This is a trend I’ve seen going around on the social media for the past few months and I used to have amazing waves in my hair. Then I cut it and suddenly my waves were gone. Around that time I also started to use Formulate, and while it made my hair feel nice it has silicone which I think is the main culprit to why my waves were gone. So I decided to try out the Curly Girl Method which is from Lorraine Massey’s book “Curly Girl: The Handbook.”
The Curly Girl Method is a method that trades in damaging habits like heat styling for a healthy curly hair regimen. This method also recommends cutting out these seven things:
- Shampoo (if don’t want to cut it out completely, make sure it’s sulfate free and you condition before and after this step).
- Heat styling tools
- Combs & brushes
- Sulfates (Sodium lauryl salfates and ammonium laureth sulfate)
- Non-water soluble silicones
- Alcohol
- Fragrance
Now I already have cut out sulfates and combs from my hair regime routine for many months now. Some even for years so I guess I already sort of knew some of the tricks. The idea of cutting out shampoo completely seemed odd to me. As isn’t shampoo what keeps your hair from getting greasy as well as actually clean it? But apparently over time cutting out shampoo makes your hair and scalp balance out. You can still use a “low-poo” regime by using it once a week or using conditioner before and after using shampoo. This is what I started out with at first then slowly started cutting back the use of shampoo to just once a week to every other week.
So what are the steps for washing and styling your hair according to the Curly Girl Method:
- Cleanse: Scrub your scalp with your fingertips and conditioner. This will lift residue, sweat and oil to be rinsed out by the water.
- Condition: Smooth conditioner over hair in sections, leave on for a few minutes before rinsing it out. If a little conditioner is left in, that’s ok.
- Dry and Style: Blot dry by cupping curls in a towel never wring or disturb your curl then let it air-dry. Don’t touch the top layer to avoid frizz but go ahead and fluff or scrunch to encourage the curls to form.
So with all this in mind I switched to Briogeo Curl Charisma hair care system (not sponsored, I’d heard good things about them and they are formulated to be silicone free). I did purchase their Frizz Control Gel, Leave-in Conditioning Creme, Shampoo and Conditioner. I know this is supposed to be no shampoo, but I wasn’t going to completely cut shampoo out cold turkey. So in the meantime, I have something to use once a week until I was confident to fully step away from it. I have gotten rid of all of my other hair products or rather donated them to my sister as she was out. I have also packed away all of my heating tools so I wasn’t tempted to grab them.
I’m still using Overtone Extreme Red and Purple on my hair, glancing over the ingredients this isn’t breaking the rules on silicone or sulfates. However it does have some fragrance and alcohol, but I want to keep the merlot hair color at the moment. If however, it interferes with this method I might go back to my natural hair color. For the time being, I have reduced it down from every shower to just once a week when I use shampoo. I know my mom would especially love it if I went back to natural.
If you are wondering what the non-water soluble or slightly soluble (may build up but can usually be co-washed out) ingredients are, they are the following:
- Amodimethicone
- Behenoxy dimethicone
- Cyclohexasiloxane
- Cyclomethicone
- Cyclotetrasiloxane
- Stearoxy dimethicone
- Cetearyl methicone
- Cetyl dimethicone
- Cyclopentasiloxane
- Dimethicone
- Dimethiconol
- Phenyl Trimethicone
- Stearyl dimethicone
- Trimethylsilylamodimethicone
Those ingredients are the ones you want to avoid in your shampoo or conditioner. However these are the water-soluble ones which means they don’t interfere with the Curly Girl Method or at least they shouldn’t:
- Dimethicone copolyol
- Hydrolyzed wheat protein (hydroxypropyl polysiloxane)
- Lauryl methicone copolyol
- Silicones with PEG listed before it
So here is how my hair looks like before I started this process, lack luster waves that almost look straight in certain places. Also yes, I’m not wearing any makeup save for some yellow eyeliner that’s still in my waterline. I’m also doing a skincare regime and started that at the same time so excuse me for making these photos duel purpose.
And here is a month later:
If you would like me to keep updating this over time or write updated posts in the future like if I change things up, let me know and I’ll make it happen. Also if you have any recommendations on other products I can try that might help as well with this method let me know in the comments. I think I’m going to keep going down this adventure of the Curly Girl Method. Also to see if my hair grows out more with the minimal effort.
Love ya,
Mae Polzine
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