➿ Fantastic Haircare: Making Sense and Science of the Curly Girl Method

[botemp]

Offshoot from the Fantastic Skincare threads to document the trials and tribulations in order to make sense and science of the curly girl method. We don't necessarily follow it to the letter and are even critical of it in places. Nor are we especially knowledgeable at this point but we're learning as we go. Feel free to join in (especially if you have superior knowledge) as we attempt to approach this with an interest in ingredients and try to not buy everything that promises us magical things…

Useful blogs:

Curly Cailín
Science-y Hair Blog

Sorry my phone went crazy and I had to post that message before I lost it.

Meant to say queen, your hair looks nice and I like your highlights!

Today I did the aphogee protein treatment. It was a real faff. I put it in a spray bottle as curly Cailin suggested and the spray went everywhere. Had to mop the bathroom floor and clean mirror afterwards. Did a moisture only deep condition afterwards. Hair still in a cast but definitely looks bouncier and maybe curlier? But have more frizz than normal (which I know protein can cause). I used the exact same basic products so will asses the results when it's fully dry and cast out.

Pupsie I had a really frustrating time on Boots website this morning (I thought it might be easier than tackling the shops, queueing etc.). I was just trying to order a couple of things, including my Cantu leave in conditioning cream and Twisted Sista dream gel. The website was horribly slow, quite a few things were out of stock (fair enough) but some things appeared to be in stock until you tried to put them in your basket and up popped a message that they might be in stock in two weeks. Why not just say all the products that are out of stock are! I ended up ordering on amazon instead. I've also ordered the Grey Pepper shampoo, thanks bo. I need to stop now as next week our ensuite is being ripped out and redone, so lots of products is not a great idea. Especially, as I'll have to use the main bathroom and need to stop dd(14) from poaching my hair stuff!

I once did a lot of reading up on this to figure out why I essentially can only have one (very boring) hairstyle as I have a heart shaped almost oval face which in theory should be able to carry off any hairstyle.

It's not so much face shape but how much of your parting is visible alongside that shape. So people like Naomi Campbell, Jessica Biel, lots of models, basically known for having strong faces don't display much of their parting when you see them face on. Jawlines tend to be wider more masculine but it's not a set rule.

Then you have what is often typecast as the girl next door, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Farah Fawcett, etc. that show much more of their parting and it makes for a girlier feminine perception of their features and the face appears smaller, closer together, 'cuter', as the hair really wraps around it but the individual features can still be quite pronounced since there's less space, but it also means bangs are harder to pull off. Jawlines tend to taper, are smaller, heart shaped, diamond, etc.

Then there's many who just fall in between, they tend to be quite versatile. Think Zoey Deschanel with the bangs and the actress who played Christine Keeler on that recent dramatisation of the Profumo affair, she could really carry those 60s volumised styles off with ease despite having quite a modern face.

With age hairlines recede and therefore we all tend to look a bit harder, if you add regular Botox and filler to the mix that stretches the forehead even further back and you get those women who end up looking like medieval paintings. Hairlines make much more of an impact than we seem to notice.

With CG you see the different types as well but it's more difficult to assess with all the masses of hair piled on and the hair not laying flat. I've noticed the ones who probably have little visible parting, like Curly Cailín, they tend to do that exaggerated side part that's quite far out to get the same rounded volume around the forehead to cascade down. I tried styling it like that once (I'm of the lots of parting on display, flatter in the back sort) and wondered why I looked so bizarre until I twigged onto that. The ones with more visible partings tend to have the haircut I have with layers being key at the front and keeping the parting closer to the centre (or dead centre) so it falls around the face. I don't think there's an ideal here (perhaps just the balanced in between for ease and versatility) as they each have their own accentuation of beauty but it's just something to keep in mind.

Good layers at the front make a big difference to me, I don't have razor sharp cheekbones but they are a feature and sit moderately higher, be it a softer sort. The way Japanese and Korean women often have it. My face goes a bit shapeless when the layers have grown out and I look more of a non descript oval, when the layers are doing their thing my face has much more dimension. Sounds a bit similar to you Sophie

This kind of stuff really fascinates me Bo. Yes it's true, Reese and Jennifer don't look nice with fringes. And also very true about hairlines receding - there are some big, botoxed foreheads around here.

