Curly girl method?

[OneSliceOfSwissCheese]

Has anyone followed this? I've only just heard of it and some of it I'm doing already (gently combing hair covered in conditioner when I'm in the shower but not interfering with it too much otherwise).

I'm wondering whether to give other aspects of it a go as I was looking at some photos over christmas and my hair is definately more frizzy and less defined curls than it used to be.

Any experiences or tips on good (and inexpensive) products?

Thanks!

I've been doing this for about 2 months now. I have found Tresemme Naturals conditioner to be very good (it was half price in Superdrug for the big bottle ) but it has to be the 'Naturals' one as the other one has got Silicone in.

Umberto Giannini Flirty Curls gel (bright pink tube) and boots curl creme (you don't need much and it's very cheap) have become my best friends. I can now go 2-3 days without wetting/washing my hair by just spraying with a conditioner spray made up from the Tresemme conditioner and water and then applying the UG gel and scrunching - this was unheard of before as I was washing daily or pulling back in a scruffy bun!

I bought a microfibre turbie-towel too which has helped as normal towels made my hair frizz.

Oh that's good to know curly, thanks for responding :)

I've just bought the book and I'm going to try it on my dds. I have just flicked through it but I think the main ideas are

No silicone in anything
No shampoo
No brushing or combing
Lots of conditioner and what she calls 'gel' - I don't know what that is yet. Not that stuff in the pots from the 80's surely.

I've always been tempted to try it, but I do like to straighten my hair sometimes and I'm not sure you can do both?

I think morally the curly girl method is against straightening as it is strongly pro-curl. But I think you could straighten once in a while as long as you didn't use a silicone product. Your hair would be more curly though from following all the other stuff so it might be a bigger job to straighten.

I've been doing it for three years. I use dr organics conditioner from holland and barratt and 'dirty' hair stuff from lush, which lasts ages.

Yes, for about 5 years. I don't follow it strictly but I use shampoo as infrequently as I can get away with, because for my hair it soon became apparent that shampoo was the biggest contributor to dryness and the subsequent frizz. So I shampoo once a week at most.
I don't completely avoid silicone products, but I don't seem to suffer from build up. And the only one that I use regularly is Aveda Brilliant Emollient Finishing Gloss - use it maybe twice a week.
I love the Tresemme Naturals Conditioner as both my co-wash and leave in.
My hair doesn't like the Boots Curl Creme very much, but it does like the el cheapo Boots purple gel that comes in a tub. This may be discontinued. It lasts me over a year and used to be 99p a tub .

Benefits of CG for me?
Hair is much more manageable and healthy looking than it's ever been, and once I found the products that work for me I now spend far, far less on hair care products than I used to. The Tresemme Naturals is nearly always on offer at Sainsburys, the gel is 99p as mentioned, and my deep conditioner is by Aubrey Organics. That is around £10 but lasts me at least two years as I only DC once every two weeks. The Aveda gloss is about £20, cheaper on trips to the US, but as I only need one or two drops the bottle lasts forever. I can't remember when I last bought one but it's at least four years.

Oh and I do straighten. Sometimes .

This is all very interesting and useful, thanks all.

Those who don't shampoo at all, or much, do you really feel your hair is clean when you wash it with conditioner?

Any other tips?

I like to wash my hair with shampoo around once a week, I use Body Shops rainforest shampoo that I bought my youngest as its got no SLS in it (he's got eczema) and it smells yum.

If I get my hair done for a night out it has to consist of using GHD's to create a smooth wave and Elentt hairspray (has silicone) so the following day i shampoo it with a clarifiying shampoo to remove the cones and start the routine again.
It works for me

I NEVER use shampoo. My hair feels clean after it's been washed. I wasn't that greasy to start with, although it was greasier in the days i used to straighten it - i guess straight hair shows up the grease more.

subbing because im tempted to do this!

SueFawley, which Aubrey conditioner do you use?

I have scalp problems so am tempted to stop shampooing my hair too. I do use Bodyshop rainforest shampoo about twice a week at the mo so might cut down to once a week to start with and see what happens. In between could I just wet and put conditioner on?

I've not been using conditioner with silicones for a few weeks now - I'm using Boots Naked conditioner - but would also like to find a deep conditioner without silicones to use. My hair gets very dry and frizzy.

Thanks for the CG link, I'll read through it all.