➿ 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

Looks lovely Bo. So you used innersense low poo (which one?), BC clump cream and innersense I create hold gel? And then scrunched with a bit of the innersense foam?

I'm not even going to read article re 2 week miracle hair. I'm still cross about all the misrepresentation and inconsistency.

Considering she only washes her hair once a week, it's a proper miracle. Next week we'll discover the baby Jesus was hiding behind that curtain of hair all along 🤣

Yes, I used the Innersense pure shampoo and conditioner, BC cc, Inn hard hold gel and then tiny amount of foam to scrunch out with when it was dry. I think I went a little too heavy with the gel because a full size pump bottle vs a small sample pot means you become rather reckless it's settled and softened a bit so all's well. I do seem to get a lot of smaller clumps with Innersense, maybe it's my technique? I've attempted clump encouraging techniques before but it usually just ended up a bit of a mess...

Did try the new shampooing technique where I placed five tiny dots of shampoo on each finger on both hands then carefully massaging the scalp and trying not to lift up and down and then just smoothing a small amount through the rest of the hair and leaving it for a bit, emulsified a little by adding water, smoothed suds over and then rinsed out completely. Worked well for me, don't know if it's responsible for frizz reduction considering the heavy handed gel use but it felt like a better scalp cleanse than my somewhat more vigorous impatient approach. Has anyone ever tried mixing the two Innersense gels? I've layered them on top of each other but never mixed.

I've seen people raving about pinning curls to train reluctant ones but all it does for me is break up what I do have.

My package has arrived and I've jumped straight in with the innersense hydrating pack and create hold gel. The hair bath and conditioner were lovely, though I can see me digging out one of my old lab spatulas for getting the conditioner out of the bottle. It would be much better in a tub. All went to poymt when I used the LIC and my hair felt like it was losing all the softness from the conditioner. I kept adding more and more of the gel but I don't know if it was enough and I didn't want to go any further. I have quite a bit of halo on my wet hair. I'm prone to halo, anyhow, with such a mix of textures but this seems quite bad. I shall have to try again without the LIC, at some point.

I keep getting that story on my news feed too. All I thought was think of the build up!

Northern Mallorca is very beautiful, in fact those parts of Mallorca off the main resorts, generally. Not Mediterranean, but we went to the beach yesterday and had the very delicious (Cromer) crab from the café. Usually, I have it in a salad but there's a restricted takeaway menu atm, so it was crab salad sandwich 😋.

That's annoying Pick, I've used the LIC a few times but it wasn't very memorable. There's a fair amount of aloe and glycerin in Innersense products, especially the LIC, so it could be flash drying? Did you spray it onto hair or into hands first?

I think in the full size the conditioner comes with a pump (or maybe curly Cailín put a pump in hers and took it from the shampoo?).

Do you have any links for pinning curls, I get a load of vintage tutorials and I do like the idea of doing it to get wider waves for the variation.

Do you live in Mallorca Quirky? I had only been once, to Magaluf when I was 18, with 27 other people (my best friend's parents took their kids and they all took some friends. It was madness!). Needless to say I never got to see the sheer beauty of the island.

I personally love the South of France. Obviously it's glitzy and gauche but I spent so many holidays there in the late 70s and early 80s and have been back a few times since. I love the hill villages and the quiter beaches, and Port Grimaud, and yes, I love yacht watching in Antibes.

Anyway, I digress. I think I might have had a successful wash day last night. I played cricket so didn't get to wash it until 9pm so I did diffuse for 10-15 minutes. I used the Hairfinity mask for 15 minutes. I used a relatively small amount of Blueberry Bliss conditioner (anyone else use this?). Then I had a gut feeling to skip the clump cream and I went straight to diluted Innersense Gel, and I used around 1.5 times the usual amount.

I have just taken delivery of some fabulous root clips. Big plastic ones and I used 2 across my parting: so much easier than the fiddly metal ones, for me anyway.