My face has angles ("corners" someone once said to me here ) but it also suits me if I have it in a ponytail with it all pulled tightly off my face. Does that fit in with the theory? I always describe my face as looking like a potato if I have hair just hanging shapelessly down from my face. I'm also not keen on how my hair looks when it is straightened either.

Interesting Bo. As I started reading and you mentioned Naomi and Jessica I thought "centre partings".

I'm a bit confused though. Are you are saying it's the cut/style that dictates how much parting is on show?

I have an oval shaped face. I have quite small eyes, which I have decided is not good for ageing.

Because of the sheer density of my hair I am better with having it shaped around my face, and that's how I generally had it for decades when wearing it straight. Otherwise it really overwhelmes me. I really like the shape of PowerDomi's hair. I don't know what you'd call it. I think I remember her referring to it as an inverted teardrop but I've probably got that wrong.

I also wonder about the most flattering length. The last couple of years I've definitely noticed becoming a bit jowly. I have a feeling everyone on this thread is more 20s/30s. Am I the only middle-ager?!

Pupsie, I'm late 40s. I have always found longer hair makes my face look less wide. I do have shorter bits that frame my face, lots of new growth hair and kind of shaped layers near my face (which I trimmed with proper hairdressing scissors) as the under layers are much curlier and the more wavy layers take over and look untidy.

Interesting video, bo, I was pretty sure I didn't have dandruff, as my scalp is dry and, although it's a long time since I used any, dandruff shampoo has always been too drying for me. It explains why the shampoo brush helps, I think. I know the cradle cap treatment of massaging oil plus combing the scalp to gently remove flakes, so it probably works in a similar way. The shampoo brush certainly feels great.

The medieval forehead is pretty much how I settle whether someone is in their late 30s and up or in their 20s as Botox and fillers are really more of a look these days. I find it interesting because by injecting in one spot you tend to draw attention to another and it just becomes a never ending cycle. I have no interest in it for myself but I find the aesthetic aspect of it fascinating.

Yes, I think angles is not the thing that wars with curls (the contrast is often quite nice) but I think some people can be really sharp everywhere, eyes, nose, projecting forehead, and overall narrow. I'm trying to think of a famous example but it's not really a popularised look even though it has kind of an ethereal beauty but it's fairly common in Eastern Europe, the long narrow faces with features quite close together. Not uncommon in Asia either, Lucy Liu has that very sharp look, real cascading curls would look a bit lost on her and it's nothing to do with being Asian, Sandra Oh has curly hair of her own and it suits her very well.

It is just another system trying to standardise something that isn't standardised but the Kibbe system goes into this a lot. Calls it Yin/Yang which is often loosely translated as masculine/feminine (which then gets people upset) but in essence most of us will have a variation of features and lean stronger into one side. I wouldn't buy into it wholesale and for whatever reason is having quite a revival with young women/adolescents at the moment but it makes for interesting reading.

No Pupsie, by visible parting I mean how much hair is visible from the visible top of your head down to your hairline at your forehead. So two extremes (and posing of heads does alter it somewhat), Naomi shows very little from the top of her head to forehead where there's loads of hair visible with JA and you can almost see her crown.

Interesting I just browsed through powerdomi's account before they kicked me off and demand I sign up. Every picture the top is cropped off slightly, it's very subtle but does seem to be on purpose. You only see her hair in full when it's swung over to one side. With the extreme side part you can only cover so much and it will sit a little horizontally at the top, if that's the general shape of it, I assume. With some you also get quite a square framing of the other barer corner as a result which can feel unbalanced (you can see it with CC at the top but it's very subtle with her), this is when I get the 80s perm vibes, it's not a cut that flatters all.

My estimation, much like Curly Cailín (but her side part is not as extreme), she's in the Naomi camp of not much visible from forehead to top of head (it's a head shape thing) and in comparison to the rest of the hair density and amount it's quite a 'flat' area. I do think this extreme side part thing is an insta/social media thing and wouldn't look like that in real life, or be practical, it's just the way to show off the curls to their best with a selfie lens.

I could only find this picture of Lucy Liu with curly hair.

I love Sandra Oh.

All fascinating. This is all completely alien to me and I'll probably keep it that way, certainly in terms of myself, as I am a recovering perfectionist and I don't need to overly focus on this because we've got what we've got. But I do find it very interesting!

(Surely height (of the person) also has an impact on how much crown/parting/hair you can see too?).

Sorry, here's the picture.

