➿ 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

My hair doesn't grow that fast at the temples, quirky. Annoyingly, I have a really short bit on one side where my hair got caught in my glasses and it's barely grown in 3 months so still stands out when I tie my hair back.

I quite liked the sliminess of the Confident Coils, bo - it felt the antithesis of that horrible sticky, tangly sensation when my hair flash dries. The cleanser just felt oily, though, a bit like the ecoslay mint tingle, and didn't really lather like the name implied it would, so I had to use quite a bit to get to all my scalp.

I think I could have got away with closer to my usual amount of gel, yesterday, without leaving my hair too coated, but pretty pleased with my hair, this morning, particularly at the back. It's dropped a fair bit after a sweaty walk, as it's pretty humid here, today but I've definitely got something to work with. I think my next experiment will be adding the confident coils to the innersense trio.

I'm trying the trepadora ginseng today so will see how that goes. Smells nice and the texture is good

Just had a look at the trepadora website. Nice to see some British made products but the gels and glazes all have glycerin right at the top of the ingredients list.

Forgot to attach picture, earlier. I love wearing red with my hair, though it makes my face look rather haggard, these days.

And I have an appointment for a cut on Thursday. Had to ring back and double check the date because my hearing on the telephone isn't great, at the best of times, without talking to someone muffled by a mask!

Did Curly Cailin ever annouce the brand she was using last month? (Now returned to "old favourites").

I've all but given up in this heat. We're off to North Devon for a few days next week. Rain forecast daily. One extreme to the other!

@Pupsiecola she said she hasn't announced yet and was trying to get a discount code first

Got a sample size of the Trepadora Ginseng glaze. Have used it twice now and love it. Still using the Innersense I create volume lotion and applied about a ten pence size with praying hands of the trepadora after. Found it gave my fine hair very good hold without being too heavy or products or too heavy a cast,which I had feared. It has held out really well without need for refresh since I washed it Friday.

We have a feeling she might have been trying the treluxe Pupsie. Hope you enjoy Devon!

On holiday and it's quite humid here - the most humid it's been since I started my "journey" and find my hair starts the day being soft and bouncy and then very quickly goes a bit frizzy/not as smooth - I've assumed this is the humidity.

Thanks, bo, for the Gallinee recommendation and the science panel. That was interesting, yes, it was on that about glucosides. I think I've always said that with CGM (and most things in fact) you have to do what works for you. Sometimes it is hard to find what does, though.

I've just ordered a full size innersense hydrating cream conditioner, as I have really liked it. I think my hair is also really benefitting from less harsh shampoo and no co wash. The clarifying shampoo I used to use and the purple shampoo were too drying, but most silver hair forums seem to just accept this as a fact. It's been good to find that this isn't necessarily the case.

I'm glad to hear both shampoos are working well for you, quirky. The Gallinee is a bit of a ripoff of the Biologique Recherche shampoo that was recommended to me when I was there last summer. It's stupidly expensive though and they were out of the travel sizes but I think that may be a better choice for me as it has a variation of surfactants but no sulfates (which had deterred me at the time).

I just washed my hair again with the Innersense shampoo and I keep needing to use more so I don't think it's going to work for me long term. I'm trying to remember again why I was going surfactant free, I know it had something to do with hard water, I need to rewatch that video. Maybe I'm torturing myself for nothing and just re-embrace the sulfates. Also, the Innersense shampoo smells like orange Ribena or Capri Sun 😖

I did pick up a Denman brush in Tkmaxx today for a song. Tbh for the usual price they go for here (€15-20, I paid €6) I was expecting something a bit more expensive looking. Did a bit of YouTube rabbit hole before settling on a technique that sort of mimics finger coiling. While it took a bit of time it looks really promising in terms of thick clumps and everything laying smoothly alongside each other. Not sure I placed my parting in the right spot but it'll be okay, I think.

Despite there seeming to be quite a few Trepadora bots on this board, I know Queen and Skinful are actual people so I'm quite curious to hear more about it. Not that I need another gel, turns out the high price/ml I saw was of a 100ml sample/travel size but the full size is about the same price as Innersense so I'm not as scared of liking it anymore, on paper it sounds ideal for my hair if I hadn't just bought a full size of the Innersense.

Root touch up for me tomorrow. Doesn't seem like 6 weeks since my cut and colour!

I miss doing my hair. Pointless in the South East heat.

