Avoiding rat tail hair with cg method

[meow1989]

Any seasoned cgers willing to impart wisdom to a newbie please?

So I've started trying the wavy/cg method in the last week - I've got a lot of hair but the actual hairs are quite thin and ita always been a not quite wave voluminous mess if not straightened. I've been using cantu co wash, conditioner and following with a curly activator and then scrunching and plopping my hair before letting it finish air drying. My hair is definitely embracing a wave and I'm happy with that but without brushing it looks very... straggly? Obviosuly if I brush it it just goes back to a boofy non descript fluff... does anyone have any hints and tips as to how to obtain flowy waves rather than the beach salty ones I'm ending up with?

If it's wavy you may be using roo much product. I have noughty and cantu and Noughty is more of a wavy product than cantu. Both enhance my waves but I only use the shampoo and conditioner.

Follow blewbellecurlstudio and originalcornishcurlygirl on Instagram. Sarah is an amazing wealth of knowledge and works with naturally wavy hair, as well as full on curls. She posts really useful product reviews and tips - and has helped me how to get from frizz to wave without the straggle!

People would kill for that hair OP! Is it crunchy? You can scrunch out the crunch if it is. Don't know how, I've never needed to find out.

If you're having problems the first thing is to make 100% sure there's no silicone in any of your products, if you're not using shampoo with sulfates it'll build up causing all kinds of problems.

Alternatively you could be using the wrong products or too much of them.

I can't use any kind of cream or curl activator. I co-wash, condition then a blob of mousse topped with the curl company gel
Too strong a gel such as snot also gives me stringy hair

If this is rat tail hair I'd like rat tail hair please 😮

Your hair looks amazing. Can’t I is quite heavy for wavy hair, you may prefer a lighter product and a mousse?

are you putting your product on sopping wet hair? You’ll get bigger clumps that way.

I use aussie instant freeze gel then scrunch out the crunch. Lots of cgm groups on Facebook and people to follow in Instagram. Some are militant but lots of good tips.

I have fine, wavy hair but find that Cantu and other heavier products weigh my waves down.
A mousse on wet hair with medium to firm curl gel has been a winning combination for me.Using a diffuser to 80% dry, air drying and the scrunching out the cast has helped too.

Same for me OP, exacerbated by mixed textures and a heavy, less wavy top layer.
I found many CG products too heavy and waxy. I use Hairstory Rich (really good on my frizzy greys) and reapply a dab on the ends after I'm out of the shower, then their texture spray, pin into curls overnight.
I pin it every night unless I plan to wear it up the next day.
I have to brush mine I'm afraid, I've not found a better way to make it look nice. After brushing I twist chunks of hair with a bit of hair oil on the ends, which makes it piecey and deals with any frizz.
Hairstory is expensive but I don't need a lot of product and it really works for me, I got tired of getting stuck with products which didn't suit.

I have wavy hair and it can be tricky to find the right combination, but worth perserving. For what it's worth, the photo looks lovely - I too am very critical of my wavy hair after a lifetime of straightening, but other people always compliment it, so it can't be that bad really!

Cantu products are way too heavy for my hair. I also need to shampoo regularly, which is often something I see wavies mentioning too: I alternate Johnson's Baby Shampoo (has sulfates) and Yves Rocher Low Poo, as otherwise my hair gets stringy with products. I use either a conditioner or a curl cream or it's too weighed down. Then mousse and gel or mousse and hairspray.

I only microplop these days, as that tends to make my waves stringy. There's a lot of trial and error I'm afraid!

Thanks everyone! I'm gonna have a proper read through and relook at products and people to follow later. Proper newbie to this but would love to embrace my natural hair (thanks for the compliments too even if I don't see it!).

I have very fine hair and can't cope with Cantu products or anything with coconut oil in.

I'm currently using the watermelon ultimate blends followed by a gel or mousse.

My hair can't tolerate oils or creams, they make it look greasy and ratty, might be the same for you.

Op your hair looks great. I do cgm and found my hair didn’t love cantu but I do like the eco flaxseed and castor oil hairgel. I wash my hair with a sainsburys apple conditioner (that costs less than £1), as I am leave in conditioner, than when wet I add the eco gel and leave it to dry in a t shirt or I have a micro cloth.

Products too heavy I reckon
Mine is wavy, I use a mousse or foam and then a light hard hold gel. And shampoo and conditioner, my hair prefers it to co wash

Oh yes, my hair hates anything with coconut too! @CornedBeef451 thanks for pointing that out - I nearly bought a shampoo with coconut in at lunchtime, without your reminder, I think I'd have forgotten to scrutinize the ingredients properly!

This is mine, I use a lot of protein heavy products too as it hates moisture!

Oh FFS. Picture!

OK I have hair envy 😍

I think your hair looks bloody amazing and wish I could get effect with mine!

You need to Google ingredients. Silicone is never listed as silicone. It's coating your hair in plastic basically and the only thing that gets it off is sulfates. If you give up sulfates and you've still got silicone it'll build up on your hair and make it awful. That's where to start with curly girl method. Watch out for products changing their ingredients, it's not always marked on the bottle when they do this so either check every time or check if you suddenly start having problems. In time you'll get to know all the different names for silicone. Not exclusively but generally anything ending cone, conal or xane is silicone. There's drying alcohol ingredients which aren't generally good for curls either but will sometimes be contained in products marketing themselves as for curls or as silicone free. I've no idea what those are called. Many curly girl groups contain post after post of people asking if their product purchased is suitable. But really it's a method needing your own research and seems a lot of effort. I use sulfate shampoo, try to avoid silicone, have found products my hair likes for styling and ways of applying them that works. That's as much effort as I can be bothered to put in. Good luck with it if you're going full on curly girl method. Your hair looks good maybe you just need a few tweaks.

Ditch the cantu. It is designed for thicker hair types like a 3/4 curl.

My hair is curly but fine. I can't do co-washing and I can't use cantu. Otherwise it looks greasy. The longest i can leave my hair between washes is 4 days. I need to use a shampoo after that. I also use gel and that works so much better than creams etc.