I have a complicated relationship with my hair. I love it, and it doesn’t define my personal standard of beauty, however, I’m always trying to make it look better. I’ve gone through phases of not washing it at all, only washing it with apple cider vinegar, getting it cut often, not getting it cut at all and most recently, curling it (with heat) almost every day. Nightmare. On the whole, I have assumed that my hair type is: straight, with a random kink. However, after one recent wash, I came upon the realisation that my hair is, in fact, curly. After much internet research, I came across the Curly Girl Method and decided to give it a try in order to encourage my curls to make more of an appearance. Also, nothing is as bad as pouring cold water and apple cider vinegar onto your head.
There’s a lot to the Curly Girl Method. It became widely known when hairstylist Lorraine Massey wrote Curly Girl: The Handbook. This breaks down hair types, how to figure out which hair type you are, methods to use, products to try, the list goes on. The nub is that you stop using shampoo and only wash your hair with conditioner. You no longer use heat. Your products do not contain silicones or sulfates. You hydrate your locks as much as possible, let moisture to soak in and watch your curls bounce back.
There’s also a lot of information on the internet in the way of guides, reddit threads, youtube videos and blog posts and honestly, it’s exhausting. I gave up for a week just because I was so overwhelmed by it. However, I’m now social distancing so I’ve nothing better to do than to get on with it. Curly Susie is amazing and I’d highly recommend watching her videos as somewhere to start. Below I’ve listed the steps that I’ll be following until the effects take hold. Most sources say that you will see results after 30 days so I guess that’s the minimum time I will be doing it for.
Reset Wash
There’s a lot of build-up in your hair from all the products that you’ve been using throughout your entire life. Before you start the CGM you need to strip these away so that your hair can absorb as much moisture as possible. I started the CGM and skipped this step and all the conditioner just sat on top of my hair and didn’t soak in at all so do not skip this step.
Co-Wash
This set is skipped if you’re doing the reset wash but for every hair wash day forthwith, this is my new shampooing step. Co-Wash stands for ‘conditioner wash’. So, the plan is to put a dollop on my hair and massage it into my scalp, moving as much oil and dirt as possible and then give it a good rinse.
Condition
For this step, you can use the same conditioner you used to co-wash so at least I won’t be purchasing masses of products for this method. I used a good lemon-sized blob and put it through my hair using the ‘prayer hands’ technique. Then, and this is very important, you scrunch it into your hair. If you don’t know what I mean by ‘scrunch’ then google it. Rinse this out.
Gel
Gel conjures absolute nightmares of a boy in my high school who would gel his entire hair up into a sort of square other than his fringe, which he gelled to his forehead. It was awful. The longer his hair got, the higher the square rose. The girls in my year were besotted with him, god help us all. Anyway, the Curly Girl Method uses gel a little differently. Still in the shower, scrunch a good amount of gel into your hair and DO NOT RINSE. This will help your curls clump together and give more definition.
Plop
Nope, the next step isn’t to poop (obv, do that before a shower, we’re on a toilet paper shortage for heaven’s sake). Normal cotton towels are way too harsh on curls so instead, you need to use either a microfibre towel or a t-shirt. I’m opting with the t-shirt because #authentic. You flip your head upside down, ‘plop’ it onto the t-shirt and then twist it like you normally would, tying the sleeves together to keep it in place. Plop.
The final step, not worth a heading, is to ‘scrunch out the crunch’. Once your hair is around 50% dry, take it out the towel/t-shirt and scrunch it one last time so that your hair doesn’t go crunchy. Then, let it air dry.
It seems a lot as I’m writing it down but as I say, I have a lot of time on my hands. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted on how I get on.
– E x