➿ 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)

Right so Harry's not a horse but a high maintenance fuckboy. Arse. I liked Harry better when he was a horse.

Although it seem I was on to something with Frankengel

Harry can get in the bin right now
Jelly shot next wash day... which might be soon depending how this disaster looks in the morning

Block the bastard! I bet his farts smelt of broccoli too.

I noticed a new product (but maybe it's not new, just new to me) from ecoslay called rice pudding, I'm intrigued as it's fermented rice goodness. Think it's a leave in conditioner but the name makes me think it'll be like a custard.

So I'm going to repurchase the Giovanni Triple Treat Shampoo. Ideally I want to buy a light every day conditioner.

I take it nobody has tried the Aubrey range? Any recommendations I can drive myself mad with re ingredients checking .

I like your hair in that recent shot Bo. Quite a bit shorter but a bit bob-like. You're happy with your diffuser?

Yes I saw that, it does look interesting and very slippery!!
This has been recommended to me
https://locksingoodness.co.uk/collections/frontpage/products/hair-gel?fbclid=IwAR27FTJ27ElhRgLDuEOTtiU8YPllOgsvyK3bdxK0fNS4bvvH82FRrknDY

Wavy curly has used the rice pudding here
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE1vbrsloWa/?igshid=o9owhsgsc61h

Brassica alcohol? More broccoli, perhaps? I know xanthan gum is made from fermented cabbage.

I've booked a haircut with the owner of the curly cut salon in Bristol that I linked to a while back!!? Mid November. Eeek.

I watched a clip of her cutting someone's hair and it blew my mind a little.

I just want to go and have a proper curly dry cut. I'm not expecting an immediate transformation and am fully aware of the IG transformation photos. And they use Aveda which I'm not sure about re ingredients from my research.

I'll keep my cut and colour this week and just have a trim like before.

It all went a bit wrong today. I used the Gallinee cream cleanser and serum, all great. Then instead of the Boots curl creme (which I was wondering if it's too drying, causing build up) tried the Twisted Sista curl activator cream, as I like their gel. Far too oily and it went both oily and wispy, in the end I rewetted it and put in Boots curl creme. Still a bit wild and fluffy, it will probably end up in a loose bun later.

Lots to catch up on here, I've ordered the Curlsmith Weightless LIC, which I'm still waiting for.

Slightly better today, after completely wetting it and adding more Boots curl creme to make the curls stick together. I think the oiliness has been absorbed. The Twisted Sista cream obviously needs to only be on dry ends or not at all.

I shall look at the Boots Curl Cream Quirky. My ingredients "research" has put me off so many products and in a lot of cases it's not warranted: I know it's the perfectionist in me wanting to avoid anything that might cause issues. Especially as I don't fully understand my hair still and what happens to it re dew points and protein/moisture balance etc.

. I am finding myself needing to step away from worrying too much about it.

Anyway, cut and colour yesterday. She's taken a bit more length off than last time and accentuated the shape more, plus long layer trims. She said she thinks this is probably the optimal length for my hair, because it has a lot of weight and it will drag the curls down if any longer. I have been thinking this myself.amd wondering if that's what's contributed to the curls dropping out during the day (as well as being weather related and now too scared to use a curl cream type product).

I resisted washing it when I got home as training today and out tmrw so want to have day 2 gair. I'll Olaplex and deep condition it and use a fairly stripped back routine.

Maybe the answer for me is stepping away from the theory and changing one product at a time for 2 weeks to seen it suits. But then there are so many other variables too 😔

Yes you can see the difference between the two photos quirky. It's annoying how temperaments hair is! And that so many things it doesn't like!

I never got on with the boots curl creme. But I'm really liking the bounce curl clump cream (which is obviously a cream too!). I only use a very small amount as otherwise you can see I've used too much product on my hair when it dries.

I think all this takes time ninny. I am now in my 6th month and only really now understanding the protein and moisture thing and can see on my hair which way I'm going. I also try to stick to the same group of products for a month at least to get some consistency.

It's very easy to get overwhelmed so better to focus on one thing at a time. I was only "forced" to look at dew points when we were on holiday and my hair was wild - the dew point was very high otherwise luckily it's always optimal dew point here so I don't need to think about it. I can't start looking at protein sizes now for example but looking where protein is in ingredients list is manageable!

Hope you enjoy your new haircut!

I haven't even looked at dew points yet!

Ninny, I don't know whether to recommend the Boots Curl creme or not. I've used it for years (I'm still not sure if it's adding to build up issues). It was recommended on an old British Curlies website when I first tried CGM and there were no products specifically for it. I just needed something to stick the curls together after the Twisted Sista cream disaster. The first pic is after repairing with Boots curl creme already! The second is the next day and more curl creme. If you do try it, you need to emulsify it lots between your hands before applying.

