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

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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)

Oh I definitely did nothing technical with the brush
My hair was flipped over so upside down and I literally brushed the ends and scrunched

Thanks Piano. I've sold almost 200 towels in the last two months 😁

Posted too soon. There's two in Australia, two in the US and one in Tasmania!

My dad has just produced this out the attic
Can't believe how long my hair was

You look adorable Queen, was the colour darker back then?

Much! It was bright orange then has faded over time to almost not being a redhead

Used grown alchemist nourishing conditioner last night (I didn't pay this for it!) which is veg protein. My hair "ohhh it's expensive? Well I love it"
With treluxe serum and gel

https://www.grownalchemist.com/uk/haircare/conditioner/nourishing-conditioner-0-6-damask-rose-chamomile-lavender-stem.html

How is your hair looking so long already Queen, you only just got it cut? I still haven't cut mine determined to do it before the weekend. The humidity lately has made my hair a lot more ringlety which is nice enough if it weren't for the humidity frizz, I should probably pull out the gel again but I hate the longer drying time... mousse it is

It does grow like weeds! I take a multi vitamin from Feel which seems to help but also it's cut to be longer at the front so depending how my head is tilted trying to take a decent pic affects it too
Started using the righteous roots hair oil as a pre wash massage when I was waiting for my bad cut to grow out which is meant to help growth

I checked that out ninny. How cool!! They look great and very useful and I wish you all the best with the business.

Your hair looks fab queen! Really well defined curls. But hasn't your colour changed since your school days?! Wow!

I've been taking bounce curl vitamins since my bad cut to help growth. Bad cuts probably account for a lot of the sales of vitamins, scalp oils and other hair growth products!!

Thanks so much Sophie.

My hair is clumping so much better since my regular hairdresser chopped off the ends and gave it a more blunt shape. I actually think, on reflection, that it was a bit too-thinned out and didnt' have enough volume further down the hair shafts.

I've been using Ouidad's Climate Control gel and I really, really like it. It's been quite hot and humid here in the UK.

I've heard about that ouidad gel being very good for humidity ninny. Glad your hair is clumping better now - do you think it was the nuala cut that was a bit too thin at the ends or had it not grown out right?

I have just discovered the BC hairspray and it's a real game changer for me. Can't recommend it enough. Used to find my hair a bit too "soft" when I SOTC and now I scrunch in a small amount of hairspray emulsified with a little water while my hair is still wet (after applying styling products and part way through diffusing - if I can be bothered to diffuse!) and it's now got more grit when I SOTC and my wash days last longer (and I exercise most days too).

I'm very happy with the treluxe products too for styling and the BC clarifying shampoo but my innersense conditioner is about to run out so will try the my soigné conditioner now.

My olaplex is almost out too so going to try the curlsmith bond salve as a replacement.

I've been at this for 14 months now!

I think it was the last haircut, yes Sophie. I spoke to my regular hairdresser and she said some hair is fine with that many layers, but mine probably not. I am going to stick with my regular hairdresser for the time being. And also we are starting to work on letting the silvers come through. I won't be having any more semi permanent. Instead I'm going to be having a few low lights dotted around each time. I really don't have many silvers - none at the sides or underneath - it's just the crown/parting really. I don't know why but I just don't feel that the all over colour suits me now, even though it's close to my natural colour. So I'm ready for a change.

I also have the BC hairspray. I've been trying to get it for months and months. I've only used it once, and I think I used too much. I'll try using it how you do Sophie.

Yes I only just got the hairspray after waiting for months. They were changing the formula I believe.

The first time I used it, I sprayed it directly onto my hair after styling and think I used too much (BC say to use 2 or 2 sprays only) or spraying it straight on didn't work - my hair felt quite dry when I had SOTC and my wash day didn't last well - got dry frizz. Emulsifying with water worked much better.

Oh shame about the haircut as it looked so good! At least you figured out what doesn't work for you plus your normal hairdresser isn't a 2 hour drive away!

Yes they changed the formula and now I believe it has no protein.

I will definitely trying using it as you've described.

I've managed to miss an entire inch wide clump and leave it without product lord knows how as I brushed my gel through

Weirdly since foregoing gel I don't really have the issue of the one bastard missed piece anymore, but that's probably down to not getting such 'consistent' results with mousse, by which I mean the individual curls aren't as perfected so something missed isn't that noticeable.

I saw that there's a new olaplex competitor that has a bit of a buzz around it. Called K18 iirc, sounded interesting but I haven't really looked into it though. The only thing new in my hair is that a friend gave me a bottle of Rahua curl cream that she never used (her hair is straight 🤦 and thought it would give her curls), but I haven't used it yet either.

I must say I'm intrigued by the BC hair spray talk because it doesn't sound like traditional hair spray at all, is the only similarity that it sets hair in place? Is it like an extra insurance on top of gel?

K18 mask ingredients. It's a leave in one

Water (Aqua) (Eau), Alcohol Denat., Propylene Glycol, Cetearyl Alcohol, Dicaprylyl Ether, Cetyl Esters, Behentrimonium Chloride, Polysorbate 20,sh-Oligopeptide-78 (K18Peptide™), Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Hydrolyzed Wheat Starch, Isopropyl Alcohol, Tocopherol, Phenoxyethanol, Potassium Sorbate, Citric Acid, Fragrance (Parfum), Geraniol, Linalool, Hexyl Cinnamal, Benzyl Alcohol

Tried a new method after watching me and my curls on Instagram

So gel is raked through upright, then hair sectioned and gel applied and brushed through, flip hair upside down, spray with water to reform clumps and scrunch
It looks ok so far, lots of definition and less frizz... I think it might be a volume sacrifice so need to retry!

Bo, I saw a message by you and now my phone seems to have eaten it - is it possible that you can copy it and re-post? I'm on hold so can't check a laptop etc

I think you were asking about BC hairspray?

I didn't message you, but I did post this upthread:

I must say I'm intrigued by the BC hair spray talk because it doesn't sound like traditional hair spray at all, is the only similarity that it sets hair in place? Is it like an extra insurance on top of gel?

Yes that's what I meant bo: a post on this thread. I read it once and then it disappeared

Re hairspray: I use it on top of gel and it takes away that very soft feeling I used to get in wash wash day after SOTC ( that's why I always used to prefer day 2 hair). It doesn't make me hair stiff at all.

Saying that, it was extremely windy here yesterday (we're away in an island so I have limited hair products with me) and I tied my hair back and used the hairspray like normal hairspray on the baby hairs round my face and it worked amazingly. They didn't budge at all

Look what I got my friend went to America so he picked it up for me

Had my hair trimmed yesterday by my usual hairdresser. We think that the 2 x previous cuts where it was thinned out both times had left it over texturised and not voluminous enough to clump (that was my gut feeling too). She just tidied up the length and did a little shaping around the my face. Washed it this morning and diffused it as had a Zoom meeting. I'm really happy with it.

Also my first colour to blend with the silvers. She added a few lowlights - some to match my natural hair colour at the root, and some to match the bottom of my hair (which is old colour matched to root but obviously sun lightened over time), and then obviously the silvers are showing through too. Have to say, I really like it.

The last couple of times I've had my roots coloured with semi-permanent colour I've felt it hasn't suited me. This feels much more natural for where I'm at now. I'm sure there'll be frustrating stages and as I've said before, I'm only about 20% silver. But she has a plan for the next stage too.

Need to cancel my trip to Bristol and get my £40 deposit back.

How is everyone else?