➿ Fantastic Haircare: Making Sense and Science of the Curly Girl Method (thread 2)

[botemp]

Offshoot thread 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 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 on the golden triangle of healthy hair
Science-y Hair Blog
The Mestiza Muse
The Beauty Brains (podcast/blog)

Understanding ingredients:

Commonly found ingredients in haircare

Useful information about cosmetic chemistry

Porosity:

(video)

Removing build up:

Shampoos which remove product build up

Cationic compounds (of interest to those with buildup prone and/or fine hair):

Cationic compounds found in cosmetics

Polyquats (of interest to those with buildup prone and/or fine hair):

Polyquat buildup

To polyquats or not

Silicones, polyquats and soap

Another cosmetic ingredient to be afraid of?

Protein/Moisture balance:

(video)

Extract and proteins in CGM, a biochemist explains

(video)

Hygral Fatigue

SPF protection of your hair:

UV protectant ingredients

UV damage of hair (pubmed)

Summers sun and your hair

Rice water rinses:

Rice Water Rinse

Elasticity:

Is it too late to improve your elasticity

Managing elasticity and porosity in hair

Hard and soft water:

(video)

Hard water and your hair

Olaplex:

How does Olaplex hair treatment work

Frizz:

Hair frizz science

What's your frizz type

How to tame your hair based on frizz type

Flash Drying:

Flash Drying

Next level nerdery:

Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair (cosmetic chemists' textbook)

Diffused my hair upside down last night. Don't usually do that. Quite like it. It's more off my face at the sides. Feels very light and fluffy.

Absolutely gorgeous curls ninny. I think you've cracked it!!

That looks fab!
I was lazy last night and couldn't be bothered so just shoved some gel in and air dry. Didn't really get a cast but all I wanted was clean hair
I don't really leave the house (shielding) and it's now so long I can do a messy bun so it's never really a good hair day any more!
Gives me chance to use up my product stash in my no buy year

Thanks guys .

Well I've been so lazy with it lately Queen. It's generally been in a loose bun for says on end and I've not looked after it very well and like you I just wanted clean, fresh hair yesterday.

This was:
Sunday Sunday
Olaplex 3
Giovanni Tea Tree shampoo
Curlsmith mask (with heat cap - not done that for ages)
Giovanni leave in
Treluxe gel
Plop for 10 minutes
Diffuse for 10-15 minutes

It's now got long enormous GH (including layers which I felt were a bit short) to use the smallest one of these overnight (name escapes me).

Also, I found these silk hair ties on the John Lewis website. I love them. So much better than the big scrunchies I have. Silk, so pricey.

*days and long enough obvs.

Looks great Ninny although I'm back to thinking your hair looks Sicilian in colour 🏖️ I usually start diffusing upside down but then sort of do sideways as it's a bit tiring to do it all upside down. I do find the effect of it disappears after day 2 but I have less hair so it's probably noticeable quicker.

I'm quite intrigued by the L'Oréal elvive dream lengths wonder water. No silicones but not CGM as it contains alcohol (which I can't get too worked up about, the medication I have to apply nightly to my scalp has it too). I'm just a bit confused what makes it so amazing though (and reviews are unanimously good) the INCI only shows anything that can do anything after fragrance. Maybe there's different rules for haircare but for skincare fragrance is capped at 1% so everything after it would be tiny amounts. There's talk of lamellar water technology but this just makes me go I'll have to read up on it. Anyhow, it appeals as it seems to be about hydration and locking it in (there's some wheat protein in it) but no heavy build up prone stuff so my hair should like that, but it all sounds a bit too good to be true but I was doing a similar face when first hearing about micellar water technology and just thought fancy water 🤷

I've heard good things about that wonder water, I was looking at it too

Yes I need to find a better room to take photos. We have very few mirrors in our house and the en-suite is the best and easiest, but the light does make my hair look darker than it is.

Messy but it's so long!

What do you mean "it's now got enormous GH" Ninny? Am sure it's faulty obvious but just not obvious to me right now.

I had also googled chin straps and come up with beards

I really need a haircut.....

Sophie I correct myself in the message below. I don't know what autocomplete was playing at.

It was meant to say that my hair is now long enough (in terms of layers too, so bulkier) to be able to wear that plastic clip (pictured) at night-time. Sorry for any confusion!

