Curly girl method - trial and error!

[neveradullmoment99]

Not long started my journey and would love to share some tips and hints with others! Anyone else doing this?
After reading and watching various things, I am almost 90% sure I have low porosity hair. That was the biggest game changer for me. After experimenting with a ton of things what works for me is:
Using shampoo and conditioner [sulphate and paraben free]
Using a leave in conditioner instead of curl cream [ This has made an absolutely momentous change in my hair] Curl cream just did not absorb in my hair and ended up feeling dirty and crunchy - the cast would not break after it had all dried with the gel.
Using a good strong gel after the leave in conditioner to create a cast then plopping into a microfibre towel and diffusing or leaving to air dry or a mixture of both.
I am still working out refreshing my hair as it is always very dry and spraying a mist of water makes my hair frizz ridiculously.
What I tried to do today was to apply the leave in conditioner to dry hair then use a facial steamer to bring out the curls. This worked pretty well.
I would love to hear of others on this journey :)

I also don't have time to faff in the morning! So will wash and dry my hair and leave in a cast, pineapple it and pull it down in the morning. Its usually great and I don't need to do much to it.
I am a 2C type wave/curl 3a so not overly curly.

I sleep in the cast.

Same hair type aa you OP and I also struggle with keeping curls looking good on day 2 and beyond.
I don't plop. I use a denman brush to define some of the curls that aren't as defined as I'd like then air dry or diffuse.
I agree that more gel is the answer and I also agree that leave in conditioner is better than curl cream. I know what you mean about it not quite setting and feeling dirty with the curl cream.
At the moment I'm spraying with water and leave in conditioner and then scrunching again on day 2 but I tend to end up putting it up as it's always frizzier and less defined than I'd like.

I'm also realising what a difference a good deep conditioning treatment makes. Leave in for as long as possible in a shower cap and a towel to keep the heat in.

This is absolutely me on day 2. The leave in conditioner has been the best thing I did. I agree about the deep conditioner. What I read about low porosity hair is that it doesn't take moisture in easily, so any heat treatment is the best. It is funny too as even putting oils in it don't help. Just makes my hair greasy as if it is just sitting on top of my hair rather than going in.

I have similar hair too, low porosity and a lot of moisture products just don't get absorbed. K18 has been really great for me (despite being marketed as damage repair, I bought it more for protection as the ends of my hair can be fragile).

I've always had issues with gel setting properly, it either didn't set properly or a little too properly and then it's a very careful operation of getting it scrunched out without creating frizz. I've switched to mousse/foam instead and that just works far better for me, I don't need to refresh, hair generally just stays looking the same for days. And it also drastically cuts down drying time.

It's a bit of a faff but the fermented rice water treatment does give good results for me as this seems to absorb deeply but I only really do that when my curl pattern seems to be out of synch. Since using k18 I've not needed to do that anymore, in winter I do occasionally like a deep conditioner.

That is interesting about the mousse. I may try that. My hair also dries out as the day wears on, which is very annoying especially using the curl cream. Does it a lot less with the leave in conditioner. Thank you for the tip!

The gel can actually be a pain to get out without getting frizz, agreed! Before using the leave in conditioner, it would not budge. Then huge frizz as I had manipulated my hair too much, which was disappointing. It comes out more now and I tend to diffuse it a little to help it on it's way.

Are you in a hard water area by chance? This is also a major pain to navigate for me, (diluted) apple cider vinegar rinses can help and I always make sure to do a clarifying shampoo at least once a month which also has chelating ingredients to remove all the hard mineral buildup. There are also some specific lower pH shampoos that are meant to be good for low porosity hair but I've not tried any (my usual shampoo is on the lower pH side though, just not marketed as such but that's probably why I like it).

Do you use a curl-specific leave in conditioner? The trial and error is draining!!

