Getting my Curl On

Hi my name is Julie and I have naturally curly hair. Wavy hair to be exact. Type 2c to really narrow it down. There I’ve said it. I'm acknowledging the curls.  I’m getting in touch with my curly girl self. So what does this mean. It means I’m going to start (have started, kinda) the Curly Girl Method. Okay, here we go. I will not be shampooing my hair (often). Eeewww right? I’m still waiting for the book to further explain the process but for now I’m not washing my hair but once a week with shampoo. I will however be washing my hair with conditioner or low-poo shampoo. Wait, what the hell is low-poo and why? Take a minute to look at the ingredients of your shampoo and compare them with the ingredients of your dish soap. Understand the ingredients are listing in order of amount, so the first ingredients listed are the highest amounts and the last listed ingredients are the least amounts. Do you see that 2nd or 3rd ingredient? Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (or a derivative of). It’s used to remove grease from your pots and pans. It’s also used to remove silicones, we’ll talk about that in a minute. So, my curly hair is typically dry feeling and tends to get greasy feeling toward the scalp. Maybe I need to cut the grease, right? Nope. Here’s why I think it works, IMHO. I spend all this time trying to remove the oil from my hair in an attempt to make is "clean" that I’m also stripping all the natural oils from my hair. My body then says “hey, I need to produce more moisture on the surface of my largest organ to protect it from the elements, I’m obviously loosing it really fast so here ya go, lots of protection in the form of oil”. So I strip it again and again and again. Never ending cycle. What do I need to do? Help my hair/scalp. So first step is to stop using products with silicones which need to be stripped with sulfates. Then, use sulfate and “cone” free products on my hair. Oh, the “cone” thing. Forms of silicone are added to many conditioners and hair care products. They form a layer around the hair follicle which gives the illusion of soft silky hair. Sounds not so bad. Well, the only way to remove “cones” from your hair is to use products with sulfate, which as we’ve already discussed completely strips your hair/scalp of moisture.


The solution, no more poo. Or no more use of shampoos that contain sulfates and no more use of conditioner/moisturizers that use silicones.

Okay, now, how do I get my hair clean. You follow this wikihow on the Curly Girl Method. I’ll be following it and showing you my progress. Today, Day 1. Last night I washed my hair one final time with a sulfate wash. I then did a hot oil treatment. I then did an intense moisture treatment which I rinsed out. Then I put more of the moisture treatment on (thinned a little) and left it on my hair. I then plunked/plopped. It looked really great last night, but after sleeping on it, it got a little frizzy. I’ve also notice that it is still really really dry. The hair completely soaked up the moisturizer. Tonight I 1)co-washed, 2) conditioned, 3) leave-in conditioner, 4) gel, and then 5) plopped. 

I'll be sharing what I hope to be a great hair transformation and sharing my reviews of products.  I'm currently trying out Tresemme Pro-Vitamin B5 & Aloe Remoisturize Conditioner and Biotera Styling Gel.  These are both products that cost less than $10.  The Biotera came from Sally Beauty Supply and the Tressemme from CVS.  I also used a hot oil treatment and deep conditioner last night but wasn't concerned with the review side of things.