I've clarified today, to try and sort it out. My Curlsmith Leave in has arrived, too. I'll try to take a photo when my hair is dry and I haven't got dd2 all over me.

I keep trying to change one thing at a time, too, but sometimes your hair needs something different. Life also gets in the way, on Sunday I didn't olaplex as we left early for the beach and I needed a quick hair wash when we got back.

Thanks guys.

Yes, 6 months in too Sophie. Actually looking forward to an afternoon of hair care. I'm home along which hasn't happened in months!

Much better hair today! I clarified with the Malibu C, used the Osmo purple hair mask and tried out the Curlsmith Weightless LIC. I just used the Twisted Sista gel (which I like very much - just not the cream!). The first pic with the green cardi is air drying and still damp, the second is "blown dry" from the windy park. I did need to re wet and reapply the gel, as the lighter LIC doesn't clump my curls together. Next time I will put both on sopping wet hair. Very pleased, after the Twisted Sista curl activator cream disaster the other day.

Ninny, enjoy being home alone

Wow. That's quite a difference quirky!.

I think I've found my new LIC, it's supposed to not cause build up and be good for scalps. It's made my gel work much better too, I imagine as it's not so over moisturised.

Yes huge difference in your hair quirky! I've heard good things about CurlSmith.

Normally I don't concern myself with dew points as generally we are optimum humidity levels here and I don't get issues with my hair due to humidity.

However this afternoon and felt my hair was getting a bit of frizz and a bit stiff (we're expecting a storm) so just checked dew point and, as I suspected, it was high.

I'm thinking to order the BC clarifying shampoo and the mahogany naturals Marissa curls deep conditioner. My existing deep conditioner is almost out.

Is the weightless LIC the same as the air dry cream, quirky? I'd been looking at that, as a sort of one and done product although it has a polyquat but it's one of the more innocent ones. Wish they had that in the smaller size to try to but it doesn't look like it.

I'm really happy with the Curlsmith Hydro Creme mask that I used last wash day that gave me the curly mop. Their gel in the hydro range also intrigues me but I don't need a gel.

Ah, Ninny, I think perfectionism and curly hair don't get on too well. Even within the CGM community perfect curls are highly manipulated and fetishised so it's an odd message of embrace your curls blah blah blah but then go through tremendous effort to get them to resemble something that they're not or will only stay that way for a couple of hours in the right conditions and lights. I'm fully expecting there to be some sort of orthorexia for hair diagnosis soon.

Yes, bo, that's the one, Curlsmith Weightless Air Dry Cream. I ended up getting it directly from their website, no smaller size unfortunately. I still need gel, though , my hair is super fluffy without some product to clump it together. I agree their gel looks good too.

I'm on a silver curly fb group and there's been a lot of discussion about trying to embrace your curl pattern. I have quite a bit of variation in curls/waves. Today, was a good hair day, good product combination + warm, dry weather which helps.

I'm fine with not achieving perfect hair. That's not what I'm after. It's more the feeling like this or that ingredient in a hair product is BAD so I can feel like there are zero products I can use. It's probably a cross between perfectionism and minimalism tbh. Funnily enough what makes it worse is not the whole IG hair influencer issue, it's more all the blogs and the science and the not finding that aspect of it easy. Hence stepping away every now and then.

Anyway, cast on. Hair looks curlier than it has in months. Feels quite a bit shorter but that'll largely be because it's jumped up so much.

Yeah I remember using Devacurl wavemaker and I think even my Christophe Robin curl cream without gel very early on so it should be possible for me. Gel definitely makes the drying process take much longer, right? I might just try it tomorrow, I should have washed it today but I'm not very motivated to diffuse and it's too late to air dry noa. We're having a staycation this week and are just being ridiculously lazy, it's rather embarrassing

I really want to try the ecoslay rice pudding though, if that's a bust I'll revisit the Curlsmith Weightless ADC.

A good chop has defo made a big difference to my hair. Washed it yesterday. Went for a bit of a breezy walk with friends last night then sat in pub garden. Still looked okay, and today too.

I'm on day 3 hair and I have to say the build up is much less. So substituting the Cantu LIC for the Curlsmith Weightless LIC and only using gel on wash day, and then curl creme on refresh days (like I used to) seems to work better. I think I got caught up in using a 3 step system of LIC + gel to seal in moisture + product to seal in gel. I also didn't bother breaking the cast of either the gel or curl creme, as my hair tends to pouf out over the course of the day, anyway. Apparently, that's due to density, getting more volume during the day.

Ninny, glad your haircut is making a difference. I think my ends need a trim, too.

Sounds like a good plan Quirky. Less is more I think.

Rough night's sleep so frizzy. Not sure on the shape. Feels bulky especially from the front.