➿ 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)

[QueenPaws]

I have L.A. hold somewhere, need to retry it. I wasn't keen on it first go but can't remember why!

I'm definitely keeping the micellar creightons conditioner for repurchase, it's lovely and rich and an absolute bargain. So strange my hair loves cheap conditioner but £££ stylers

[PickAChew]

Yeah, mine likes the coconut alberto balsam as an occasional one off - makes packing for a family weekend way easier. I've realised that I can wash it with just about anything silicone free.

[botemp]

Can't remember where I read/heard it, but apparently protein in wash off products are a bit of a waste of an ingredient? I'd try in a LiC maybe pick? The blueberry bliss is really popular even though it left me a bit meh, I need to give it another shot though, although it might contain quats... I've also discovered some quats are just modified silicones so that probably explains my reaction to some.

Lookfantastic sell the Giovanni la. hold in an adorable travel size, 3 for 2 offer on atm. Courtney (who I've somewhat been ignoring due to political views lately) also recommends the biosilk hard rock gelee which sort of sounds similar to the Aussie with super hard crispy hold. There's two formulations though, one is CGM friendly the other isn't, cheap IIRC and lots of professional suppliers sell it here. Although, I think I discounted it because it has Methylisothiazolinone in it which I don't think are allowed in leave on products in the EU as it has such high rates of contact allergy so it just left me confused on How correct those INCIs were.

I have to say I'm underwhelmed by the Innersense shampoo and conditioners too, where I really love their stylers. LIC definitely problematic with the flash drying. The shampoo smells like orange Ribena and is just ok as a shampoo. The conditioner, which is probably their lightest, is a little too heavy for me, I suspect.

My adventures in diffuser land are still pointing me to the xtava black orchid diffuser. Seems to be sold out everywhere though and that's driving the price up so I think I'll just have to wait until it's back to normal price (as then it's under the EU threshold for vat and taxes) and buy it then.

[PickAChew]

I definitely need to look out for anything risky for contact allergies. And yeah, Courtney is the sort of person who I'd want to stick to talking about hair and then in small doses, please.

[botemp]

Yes, it was only in the community tab and it was up until that point pretty obvious to me that she was a heartland Christian sort as she's one of the few who doesn't have extensive shower scenes of vigorous shampooing sessions in bikinis (this has always left me , I think we all know how to shampoo our hair, so is it just to rack up some extra views from the pervy sorts?). Which is fine, I'm not opposed to anyone having opposing views to me.

She just did the whole performative BLM post, listed the same 3 or 4 books with Amazon referral links. Someone politely pointed out others were linking to black owned independent bookshops and for her to consider to change them. Comment was ignored where every other one was acknowledged. The personal profit aspect of that left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

The thing that tipped it for me, though, was a vocal pro Trump type commenter insisting she listen to/read Canadace Owen for balance. Instead of a polite thanks I'll look into it, it was instead a rather affirming agreement adoration of the woman's opinion and that it really helped reading her work. Granted a lot of nuance is missing in all of this and I'm not a fan of moral and idealogical adherence by all (on any side) but if you know anything about US politics and the mediascape you'll know Candace Owens is a populist right wing pundit who doesn't bring balance, she's the one that brings gasoline to a bonfire. So I'm not all that annoyed with her politics, it's her lack of critical thinking that bothers me and has made me question her ability a lot (was already on the fence since she's started trying to be scienc-y in recent videos, I have this issue with Manes by Mel too to a certain extent).

[PickAChew]

Lovely cast, last night. Not sure how it's going to hold, today. Nice balance of bouncy and not frizzy, for me, but very loose and all at the bottom.

[PickAChew]

I missed your post, bo as I hadn't refreshed. None of that about her politics surprises me greatly. Her video about the challenges of wavy curl types was uncomfortable viewing. Yes, there's some ugly curly gatekeeping out there but this was a tad too defensive.


I was rolling my eyes at her tying herself in knots trying to explain dewpoints, too. I just wanted to get to the products! I agree about all the videos and photos with more flesh than hair on show. I find it a little odd but maybe that's partly because it's rarely hot enough for all that, here. I have very fair skin and bingo wings so keep myself covered!


There's another wavy blogger whose name escapes me, at the moment - a redhead - whose posts always include at least a dozen similar shots of her gurning at the camera, having nurtured a somewhat vacuous look. Yes, you're very pretty, darling, now did the conditioner have good slip, was it strong smelling and did you need lots or just a little?!

[SophieLion]

I have the Diva XXL diffuser Bo and I really like it. It is very big but that's why I like it: more hair fits in it and so wicker drying time. I've also tried it on a few types of hairdryers and fits in well (except oddly the Diva hairdryer I tried - think the nozzle was too short. It stayed on but felt more secure on other brands). I had a tiny diffuser before (a parlux one) and it did nothing useful.

Everyone's hair is looking lovely in the photos. My DD made me a photo which shows my hair every month for the 4 months I have been doing this. You can see the improvement (although I don't have a change as drastic as some). I find it very encouraging to look at.