Tried the trepadora, didn't like it. BUT disclaimer it was about a million degrees and I had to diffuse on cold when I usually use warm. Got a nice cast but hair was fluffy the next day
My hair sucks at the minute, absolutely nothing is working I blame the cut
I've clarified, protein treated, everything
It's like when it's wet and I add conditioner, it's like matted? The conditioner just sits on top and it won't detangle

@QueenCT

Tried the trepadora, didn't like it. BUT disclaimer it was about a million degrees and I had to diffuse on cold when I usually use warm. Got a nice cast but hair was fluffy the next day My hair sucks at the minute, absolutely nothing is working I blame the cut I've clarified, protein treated, everything It's like when it's wet and I add conditioner, it's like matted? The conditioner just sits on top and it won't detangle

My hair feels like that when I'm conditioning, then, once I've squished it in everywhere I give it a shot of warm water and squish that in and it all just melts, so I can rake out the tangles. Some need more water than others - the jessicurl too shea took loads.

Had my hair cut, yesterday, anyhow. Always get it rough dried with a bit of product for weight. Woke up full on 1980s Robert Smith, this morning! My scalp is a bit sore so I shall go easy on it, when I wash it, later. Pretty constant mizzle and I'm not going anywhere much, this weekend, so no point in using any of my expensive samples.

I stuffed up my Denman experiment last night by falling asleep it was mostly dry but by the time I woke up again somewhere in the middle of the night it was all scrunched out and a bit rough feeling (think I went in a little heavy handed with the foam as I worried the roots were going to be too flat). It looks somewhat better now than this morning as I've broken up the clumps (they were just too clunky for my tastes, I'll have to do smaller sections if I ever give it another go). Anyhow, can't say if the weather (humidity is insane, you could just see a wet mist in the air today) or my restless sleeping caused all the frizz but I've definitely had better hair days with these products with a lot less effort. I did like the Denman for evenly spreading product, not a spot was missed which I rarely manage on my own.

I know your hair usually likes a lot of product (in terms of volume) Queen, have you ever tried the LOC method?

I haven't - my hair hates creams though and isn't keen on most leave ins!

Yeah, we've had a couple of days of mizzle, now. It's so humid I can't even close the wooden cupboard I sometimes stand in front of for hair shots.

That's definitely worth trying again when the weather is more agreeable, bo. The results could be quite glam.

I tried a rice water rinse, while wet it left my hair looking great, clumped together nicely and at 90% dry when I went to bed it looked nice with more than usual definition in the waves. Now 100% dry and there is alot of very fine frizz. Wondering if I maybe needed more moisture afterwards

My fringe didn't know what to do, when I washed it, so I pin curled it. Epic fail 🤣

Shape much better for my cut, though. Not a curly cut but lifted a little at the back. It's still damp and a bit crunchy at the front from my shower, here.

It's weird when I first tried the rice rinse, I did the 24h ferment with he rice in the water all that time and I needed a really long deep conditioner after that. But when I do the 48h ferment with it just soaking with the rice for the first 30mins then I can just go with a normal conditioner 🤷 I did leave the 48hr on for less time (about half) as it smelled so potent I wasn't sure how strong it would be, that could also be the point of difference.

Oh dear, Pick, safe to say I'll not be trying any pin curls soon, rest of the hair looks great though. Inspired by your glam comments I did end up picking up some flexi rods this morning which promise glamorous waves. I think the attached pic is on someone with straight hair but it seems really popular in the natural hair community too (with similar results) and it seems quick and easy in the videos. I will not be surprised that there's a learning curve but I like the idea of having some alternate styles that don't require heat.

I'm still impressed with how strong the curl pattern is holding with the Denman experiment, this is it today, looking a little less mad and frizzy (put in some hair moistuiser from Christophe Robin and slept in my silk cap and then seems to have helped).

I used to have some of those flexi rods years ago (late teens). I honestly can't really remember how good they were, but they must have been better than the crimping and backcombing I used to do - it was the 80s.

My hair has been quite weird in the humidity. It has been flatter and curlier, which is to be expected, but anything slightly oily I put on it seems to sit on the surface. Usually my hair just soaks it up. I'm assuming it's a combination of using more creamy shampoo with the high humidity.

I used those rods in the late 80s, too. They worked satisfactorily once and it took half a bottle of the supplied styling spray and all afternoon. I went back to tonging the living daylights out of my hair, after that, when I was in between perms.

Washed with as I am co wash
Condition - creightons micellar
Raked through curly and kind flax seed gel
Glazed and scrunched orange marmalade
Diffused

Pretty happy with this

Your curls always look so defined and never frizzy Queen. How do you think you've achieved this? Or does this come with time (I know you've been doing CGM for years)?

Your curls look lovely and soft and shiny, Queen the colour is lovely, too. Really catches the light.

@SophieLion I only take photos on wash day
Seriously it's time and mine are still a nightmare. By day 3 my curls will all drop out and I have frizz I long for curls that I could refresh but my hair hates refreshing

Mine needs washing pretty much every other day. If I'm lucky, I can get away with an extra day without it smelling or itching but it needs to be in a ponytail. I get a good day out of it at best, usually, though for some reason it lasts another day at my parents' house. I think the air is drier down there, even though they're right on the coast.