I don't think it's a case of one is better than the other though. Certainly certain looks will be popularised over others, obviously, but it's such a factor of the proportion of your face in relation to the head as a whole, and how your head then relates in proportion to the body. It plays into hair colour a lot too. If you're in the lots of hair visible Jen A category you can play around with highlights and ballayage as a form of contouring and elongate your face because you're shortening the dark band of hair with lighter colours, thus appearing taller (and slimmer). Where for the opposite the solid colour gives a graphic quality that delivers similar results.

Sorry Bo, I'm a little confused: do you mean Jen's head shape/forehead means that it looks from the front as Though crown is higher than the front of hair so you see the whole parting? (So jen has a diagonal head which slopes forward? Or something makes it appear like that...?)

Whereas with Naomi, her head is flatter so you don't the parting all the way back to the crown??

Your eye and level of observation is amazing Bo

I don't think Jen has a diagonal head (poor Jen) but it probably is tilted a little downward, it's very visible in the first pic but I do think she's posing with face tilted slightly down there but you can see that the back is quite flat in contrast. The face also sort of sits back and the forehead isn't projecting out (you often see
a rounded volume above the eyes).

I'm rather convinced Naomi pays good money for there to be no side profile pics of her on the internet I just found the one candid one that isn't overly posed and a very posed one. It's very different and the face is much more projected outwards and you can see the difference with the forehead in the picture I'll post after this.

Now these are obviously opposite ends of the spectrum but the profiles do really demonstrate the variation there is. I also tried to look for Sandra Oh from the side but she's even better than Naomi at hiding these pics which is annoying as I suspect it's quite similar to mine. I'm all Caucasian from the front, Asian bone structure from the side 🤣

I'm doing a little hair product shop with some spare cash

sophie i've no idea if thats what they did, I asked for a trim but a pretty substantial one, when he asked about layers I said to just trim the ones already there. He clearly decided to go a bit wild and cut in new layers underneath. Normally my underneath is longer with shorter layers to frame my face it doesn't seem like he has thinned it out but maybe it has a little.

bo this is interesting I feel like I maybe fall into the can see a fair amount but nowhere much as jens camp but who knows because I also like to flop my hair over to one side when its longer. Interesting to learn why some cuts look great on certain people and terrible on others

Wow! Ocado sell the Pantene mousse so I've added it to next week's order .

Well, I tried the Briogeo shampoo and, company ethics aside, it's quite nice, smells like chocolate mint ice-cream , creamy shampoo that seems to get rid of build up/exfoliate nicely. It's a bit too dry for my scalp, I still have a few dry patches around my hairline. It's also £££ for a proper size tub, so I probably wouldn't have bought the big version, anyway. I'll use it up but make sure I use it with something very moisturising.

Just reading through this thread. I've been doing CGM now for a couple of years. It is as simple as you want it to be. Personally I find the less product I use the better the result. Will try to post a photo. Mightn't be great as hair in desperate need of a trim 😁

Here goes

I didn't know we had so many curlies hiding on the skincare thread you have lovely ringlets skinful and I'm of the colour too.

I'd love to be as minimal as possible (and it is my ultimate goal as I'm lazy but will invest loads of time and effort to be able to be lazy long term) but I suspect you kind of need to go through a large process of elimination before you can sort of figure out what you can strip out and what to prioritise.

Saying that, after watching a video on hard water by manes by Mell (who is never demonising of sulphates) and how sulphates interact with hard water, I may need to rethink my attachment to sulphates. So that's the next focus, I don't think I'll ever be done experimenting at this rate

Out, I'm the same, somewhere in the Jen camp but not as extreme. I know I need my hair cut as my side part keeps moving further out and then at some point it just becomes ridiculous 🙉

I was looking at some Vidal Sassoon photos yesterday and it's quite interesting as he really played with this notion of how much hair is visible by recreating the hairline as part of the geometric cut. It's weird that we've never had a hairdressing movement quite like that since.

Gorgeous ringlets skinful. I wish I could use minimum products, my hair is like a sponge .

I've always had a high forehead, but now I'm not sure if it's moreso as I'm older. I cut a few more layers around my face, trying to blend the shorter bits around my face with the side bits a bit more.

A bit fluffy on top due to humid weather! A couple of days after washing. Refreshed hair with water, Cantu leave in conditioning cream and boots curl creme. I think I need to stop the trimming now as it's made it almost a bit too layered near the front. My hairdresser is opening soon, but I think phoning around clients.