Fiddlersgreen, I too always wanted wavy hair so I was charmed and delighted when I realised I had it! I read, replied and ran last night but I realised you might be a bit bewildered with all the Curly Girl stuff so here’s a starter version of Curly Girl for well under £10, just to see how you get on with it. You can tweak it with more expensive products later if you decide it’s for you.
Curly hair tends to be dry and CG is all about getting moisture into it and keeping it there.
You will need:
• A clarifying shampoo. This is a shampoo containing SLS, sodium laureth/lauryl sulphate. It will clean your hair of any build-up but it’s too drying to use all the time. Almost any shampoo will do. You can almost certainly use the one you’re already using.
• A cleanser. You can use CG-approved conditioner or a product marketed as a co-wash, or if you prefer bubbles you can use shampoo that doesn’t contain sulfates. Johnson’s baby top-to-toe bath is readily available and cheap or if you prefer a real shampoo the Happy Naturals range is £2.50 from Sainsbury’s.
• A conditioner that does not contain silicones. Check the label: you’re looking for one without anything ending in -one. XHC Ginger conditioner is OK and costs £1 from Poundland and B&M, or the Happy Naturals range from Sainsburys is £2.50.
• Boots curl cream, £1.99 from Boots
• Boots Essentials Extra Firm Hold Gel, 99p from Boots
• A t-shirt or microfibre towel
• A diffuser on your hair dryer
Wash your hair with the clarifying shampoo to get rid of the build-up of silicones from the products you’ve been using. Rinse well, then work in loads of conditioner – see YouTube videos for “squish to condish”. Rinse, but you don’t have to be too thorough.
Squeeze most of the water out of your hair using your hands then, while it’s still very wet, take a small pea-sized amount of curl cream and rub it between your palms. It’ll go white. Distribute it through your hair, squeezing and squishing using the water in your hair to help distribute it. Your hair should form thick strands. Now do the same with the hair gel, using quite a lot of it.
At this stage you need to get rid of some of the water. Squeeze with either a t-shirt or a microfibre towel – don’t use a terry towel. If you want to have a go at plopping (YouTube) it’ll help partly-dry your hair and keep it out of the way while you moisturise/dry the rest of you/get dressed.
Now, dry your hair using a diffuser. I lean my head sideways and drop my hair into the bowl of the diffuser, then bring it up towards my head before switching it on. You’re not supposed to use more than medium setting or medium heat but I use high, and hot for the first few seconds, because I have no patience for faffing around with my hair. Keep the diffuser in the same place for 45 – 60 seconds, then switch the dryer off and move it away. You should have damp curls. Don’t worry that they’re all stuck together in snakey ropes. Move to a different part of your head and repeat, then go back to the beginning until it’s all mostly dry.
Leave it for an hour or so, to finish drying, then “scrunch out the crunch” by repeating the squishing motion but with dry hands, breaking up the snakes into soft curls or waves. That’s it.
Only use the clarifying shampoo occasionally. I use it once a month. The rest of the time use either silicone-free conditioner or co-wash. As I Am coconut co-wash from Superdrug is nice. Conditioner or co-wash clean surprisingly well, but you do need to rub your scalp well with the pads of your fingers to get rid of sweat, sebum and dead skin cells.
After your monthly clarifying wash it’s a good idea to deep-conditioner your hair. I like Garnier Almond Milk & Agave Sap Normal Hair Yoghurt Mask, £3 from Amazon or more from Boots. Slather it on, comb it through using a wide-toothed comb, put on a plastic shower cap to keep it all moist and leave it for as long as you like.
If your hair is fine and wavy rather than curly you might find that gel’s too heavy for your hair and mousse suits it better. Try Cake The Curl Whip Whipped Curl Mousse, £5.99 from Boots, or Pantene Pro-V Defined Curls Mousse Level 05 is good but looks like it’s out of stock at Boots so may be being discontinued. You’ll also probably find products with coconut oil and shea butter are too heavy. Palmer’s and Cantu are great for real curlies but give me oily frizz.
It’s important not to brush or comb your dry hair or it’ll go frizzy. To prevent it knotting at night, use an elastic to hold it on top of your head in a loose ponytail. In the morning, let it down and give it a few minutes to settle. Then, if you need to, you can refresh it by spraying it with a mister or just using wet hands, squishing it and drying it again. If it seems dry, a few drops of conditioner in your wet hands, rubbed together then squished in, will help. You can use a bit of gel or mousse in the same way.
If you decide you like CG the thing I’d add is some sort of curl clumping product. I use Uncle Funky’s Daughter Curly Magic and it’s very good but it was a gift and I’m not sure I’d have paid that for it. Ecoslay Orange Marmalade is similar, as is Kinky Curly Curling Custard or home-made flaxseed gel. They go on wet hair before or instead of the curl cream. Naturalistic Products is good for CG products in the UK.
Check out the Curly Hair UK Reddit for more information and product ideas.