To anyone trying curly girl methods for the first time, I would suggest you don't have to follow it exactly. Have a play and pick and choose which bits work for you. I tried to do it all at once and my hair looked awful.
I've been experimenting for a couple of years and and find that the whole silicone free sulphate free thing makes no difference to me. I just use whatever's on offer and can't be bothered looking at ingredients.
What i do find important is using conditioner to cowash. However I always wash my scalp properly with shampoo. If I don't, my roots get greasy and I lose volume and get itchy. So I scalp wash with whatever shampoo is lying around and then use conditioner to cowash rest of hair.
For those who do their hair at night, I also have to do hair before bed as I leave house at 6.45 and don't have time to wait for it to dry in morning. i sleep with conditioner in (not my cowash conditioner, usually a slightly heavier one that I have combed through).
In the morning, I use a large denman paddle brush to brush lots of water through the canopy and front on my hair. This helps the curls clump beautifully. It gets its wet enough to set the curls but not so wet i can't dry it. Brushing it this way also gets the cuticles smoothed down and my curls looking shiny. I know some people spraytheir hair in the morning but that doesn't work for me - it doesn't keep frizz away and I always end up looking messy.
I add bits and bobs of product in the morning. Leave in conditioner, curl cream and or gel. Maybe one, two or all three. I then do make up etc and then I'll diffuse before I leave house. Diffusing makes a massive difference to curl and volume.
I reckon if takes me 5 minutes to wet and brush my hair and add product. Then there's the waiting time (min 20min but obvs I can eat then etc) and ten min max to diffuse and a final check/fiddle.
The Curly girl method is a great starting point but it's often very prescriptive. I'd encourage anyone to get onto YouTube and watch people with similar hair to yours and then spend loads of time experimenting.
I've spent loads of money on cg friendly products and haven't found they are worth the expense. For cowash I will use a cheapie own brand conditioner, for rinse out (which I keep in!) I use a heavier conditioner, whatever's been in offer in boots. Something a bit flasher than my cowash. the only products I've ever been committed to are an amazing leave in called kinky curly knot today which I bulk buy. And the loreal invisgel / invisihold gel. Saying that, I am going to try the cheap Tesco one now that a pp recommended!