Perm today - curly hair help!

[GigantosaurusRex]

I'm having a perm today - goibg back to my teenage years! However, in my teenage years it was wash hair and slather in mousse so it dried all crunchy and that's not what I want to do now! I've been down rabbitholes on insta of how to care/style curly hair and I'm overwhelmed. So, for those of you who are permed or naturally curly what is your routine and what products do you recommend please?!

Despite what Instagram will tell you, my hair routine hasn't moved on a lot since the slather in mouse days.

I wash, condition, use a bit of a serum and then use a curl cream or gel. I scrunch it up, defuse it to kind of set the curls and then leave it to finish drying naturally. Once it's dry enough I tip my head upside down and scrunch it a bit to separate it out a bit/stop it sticking to my scalp. If there are frizzy/fluffy bits I rub a bit of curl cream on my hands and use it to smooth it down.

I don't do any of this co-washing stuff. I end up with an itchy scalp if I don't wash it properly every few days.

I have a light mousse that's not as crunchy, plus spray - John Frieda. Mine is naturally curly

As above - we still slather on product and end up crispy. Only nowdays, we scrunch the crunch by gently scrunching hair til crispiness has gone. All the curl, none of the crunch

Thank you! I did read about gel casts and scrunching it out and that sounds like what you are doing @PickySlackTastic. I'm looking forward to a change!

@PickySlackTastic yes! I scrunch the crunch! Couldn't remember what the social media friendly term was!

Most products nowadays aren't as crunchy as mousse was back in the 90s anyway. Boots Curl creme used to be good but smells weird now since it's relaunched. Its been my product on and off for 20 years! Twisted Sista do a good gel that's not crunchy too.

Mine really hasn’t moved on from styling changes either and seriously I always go back to using mousse. Although did try frizz ease spray the other day and that did not have a crunchy feel but I have gone back to my trusted mousse as much prefer it.