I've read up a bit about the lamellar water technology and it is very interesting, I think it basically gets your hair to act as close cuticled as possible resulting in (high) shine and softness. It hails from Korea, Kerastase and Redken also do a version and another brand I've forgotten the name of as it was unfamiliar to me (matrix something?). The Redken is more of a salon treatment and has some conditioning agents in it as well, the Kerastase has centeoka Asiatica, not sure what that does for hair, I'll have to look it up, it's soothing/healing for skin. There's a thread on the L'Oréal one now and they mention strong fragrance, eek, maybe I should try the Kerastase but that probably has strong fragrance too, the Redken is more of a salon treatment and has additional conditioning agents (not sure how that is used, it's only on professional sales sites that also sell to consumers but are usually quite frugal with information). It still sounds good to me and I think aside from the unknown brand it's all L'Oréal group brands so won't differ that much, I can only get it from Lookfantastic for now so will wait for when I need more things from there.

got you now ninny! Do you like the puff cuffs? They seemed a bit pricey - I always lose hair ties. I'm using the invisbobbles which I quite like but need to be careful that they don't get stuck in my hair.

Will be interested to hear how the lamellar water suits you bo. I have to say though, I don't like my hair v shiny - olaplex always makes it weirdly shiny. Not sure why... I thought it was repairing inside the hair shaft but perhaps it leaves a residue on hair?

Why don't you like your hair shiny? I don't think olaplex repairs anything inside, it just rebonds broken bonds (disulphide?) which is external damage as I understand it, makes hair healthier again and healthier hair is shiny.

Yeah, I haven't figured out which I want to buy, I've messed up the names above, but I like the sound of the one with Centella Asiatica best, I think, but that's marketed at bleach blonde hair, it is a protein treatment of sorts (amino acids) but as I understand it, the technology means you can't really overdo it so the whole it's for bleached hair thing shouldn't scare me off but I'll probably try the cheapo L'Oréal first, or maybe the Matrix one (which is also L'Oréal owned as it turns out), by my reading the concentration goes up a bit with each step, so L'Oréal (hair brand not group) is more of an everyday product and the others occasional once or twice a week up to a full on salon treatment. I like the idea of one for after chelating/clarifying as my hair tends to go poof usually, so one in the middle would probably be best. Argh, I'll make up my mind at some point 🤦

@QueenPaw

That looks fab! I was lazy last night and couldn't be bothered so just shoved some gel in and air dry. Didn't really get a cast but all I wanted was clean hair I don't really leave the house (shielding) and it's now so long I can do a messy bun so it's never really a good hair day any more! Gives me chance to use up my product stash in my no buy year

I'm with you there. Doesn't help that it's 6 months since my hair was cut and the ends are beginning to feel crispy, even with no heat. Only problem when I don't use gel is my hair ends up too slippery to tie back and I'm constantly getting mouthfuls of whispy bits.

Puff Cuff. Thank you Sophie. Yes I do like them. I find that if I sleep in anything else I wake up with either a headache or a tight pullling feeling.

Bit of a random question, but what type of cotton do you think is best for plopping/general hair towels? I have 3. Two are Boucleme but I have another one which has more give to it and I like that one better.

I plop in old cotton t-shirts. No microplastics and no friction that I can discern.

Thanks. I just checked the label. It's a mix of cotton, bamboo and elastane.

Oh I thought they were bonds inside the hair - not external bonds olaplex tends to make me hair look artificially shiny - as though it is coated in something. Natural shine is great.

I think Matrix is the company that does biolage conditioner.

Don't really plop ninny. Squeeze excess water out with my hands. I'll use a t shirt or deva curl (a gift) if I need too.

Finished my orange marmalade tonight
I think that will be a repurchase eventually once I've used lots of stuff up! I'm just not seeing the point in buying it at the minute when I don't see anyone
Today's wash day was
Am I am co wash
Yope conditioner
Cake mousse
Orange marmalade

I'm loving the pictures, you all look great.

Also absorbing lots of knowledge - some of you have done a lot of reading about curly girl 😊

Welcome Marmalade, I think I over-read

Thank you all for the welcome and for your advice.

I’ve come to the realisation that my hair became much more wavy after getting dried out from highlights, so I have been experimenting over the past few weeks with the various tips to try and add in moisture while not weighing my hair down too much. My routine so far:
Shampoo
Conditioner (squish to condish side-on and upside down)
Micro plop
Giovanni gel (praying hands then squishing)
Plop
Air dry

I’m definitely getting more definition and hold. The curls are lasting longer and seem to be forming more naturally. But... but. There are lots of straight-ish bits on the top that won’t clump. It also just seems to be really stringy and, I don’t know, segmented? Is that just what curly / wavy hair is like? Is this part of the “journey”

Yes the sticky up hairs are difficult to understand at the beginning, I would say once you understand what techniques work best for you, you get a better grasp of them.

I find that for me styling upside helps with this (and the Denman brush to a certain extent, but you have to figure out that technique too, and where to fit it in your routine, so many variables ) but I don't know how easily you can style upside down with shorter hair.