I tried Bounce Curl clump cream for the first time the other day and got great results - really good curls. I had used denman brush styling so today I used clump cream with upside down styling to see if it was the clump Cream that helped or the brush styling (my second time as brush styling). Will SOTC later.

[SophieLion]

• quicker drying time

[botemp]

Yes, I'd forgotten about the wavy hair types video, that was particularly embarrassing, it was quite obvious she could only deal with her own feelings on the matter. I put it down to naiveté at the time, which it probably is, nonetheless it came across quite tone deaf and then there were the merch t-shirts to further compound it too 😬

I'm similar of just get to it already but also getting somewhat concerned as how disposable I treat these influencers. They're all corporate shills in my mind so I don't have much regard for them, that dehumanisation does feel troubling especially with the rise of Only Fans it's all becoming a very muddy landscape and I'm rather concerned into what it's all developing towards. Curly hair (on the head) is an upward trend in porn apparently (those stats are fascinating), I'm live and let live mostly, but I've always been critical of the influencer/boss babe nonsense, it's not as empowering as they make it out to be, the power dynamic is most definitely off.

Back to subject at hand, thanks for the feedback about the diva XXL (which suddenly sounds pornified after the above ), Pupsie and Sophie. How shallow is it, I'm worried it's just really wide and I wouldn't get enough volume of hair in so would only really be able to hover diffuse. Unfortunately, it's another one that's sold out everywhere except in the UK strangely enough, fair bit cheaper too, the diva hair dryer is the same price so with shipping it actually works out a bit cheaper but I'd have a UK plug , out of interest, which diva model didn't it fit on, Sophie.

Lovely thing of your DD to do for you, btw, and glad to hear the bounce curl clump cream worked well for you, I had suspected you'd really like that.

[quirkychick]

I will probably need a new diffuser at some point. I have an ancient Vidal Sassoon one that is in its last legs.

Today's wash day hair, a bit fluffy but bouncy curls. Olaplex, Malibu C clarifying, Jean Myne Black Pepper for colour, Innersense conditioner, Cantu leave in, twisted sista gel, boots curl creme.

I think I'll give up with the Innersense LIC as it seems like it's not great and prone to flash drying. That was the issue I had with the Cantu, but I'm now using less and seems OK.

[SophieLion]

Yes it's funny as I do like creams on my hair when apparently creams are a bit of a no no if you don't have thick strands.

I hover diffuse and then pixie diffuse and both are fine with the XXL diffuser Bo. The diffuser is 3cm deep. Today I hover diffused for just over 5 mins and the pixie diffused for 15 mins and my hair was quite dry. Not 100% dry but enough to leave it to air dry the rest of the way (less than an hour). It is hot here though and not humid (by the sea my hair took forever to dry). I also microplopped after wet Plopping (which I really like now) so my hair wasn't soaking wet. I will get back to you re the diva model of hairdryer.

[PickAChew]

No idea whether to ascribe this to Saturday's jessicurl routine or the improvement in the weather. No attempt to refresh, just a bit of rearranging and gentke finger detangling but I can happily not reach for the hair grips and ties, today. It needs a wash - a refresh, tbh, but at least it's presentable (though I might change into something paler, as there are some gel flakes)

Have discovered that ocado, new to our area, stock most of the giovanni range.

[PickAChew]

Oops.

[botemp]

Thanks for that Sophie, 3cm doesn't feel all that deep. These diffusers are stressing me out too much 🤯 as long as the Diva hair dryer it didn't fit on isn't the one I want I'll just purchase that for now and see from there whether to wait out for the black orchid (currently estimated to be back in October ) or the Diva. I do have a diffuser from y s park (Japanese) that does work well, but I can only hover diffuse as it's a metal mesh as opposed to plastic.

Everyone's hair is looking great again. I need to wash in a bit as I got rained on yesterday. It wasn't really that bad, didn't even get that wet despite being a pretty fierce shower I got caught in and hair looks fine after drying, no extra frizz or anything but it feels kind of slick and unpleasant and I'd wash it tomorrow anyhow and I've been deadly curious about my new shampoo too, so there's that.

[quirkychick]

Looking good, PickAChew.

My hair pretty much didn't have a cast yesterday. I think I'm letting it plop/dry too much before I put on LIC. I'm just using a bit of LIC, but think I need to use more gel. I used some water spray, gel and curl creme as it was fluff city this morning.

[Pupsiecola]

No LIC seems to be making a big difference to me. Also, I usually plop before styling, whilst I have a shower etc. and then style adding water if I need to. I think I tried plopping AFTER stying in the early days and I couldn't seem to get/was worried about the hair being all stuck up when I removed the towel. But I tried post product plopping today and it's worked really well.

[botemp]

I've used a LIC for years but have mostly used it in winter but found it had no added value in summer.

