Curly hair advice - with photo

[onceicaughta12345]

I've got naturally curly hair which I've straightened daily for the last 20 years or so! I've just discovered that it's much less time consuming to wash, leave to dry naturally and embrace the curls. I like the shape of them, but find they look a bit dry.
What do other curly haired people put into wet hair to get rid of the straw look?
I wear it curly for a couple of days and then straighten for a couple of days before washing again.

Oil or oil based serums.

I've gone full on curly girl.... no shampoo, no silicones, loads of conditioning stuff.

There are Facebook groups and stuff on google about it.

Condition, condition, condition! Use loads when you wash it, and try alternate washes with no shampoo, massaging conditioner in the same way you would use shampoo and rinse out. Add some conditioner on the ends after rinsing as a leave-in. Scrunch the water out with a cotton t-shirt rather than a towel as it stops it frizzing up. Then experiment with different products to see what suits you. I like boots curl creme, and umberto gianni curl friends scrunching jelly. You can scrunch out the crunchiness once your hair is dry.

Definitely join the curly girls fb group. No shampoo. I'm sure you will develop amazing curls

My top tip: Figure out which way your hair curls and twist small sections of it in that direction (with fingers) when wet. Then leave to dry. Mine curls towards my face on both sides.

Apply a curl cream first, though. Umberto Giannini used to have a great Curl Friends Cream but I can't find it anymore. These days I use VO5 Frizz Free Cream from Boots.

I've tried Argan oil and heat defence oil but neither helped much. Not sure I want to go 100% curly girl route as it's only 2 days I leave it like this before wearing it straight for 2 days. I like both curly and straight equally and not sure if the no shampoo etc would look ok when I wear it straight?
Mainly after advice on a product I can just run through it before I fall asleep with it wet and wake up with the curls.
I've found scrunching it in the past gives me too much volume at the top and the curls are wild. Much prefer the beach waves look on my hair, just looking for less frizz!

"I like both curly and straight equally and not sure if the no shampoo etc would look ok when I wear it straight?"

I'm currently not straightening, but, I can't see any reason why it wouldn't, my hair is clean and soft and what have you just using conditioner to wash - I've always thought I had greasy roots, turns out I really don't, just shampoo was stripping everything out.

I might give the no shampoo a go then. My only worry is that I get a really flaky scalp which is fine as long as I use head and shoulders. Not changed back to a normal shampoo for years so not sure if the flakiness would come back.

I get dandruff if I use certain stuff, so far so good though (I jumped in properly about 2 months ago)

I've played with it before and done it wrong and it wasn't great, but if you read up a bit to make sure you've got something that'll get all the current silicone out and that the conditioned you're using is fine, it's worth a try.

I've actually got a curly girl friendly shampoo sitting because I wasn't quite convinced either, but it's still in standby as co-washing has worked.

Your scalp will probably improve with no shampoo as well. I would leave a bit of conditioner in the ends after rinsing. If you carry on straightening the curl will not develop properly so might be worth a try just being curly for a while & see what happens. Definitely join the fb group, they are evangelical but have useful lists of products & lots of advice.

Thanks for all of the advice. I'll join the Facebook group too!

I couldn't get my head around not washing with shampoo. So I use a little scrunching gel to define the curls better and get rid of frizz.

"I couldn't get my head around not washing with shampoo."

That's why I have one on standby, lol... but so far I've not needed it.