I got a really firm cast around the sides and front. I rarely get a good cast at the back, or underneath. It wasn't quite dry when I went to bed so I pineappled it as loosely as possible (headaches) in a silk scrunchie. The cast is still slightly there today. I've not taken it down yet as I've got leg day in the gym so I'll do so after. Last night/this morning it looks like I've got better clumps than I've had in a while. It had definitely gone a bit limp with longer, elongated waves recently.

The pinning stuff has mostly been on reddit, @botemp, so I don't have any links because it's such a pain to navigate. It seems to be most effective on type 3 hair when people are striving for lots of definition, to be honest.

My hair isn't good, today. Not particularly wavy, lots of proper frizz and just looks coated. After spraying my arm and then the bathroom wall, I sprayed the LIC onto my hand and scrunched it in that way which is what I normally do when I use hair food as a leave in - on hair that's still dripping wet, too. It just made my hair stick to my hands and feel rough and I think it was a coating too far. Never mind, I'm sure my sister will enjoy trying it out! She gets all my curly cast offs.

I need to look up flash drying.

Here's a blog article I found really helpful on flash drying themestizamuse.com/blog/flash-drying

I'll have a look on Reddit, I kind of stopped looking there as it (the American based one) was more of a popularity contest with the wall to wall selfies and the reaction to men was especially bizarre. Is it that one or the UK one you were looking at?

Trepadora have a new gel out, sample is £5 on their website if anyone wanted to try it

Posted too soon. Anyway my haircut is a disaster
I wanted my usual inverted bob, so below chin at the front to hide my multiple chins and shorter at the back. It was ok, but then she has cut the layers on top, to maybe cheekbone length? So if you think logically a layer on top is also going to be at the front of your head so I have short bits at the front
I'm going to wash and style it today but I've got a shoot next weekend and have been in tears over it
Messaged the curl specialist I'm booked with for October and she said if it's not grown long enough she will cut it so it grows into the right shape and try to help at a reduced price

Pic of what I wanted, so there's no short bits really except the layers being a little shorter
And what I've got

@botemp

Here's a blog article I found really helpful on flash drying themestizamuse.com/blog/flash-drying

I'll have a look on Reddit, I kind of stopped looking there as it (the American based one) was more of a popularity contest with the wall to wall selfies and the reaction to men was especially bizarre. Is it that one or the UK one you were looking at?

Yep, I found that article and that does sound like what happened. Didn't help that it was uncharacteristically hot and dry here when I washed my hair. Back to usual dampness, today. My eyes are terribly itchy after last night's storm, anyhow, so I was glad to tie it back and forget about it.

I follow both curly subs on reddit. The British one is definitely more inclusive. I automatically down vote anyone on the international site who is showing off more cleavage than curl pattern!

That's such a shame @queenCT. The style you wanted is pretty much what mine was, when it was last cut, in March. Apart from bits I'm still growing out, my layers at the front are pretty much the full length of the rest of the hair.

Well I've washed it and it's awful and now I'm crying. Had to cancel all my booked shoots

I wish I did live in Mallorca, Pupsie. I'm in East Anglia, not quite so exotic. We have some beautiful beaches here as well, though.

How annoying, Queen. Curly hair can easily be cut wrongly, I know not all hairdressers can cut curly hair.

Queen, I'm sorry you're so upset. I know what it's like to get the wrong cut and how disheartening it is. I've had that cut as well and it should be all one length at the front

Well I've just washed my hair. Did a rice rinse as well, this time a longer fermented one (it didn't smell that great, faint whiffs of blue cheese and sick 🤢) but it seemed to work well, left it to marinate for about half the time as I wasn't sure if that extra time was going to influence it.

Unfortunately, I decided to use the Innersense LIC and experienced some flash drying as well. Not as extreme as you Pick but I definitely felt it getting gritty out of nowhere. Styling has been a bit of a nightmare as the strands are all tangling into each other with the added grip when I turned my head right way up again.

I've attempted a quick fix of finger coiling (it's worked well for me in the past but I just find it too much effort) and an extra glazing of watered down gel and after a blast with the diffuser to get the gel to cast ASAP I think I've avoided the worst of it WRT wet frizz but I'm not hopeful for the outcome.

