampoo and conditioner. I only ever use a very gentle shampoo these days and silicone-free conditioner. Before CG I had no idea that shampoos and conditioners could be so damaging. I don't do true curly girl as I shampoo twice a week, but my entire routine is still Curly Girl-inspired, shall we say.

I do think it is important for scalp health to keep that clean and free of oils.

I do my own version of the method and use sulphate feee shampoo as my scalp gets sore and itchy if I don't. Really like Shea Moisture products.

I don't actually like some of the after photos on curly girl Facebook groups. Some of the curly cuts are quite old fashioned looking, in a bowl shape at the back with perfect curls. I prefer a more natural style with a little bit of frizz.

Also there are a lot of people out there who think their hair is curly when at best it has a slight wave. Sorry. A couple of ringlets at the ends of hair does not mean that people need the full CG routine.

Not all CGM hair products are the same (in terms of how your hair will like them). It's pot luck really. I don't have curly hair actually but I have tired, fine, easily damaged hair so I tried it and went through lots of products before I did find some CG approved that worked with my hair for a long time.

Having said that, from time to time I use selected Pantene products and it quite likes that for a change/extra shine/extra strength, but not for continued use. When it starts looking or feeling tired of that I use Simple shampoo which is not CG but seems to take out the silicone deposits gently (more gently than clarifying shampoos) and then I start with the CG approved ones again. I think both have their merits.

I also don't believe hair can be truly "self cleaning". Even on one of those wilderness programmes a lady with long hair never used shampoo as she couldn't buy or carry it around all the time, but even she used urine as some sort of rinse. (ie she didn't just never wash her hair). I think daily sweat, dirt in the air etc means certain hair (all but the very short styles) would struggle to somehow magically clean itself to modern standards of clean, shampooed hair. Our expectations of what "self cleaning" means in comparison to shampoo washed hair are probably way too high!

Oh and the biggest difference you can make (in my unscientific opinion) is limiting heat. Hairdryers, straighteners etc. It takes a certain type of strong, thick hair to not show the damage from regular heat especially if it's coloured too. You can leave hair to air-dry, combing it through occasionally so it doesn't dry oddly and applying oil at the ends to tame any frizz. You can even put it in pin curls or paper curls for lift at the roots (I think velcro rollers can be very harsh on fine hair).

Are those natural curls,dangeorus?

They're AMAZING!

I have 3 girls with different types of curly hair ranging from really thick almost course hair to thin ringlets.

They all follow a variation of the curly girl method. No shampoo, one of the approved conditioners and use a tangle tamer brush/wide toothed comb when hair is wet.

We had to try three or four different conditioners but we have found one that works. The banana or strawberry one from poundland works best for my girls.

I do think that some of the people on the cg facebook group make it so complicated with buffs,gels,sprays,leave in conditioners etc but if that works for their hair then good for them. It is trial and error.

I tried it and my hair looked awful. My friend tried it too and she raves about it... to me it looks greasy and dirty.

the whole CG cult is too much.

SO much gatekeeping
"Your hair is not curly at the root BEGONE WAVY INFIDEL")

and so much slavish ritualism "First you have to use Special Sauce 1, then 2, then 1 again, then Plop in the Shroud of Turin, then freeze in 23 Kelvin temperatures to create a cast, then scrunch out, then spritz with holy water, never touch it, don't allow straight haired people to gaze upon it, sleep in a bed of spider's silk and DONE! Simples :)"

I think with the CG groups, you get a lot of people using products that aren't great for their hair type eg fine wavy hair trying to use and leave in a heavy conditioner or using loads of cantu activator (very heavy!). Also, I have known people who cowash but don't do it properly or expect to go straight from washing daily with harsh shampoo to washing weekly with conditioner. So, I think there are a multitude of issues.

I love the CG method generally (carefully tweaked for MY hair type) and found conditioner only washing gave me non greasy lovely clean hair. I saw it like using a creamy face cleanser rather than a foaming face wash. However, I was going through a ton of conditioner so now, mainly for environmental reasons, I shampoo with a tiny bit of Shea moisture and then use CG approved conditioner, add a tiny bit of conditioner back in and then a CG approved curl cream. It seems to work just as well as conditioner only washing.

I have literally zero split ends even though I haven't had my hair cut for maybe 9 months. I used ot have a frizzy bushy head full of split ends! I spent age 12-36 buying products and never ever being totally happy with my hair. Now, I'm so much happier with it, it's soft and clean and it takes even less time and definitely a lot less money than it did before. I never buy the expensive stuff like deva curl etc. It also isn't perfect frizz free spirals like some people on the CG groups but I prefer a natural beachy sort of look on me and it's really shiny.

I have been following cgm for a few years now and my hair looks so much better than it used to. It definitely isn't greasy. However, it is curly hair and it has a mind of it's own, which means that it looks different everyday and I still have bad hair days for no apparent reason.

Callimanco

That seems to be the sort of look that most CGs aspire to but it just isn't for me, I think it makes the hair look greasy. I prefer a softer curl. If it has to be a bit frizzy then so be it, I prefer my hair with frizz than with grease.

And I think a lot of people are deluded about how greasy their hair looks.

Has anyone tried scientifically breaking it down?

So:

1. No shampoo but no product either

Or

1. All the product AND shampoo

Etc...

To me it seems that the huge use of product offsets any benefit from not using shampoo. And that’s if you manage to get the products right.

The CG Facebook group is crazy, any group where you have to close it over the weekend to give the admins some time off is doing something wrong. I do like looking at the pictures though.

I need to use mousse or gel whether I shampoo or not. If I don't my hair is just a fluffy mess.

And I don't use a huge amount of products

I’ve been cg for 10 years as it helps my scalp psoriasis but agree hair type plays a massive part I’ve wasted tons of money over the years on stuff that’s too heavy and over moisturising for my fine hair plus my dd’s have a ton of hair and dry scalps now so my goal was to find something cost effective that suits us all. Right now were managing well with a tresemme sulphate free shampoo and a garnier natural blend silicone free conditioner both cheap as chips and always on offer but I do go spendy on styling Ouidad Climate Control gel works best for my fine 3a hair