Curly Girl Any Tips?

[ZaraW]

So I have been doing Curly Girl for 4 months and getting a bit despondent and that it really wasn't for me, I exercise a lot so use sulphate free shampoo once a week to get it feeling clean. I never got really defined curls that last. I read that it sometimes takes 8 months for people to really get good results as it takes so much playing around with products to find something that works. Anyway, I was about to give up but I bought some shea butter leave in conditioner and guess what I have beautiful frizz free curls which are well defined. I just add curl defining creme and diffuse until around 75% dry. I think I am a 2C.

Anyone else have curly girl tips? I read that some people use paper towels rather than a t shirt to scrunch and plop does that method work?

I saw little positive results from just changing my shampoo and conditioner to CG friendly products. I was really despairing over my 2c(ish) shoulder length totally frizzed out hair, to the point of considering having it cut (something I've always dreaded).
Then someone on here suggested plopping... I was extremely sceptical to say the least, but I have to say changing the way I dry my hair has improved it beyond belief!

After researching, what I do is wash and condition or co-wash (I like the Kinky Curly shampoo & conditioner but don't use it as a leave in), then while my hair is soaking wet I work though a small amount of Kinky Curly Custard and scrunch in (using the scrunch and pump method with my hands rather than a towel) the Frizz Ease Curl Control Gel. I then plop using a micro fibre towel (going cheap in Mountain Warehouse of all places) for anything up to an hour before pixie drying with my Parlux hair dryer and diffuser.
It tends to go a bit rock hard, but once I scrunch out the crunch I'e left with lovely shiny curls and more volume than I've had in years - I cannot thank the person who suggested plopping to me enough

MyMeMy thanks do you wash your shampoo your hair every time? I tried plopping but I seem to get better results from scrunching with an old t shirt. I used to do it for around 10-15 minutes maybe I need to do it longer? I have the Kinky Curly leave in conditioner but definitely got better results with the shea butter. How much of the Kinky Curly Custard do you use? I think I overloaded my hair with it when I used it. I find it difficult to guess how much product to use. On You Tube everyone uses loads of the stuff but it seems the less product I use the better. Sorry so many questions!

No problem!

I shampoo my hair at least every other time (for no logical reason I have to admit!). I think which scrunching technique is best seems to vary from person to person, but I read about scrunching handfuls towards your scalp and pumping eight times (bonkers, I know) before plopping and it seems to make all the difference to my hair. And I only discovered that leaving the towel on longer gave better results by accident - thanks to a series of post wash phone calls , so may be worth you trying.
I also used far too much of the custard in belief that using a small amount couldn't possibly do any good, but now I dip three fingers in and spread the little that sticks to my fingers through my hair - no more than five times for my entire head. Used in conjunction with the FE gel on soaking wet hair, I seem to get the benefits without the overloading.
Hope this helps!

Oh and I should say that I found that using a leave in conditioner made my hair feel good, but made the curls very limp so I wash the KC conditioner out - again, this is probably just down to my hair type

You're a star thank you!

OK will try pumping 8 times (sounds like a work out for the hair ;)) and plopping for an hour or so. I think that is where I go wrong my curls looked ok (not great) the first day but by the second day my hair was just lank and limp even the lavender spray did nothing. Will try less gel next time I use.

I just added some rosemary essential oil to my spray even if it does nothing it will smell good! I didn't realise the GC method was going to be such a journey of trial and error. I have booked some time off work in September and will travel to Birmingham to Mat James if anyone can sort me out it will be him!

Try using Tongs poppet thats the only way to get model curls

I know what you mean, trial and error gets bloody tedious - I went a bit mental and bought a ton of products that other people liked but didn't actually do it for me! I hate experimenting during the week as I wash my hair in the night then scrunch out the crunch at about 06:30 the next morning before work - not an ideal time to find out something hasn't worked
I should also mention the amount of gel I use (four big dollops) leaves my hair feeling almost rock hard an hour after the pixie drying, and my curls spring up making my hair look shorter, but once it's scrunched out the next morning it looks great, and I'm more likely to get a second day out of it if I use a few squirts of the KC Spiral Spritz.
I'm very lucky, my hairdresser (in South Wales) is great with cutting curly hair - even he noticed the improvement in how mine looked

It does get tedious AND expensive as well! Mostly my second day hair is put up, I don't have frizz and is soft which is great as my hair would look terrible if I did this before I started CG but still it would be nice to wear it down most of the time. Thanks will try the KC custard again.

Lucky you, I am still trying to find a hairdresser that understands my hair.

SWMakeup thanks but one of the reasons I went over to the CG method is to use less heat on my hair.

mymemy is the frizzease gel silicone-free? I thought the basic tenet of the curly girl method was not using frizzease...

Yes Janek - the gel is silicone free and seems to be a favourite of many CG devotees, though a lot of the other FE products aren't.
Lots of great product advice on the British Curlies forums.

Phew!

Hi! I've been doing CG for only a week, and like it so far - my hair is better behaved, thicker, curlier ... if a little duller. What was the shea butter leave-in that you bought, ZaraW? Obviously I'm still working out which products to use ...

monsterowl good luck with CG. I have the beautiful curls leave in conditioner.
www.naturallycurly.com/curlproducts/view/6551/beautiful-curls-curl-enhancing-shea-butter-leavein-conditioner-conditioner-12-fl-oz

Thanks! Will give it a go ... I think finding a good conditioner will be key for me as I have dry ends.