I've washed it and salvaged a bit but it's still way too short. I've actually sent a complaint which I never ever do

I think Flash drying might explain why the shea moisture coconut and hibiscus did such a number on my hair, now I think about it.

I tried to dig deeper and I think this article has just sent me down bo's rabbit hole.
science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/moisturizing-low-porosity-hair.html?m=1
I will not be attacking my hair with baking soda, mind. It's taken me 2.5 years to grow to collar length. I have no inclination towards ruining it, deliberately!

Yeah, the scienc-y hair blog is great. Definitely not going with baking soda either but that particular post has been really useful (and also explains why I've never been able to just use any old shampoo and conditioner from the supermarket and that they're not bloody all the same🤬).

Attached how my hair looks this morning, if anyone needs a visual for what flash drying does to your hair. The finger coiling salvaged some of it but it's still a complete mess and clinging on to itself and shaping around the head weirdly like some sort of web.

I'm oddly satisfied knowing that some Innersense, too, can be crap . I really liked the kinky curly knot today LIC better anyhow (just need to be able to buy it for forever now) and a refresher from that blog post explains to me exactly why as it has all the special ingredients I should look out for and none that I should avoid.

I need to investigate shampoo a bit further, Innersense still worked well this second time using it but it was definitely not as good as the first time. That blog post is definitely reminding me there's more to consider when it comes to shampooing low porosity hair.

Oh Queen very sorry to hear about the haircut. I hope it will grow quickly. How disappointing and exactly why I get so anxious when I have to have my hair cut.

I don't think your hair looks that bad Bo. Not one of your better photos but it's ok. Have you considered using a sulphate-free clarifying shampoo? I was reading that some people alternate washes between low poo and clarifying. Sorry if I've got the wrong end of the stick with the shampooing but haven't slept well and very tired.

Yeah it's not awful but it just doesn't feel very nice and it moves a little unnaturally as it all hangs on to each other like one mass. I'll go out with it today (and expect the wind to thoroughly turn it into a bird's nest by end of day) and I'll try a refresh tonight or tomorrow morning. I do like the effect of the finger coiling, I should do it more often.

I used the Cantu clarifying shampoo to remove all the polyquat soil (buildup) and that is technically a sulfate free clarifying/chelating but it's far too drying to use on the regular going by that wash. The bounce curl one may be suitable but I want to do a bit of research what exactly suits low porosity best (which I do suspect is a slightly stronger shampoo, or a double cleanse) as a lot of the sulfate free clarifying shampoos use a lot of heavy occlusives which don't tend to bond that well to low porosity hair, I think it just washes away when shampooing so it tends to feel harsher.

So sorry to hear about your haircut Queen. Little consolation but it probably doesn’t look bad to anyone else. You will just be concentrating on the “mistakes” that you see. And it will grow.
Big hugs x

Bearing in mind I asked for inverted, below chin. This is after I attacked the weird uneven bits with scissors myself.. and how short some of it is

Trying a refresh without LIC, using water spray, boots purple gel (not very strong and some protein) instead and then boots curl creme as usual. A bit too wispy and sticky, whereas I had nice bouncy curls yesterday after olaplex and an Osmo mask. I will try just the curl creme tomorrow.

It doesn't look too bad, Queen but it's not what you asked for, I know.

SophieLion, I am wondering whether to alternate between chelating/clarifying and loo poo. I currently do chelating/clarifying and co-wash, but I seem to have considerable build up each time after co-washing atm. I might just need to mix it up a bit.

I didn't get on with co-washing at all Quirky. It was ok for a few washes and then my hair was awful. Product build up. Don't bother with co-washing anymore. Low poo usually for me. Chelate once a month and maybe do a clarifying wash with a sulphate-free brand we have here (thank goodness - easy to get hold of and very reasonably priced too) every couple of weeks if I fancy it.

I get the impression that co washing is best for thicker coarser hair. For my fine hair it's not good. Or perhaps it's to do with porosity.

I find that curly hair always needs a couple of weeks after a cut to settle itself Queen. The wet cuts always seem to cut my curls off in the wrong place. I hope you will feel happier with it soon. It looks nice in the photo but as Quirky says, it's not what you asked for.