Products don't seem to take well unless I use it on sopping wet hair so I plop after styling products. I quit (plopping) for a bit as I was concerned I was building up too much product on my scalp but it makes drying my hair take even longer and I didn't notice a decrease in buildup.

Speaking of it's still so very far from dry now. The Rahua hydrating shampoo didn't excite me nor do I outright hate it. Used more than I'd like since it's £££, so makes more sense if a little goes a long way, used less than Innersense though. I wasn't expecting much from the conditoner but I actually really liked that. It wasn't heavy or super lubricating, just did the job nicely. I have a really good cast going (better than usual which I think is down to the conditioner not being so heavy) and my theory that the clay in shampoo and conditioner (as I've experienced in previous shampoos) is giving a bit of body is potentially correct as it is drying with what looks to be volume/body. Probably will have some extra frizz as a result but it's wait and see at the moment. Did SOTC on one little piece and that looks very smooth, shiny, and bouncy but I've been fooled by a test piece before

[SophieLion]

Your hair looks good pickachew.

I washed yesterday and decided that upside down styling isn't for me (right now anyway). I know it promotes volume but when my hair dries I seem to end up with curls pointing in all directions. I also think I may have had hair stuck to my head when I flipped the right way up as I had a gap in the back at the bottom when it was dry. So, I think for now, I will stick to brush styling for a while which has given me some good results. I don't like all this upside down anyway as it makes me lightheaded.

No, 3cm doesn't seem that deep Bo but it seems to work just fine. I've see some IGers with lovely hair who use that diffuser too. I think the diva dryer was dynamica. The diffuser did fit on but it fits better on other dryers.

Did anyone see BrittCurls' you tube video on rice water rinses?

[PickAChew]

I find upside down makes getting product into all my hair much easier, since I have such a lot of it. It barely dries in the plop - merely stops dripping everywhere - so I can shake it down and finger separate and rescrunch any weird tangles with the wet t-shirt.

[botemp]

My hair has mystified me. It was still wet Monday night so slept with it in a silk cap, which SOTC but it was not completely dry yesterday morning so had to be careful with it. Wasn't quite sure what to think of it (pic 1), shiny and hydrated so that was good. Some surface 'dryness' though which I think felt more like too much protein (both the Rahua shampoo and conditioner contain it, and I suspect more than in the Innersense otherwise routine is pretty low protein) but it could also be the clay/salt. I'll cut out the Innersense foam next time as I always feel that's quite protein-y and I'm not sure it added anything to it. Not as voluminous as I was expecting but decent, however as the day went on it sort of swelled to a really nice body/volume (pic 2 is by evening, light not that great but gives a decent impression anyhow). Definitely less defined definition iykwim but the curl pattern is unchanged and I do prefer the look of this, suits my face better, hair frames me rather than sort of stuck on me like I'm a Playmobil doll. May not read as well on camera but it had a good definition/body balance for me in RL even if it is 'poofier'.

I need to see if I can eliminate the too much protein feel but I do think chasing the CGM ideal of super defined hair just isn't my thing and was just leaving me frustrated.

[botemp]

Also, ordered my Diva hairdryer (Monday I think) it'll be here tomorrow. Briefly got excited that the Gama diffuser was back in stock and only 8€ but it's the normal one, not the super one. Did wonder if that's any good, it's just smaller, they also have a shallow wide bowl (almost a plate really) shaped one especially for volume that's also intriguing me but reviews on diffusers are a scarce thing.

[quirkychick]

My hair has been the opposite, bo, and seems to dry really fast atm. This is air dried, I plopped after the shower but added LIC before it got too dry, added a bit more gel this time, plopped again briefly and added some curl creme. I did need to re wet the front a bit, as the roots were a bit wild, but it's dried much more curly. I ordered and it came today (10 mins after I had washed my hair) the Gallinee scalp serum. My scalp is loads better, but I still have a few drier patches. My scalp tends to get drier in the cooler months too. The serum looks a bit yellowy, so I'm slightly apprehensive about discolouring, but if I use it in the shower and not overnight, I hope it will be ok.

[NinnyNewName]

Bo your hair looks really really good in that second image for sure.

I'm enjoying "working from home" today. I have done a really hard weights workout, been for a 5k walk, clarified, Olaplexed and am now deep conditioning with a heat cap. I did do some work first thing and I shall have to crack on now. But I had neglected my hair since the heavwave, and then going away. Feels good to give it some TLC.

It does seem to have lost a lot of the shape as it's grown. My hairdresser is quite cautious and when I asked for it tapered from sides to mid-back she said she'd do a gentle version and we can make it more extreme next time (3 weeks' time). I will go for a more extreme taper then. I'm glad she's like this though: rather that than too gung ho with something different. Also, I do kinda wish I could have it cut whilst dry. It definitely looks a bit longer one side vs the other, and there's a longer bit at the back. Not cutting errors as she pulls straight when wet to trim. Just how the waves form.

[NinnyNewName]

Epic temp name change (Pupsie)