I've been embracing my curls for a few years now. I've never really looked into my hair type but have figured things out by trial and error. For refresh I use a smal amount of conditioner mixed with water in a continual mist bottle. I leave it to dry and then clap my hair out. It works pretty well for 3 or 4 days before it gets too much of a halo. I've also found less is more. I use a curl cream when wet and then a bit of gel after plopping - but I use the tiniest anounts and rub them well between my hands before applying - having too much crunch just doesn't work for me.

Im actually in Scotland, so I think we have soft water here. I think it is just my hair.

Not me. I use garnier ultimate blends leave in conditioner. No rinse coconut and aloe vera. My hair has always loved coconut shampoo.

Oh the trial and error was a killer. I tried multiple curl creams but they just left my hair feeling clogged tangled and very stiff and dirty. Now shampoo and condition with cantu. Then detangle. Rinse my hair and squeeze extra moisture out as my hair takes and absolute age to dry. Then apply a generous amount of leave in conditioner and squish it in. Then I apply the gel over the top and plop for a few minutes. Take out and air dry or diffuse to create the cast.

I get lovely curls this way. They are soft and shiny. At the end of the day, my hair does tend to dry out. I'm not sure what the answer is to that. When I apply oils, they just don't penetrate and lie on top of my hair making it look greasy and lank. When I use water, it just tends to frizz more. I might try again with the conditioner and water mix. I have a long spray plastic bottle. I need to be very careful not to overly manipulate my hair once it is done as it can just cause more frizz and basically make the curls look shit.

I use something along the lines of this to refresh my hair:

I actually do it without any gel (i.e. just wet hands) the day after wash day, because I find that the water reactivates the previous day’s gel and I get a cast again. Spraying anything on my hair just leads to frizz!

For me, If I hadn't looked into my hair porosity, I would have probably have given up. Nothing at all seemed to help with the dryness.I only realised that my hair just does not get moisturised just with conditioner. After shampooing, Ive taken to putting the cantu conditioner on and the shower cap over the top and letting quite warm water go over it so that the heat helps the conditioner penetrate. Then I take it out of the cap and rinse it.
Ive only been doing curly girl for around a month now. Its certainly been an expensive journey!

I can't refresh, my hair hates it! Fine wavy hair

Routine is usually
Shampoo and condition (protein heavy conditioner)
Serum (treluxe) or curlsmith thickening lotion or a foam
Gel (aveda, jessicurl or treluxe)

No plopping and diffuse as soon as possible

Thank you so much for this. Going to try it tomorrow with my day 3 hair!!

You have very beautiful hair :)

I use Aunt Jackie curl cleanser, conditioner and leave-in conditioner, with Only Curls mousse and gel.

I have low porosity 3a-b curls and I totally get the trial and error 🙀

But - I get sooo many compliments on my hair now! I go to a curly hairdresser, which makes a huge difference too.

I decided to embrace my curls about 4 years ago and life is

--- hit the wrong button there! Life is much easier now!

But having tried all sorts of things, I decided a lot of it might be marketing winning over reality, and I abandoned the idea of using loads of products ( I always hated putting lots of stuff in my hair anyway).

So I go cheap and easy. Day 1 - wash with Aldi own brand shampoo, condition with tresemme. Every day - dampen or soak my hair (depending on how wild it is when I wake up) then another blob of tresemme as a leave in conditioner (tho it's not sold as that). After about 6 days, cowash with Alberto balsam raspberry conditioner. Wash again with shampoo around about day 9. If things start looking a bit too dry and flyaway during this process, I'll use tresemme protein rich as a leave in conditioner, but only for 1 day as it's a bit heavier. I comb my hair when wet, leave it to air dry then do nothing for the rest of the day. That's it - no gel, no foam, v little expense or bother.

I have corkscrew curls, quite dry hair, used to be very thick but a bit thinner now with age (though you wouldn't call it thin) and live in a soft water area.

Ah mine is the opposite, it hates coconut (which is a shame because I'm always drawn to the lovely smell 😅)

I think you get different ones! Other scents!