Curly girl method

[Freshair1]

Is this really, honestly a thing. And not a swindle?! I had a go out of curiosity, did a wash and then scrunched before letting air dry. Had thick wavy partly curly hair but god the frizz. Is this real curly hair or just a result of scrunching if you see what I mean? I usually blow dry and straighten my hair. I never usually let it air dry cos it looks awful and puffy.

Back in the day… on a good day…

It is. If I left mine to dry naturally I would also look like Hermione!
But I've had curly hair since I was a toddler, it's just not defined curls unless I add product. It puffs up in humidity too, the curl drops as it's so fine...
You can't form curls from scrunching or people would do that and not buy curling tongs

This is my dd’s hair, it’s a bit frizzy on here but is usually gorgeous! She’s nearly 13. She uses OGX curl shampoo and conditioner and an Umberto Giannini spray and that’s it. She’s constantly complimented on it and has totally embraced it despite it being hard work.

She saw the curly girl method all over social media and basically thinks it’s an overkill of products. Nobody needs 10 products in their hair! Most people who seem to do it don’t really have proper curly hair, more wavy which can then be improved upon. That’s how I would describe my own hair. It’s too much effort for me.

Your DDs curly hair is beautiful.
I wouldn’t say 10 products are necessary, I’m not on social media but maybe that’s where the problem lies, people getting carried away or endorsing products. I have dry wavy hair and only use 2 products, both silicone free of course. I make both of them from ingredients easily available online. The 1st is a Co wash, the second a conditioner. Before I went no poo and silicone free my hair had all the charm of a Brillo pad, it is a lot better now.

Following. I'm at very early stages in this. I have Hermione bush hair. I have found that pre-wash oiling with castor oil and post-wash leave-in serum are helping. It's still totally all over the place though.

I don't know if people have to keep scrunching etc once their curl pattern has been established. I think at that point scrunching etc just keeps them looking perfect but it's not necessary, but then that probably depends on the curl type.

Mine drop after a day. So to make them curly again I'd have to wash my hair again.... Surely that's not proper curly hair??

Mine drop very quickly because my hair is fine. I use protein a lot in my styling products and wash days to help the curl and too much moisture for me makes it too soft, I need a bit of grit with volume spray or texture spray

Some helpful stuff on here

www.instagram.com/welshiecurlgirl?igsh=ZmVhZW5vbGhoYnZw

I have fine hair but lots of it. Some of the curls drop out overnight. To refresh my curls, I use a mister and spray my hair in the morning, just with water - no additional product. I don't make it soaking, just damp and spray more on the parts that have dropped out. I give it a bit of a scrunch and the curls all come back. I wash properly every 3 days or so. It doesn't take too long to dry but use a diffuser if you need too.

I tried it for 6 months during lockdown.
Hair looked amazing from the front and utterly awful from the back.
After Day 1 it always looked grungy.
Once I started meeting people in real life again, I gave up!

It may not technically be curly hair, but it sounds like classic wavy hair, which behaves differently to curly hair and may need a modified version of the curly girl method.

People who are finding hard water is affecting their hair, it's worth trying washing with a chelating shampoo every so often to remove hard water build up on your hair. I use one about every 3 or 4 weeks when my hair starts to not wave very well and look a bit limp. Chelating shampoo followed by a deep conditioner works wonders.

@RichardMarxisinnocent could you give an example of a chelating shampoo?

I use Klorane detox shampoo from Boots. It contains Trisodium Ethylenediamine Disuccinate which is what removes the hard water minerals build up from the hair.

Noughty detox dynamo clarifying shampoo is also chelating. I haven't tried it but do use other Noughty products and plan to try it once my Klorane runs out.

Thanks @RichardMarxisinnocent 😊

So excited. My Curly Girl hairdresser has just started to work from home so I no longer need to go into London. Yay!