All About (my curly) Hair

I was born with hair that has the potential to curl, but for most of my life all it has done is frizz. This is an unsolicited artists rendering of me, and I think it does a very good job of representing both what my hair looked like and how it made me feel, until very recently.

I learned about the Curly Girl method (or CG) several years ago after finding this book at a yard sale. Basically the idea is to eliminate or greatly reduce your use of shampoo, use lots of conditioners (both rinse out and leave in), and never ever put anything with any type of silicone in your hair. I tried several times to stop shampooing my hair but after only a week or so my hair would be heavy, stringy and admittedly kind of gross feeling. I actually thought I must have oily hair....

A little over a month ago I discovered Naturallycurly.com....and learned that there are more silicones than just dimethicone. Pretty much anything that ends in -cone, -conol or -xane is a silicone that will not wash out of hair without a sulfate-containing shampoo. Cyclopentisiloxane is one of the worst, and one of my favorite products had it listed as the second ingredient!

After reading (obsessively) about ingredients and curly hair techniques on the Curl Talk forum I gave away most of my haircare products and came up with my own routine.

1. Cowash - this refers to washing your hair using conditioner (instead of shampoo)
2. Condition daily, deep conditioning at least twice a week
3. Leave in - yet more conditioner
4. Gel on soaking wet hair while still in the shower
5. Plop for 30+ minutes with a 100% cotton sweater
6. Air dry
7. More gel - just a pea sized amount
8. Scrunch out the crunch
9. Curl creme, if needed.

On a good day, this is what I end up with:

It even looks good from the back!

I can't believe it took me this long to figure out how to take care of my hair...but I'm so glad I did!