Any curly-haired women here?

[linn06]

If so...
what is your method for no-shampooing?
I've been reading the no shampoo boards and following the baking soda advice, but I really don't like how my hair's doing. No curl, no moisture.
If you have curly hair, what's your method for keeping the curl and moisture?
I need serious help! My hair's killing me.

[Spastica]

Howdy Linn:

Funny you should ask about curly hair because I got obsessed with my hair early this year when I saw all the wonderful 'bed-head' loose curls that people were wearing and I thought "Man. I'm not going to bother straightening my hair everyday and I'm tired of it. Might as well ride the current fashion by wearing my hair naturally curly." And you know what? I had hideous frizzy weird curls after years of blow drying it semi or mostly straight. My hair forgot how to look nice and curly. It didn't help that I didn't know how to style like they do for movie stars. So I looked up stuff on the internet on how to manage and style curly hair.

I actually found the concept of no-poo from the NaturallyCurly website. I've been going no-poo, with rare instances of using Avalon shampoo on special occasions since late February and I'm still trying to get my formulas right and try new concoctions.

Generally, people with curly hair will need to either decrease their baking soda, increase their apple cider vinegar, add honey to their baking soda solution, or do all three. Also, if this is a bunch of hassle for you, you can opt for the C-W-C or C-O methods (Condition-Wash-Condition or Conditioner-Only) listed on NaturallyCurly.com - a silicone-free conditioner is preferred.

I noticed before that once I used baking soda, I had to treat my hair differently than when I used regular shampoo and conditioner. Here are my observations:

- You can't blow dry your hair bone dry any more. You will have less frizz due to baking soda and apple cider vinegar so you can leave a little moisture in and not worry about frizz

- You can't have your hair become too pH basic, or else you lose the curl and your hair looks weird (can look brittle, lackluster, no curl, look like straw, or look limp and lanky)

- Diffusers, scrunching, lavender mist bottles, and/or water bottles are your friend. You can get some serious curl action with no-poo if you use a diffuser on your blow dryer (or let it air dry), and aid the moisture by misting your hair with lavender essential oil and distilled water in a spray bottle, or just use plain water in a mist bottle. Also the site encourages the use of a detangling comb or just using fingers to style instead of standard brushes and combs. Brushing or combing your hair when wet (especially for fragile curly hair) can damage it and it ruins the curl pattern of your hair. If you check out the NaturallyCurly.com site, check out the instructions for proper 'plopping' too.

You're probably thinking, "What the hell is UP with these names?? No-Poo? PLOPPING???!" Trust me, it's good info.

Plopping
http://www.naturallycurly2.com/curls...les.php?id=140

How to use a Diffuser
http://www.hdryers.com/use-hair-dryer-diffuser.htm

To help your curls, you can add a lil squirt of honey to your baking soda mixture and dilute it with warm to hottish water in an old shampoo bottle or travel sized shampoo bottle (what I use). You can add some essential oils if you like, 1-4 drops depending on what it is and how strong the smell is. Shake well and squirt it all over into your scalp and hair. Do the scalp massage method and keep the mixture on your hair.

I personally use a 50/50 dilution of apple cider vinegar, which I can dilute more with my little travel sized shampoo bottle, or use as is - I keep the 50/50 in a large squirt bottle. Lately, I'm finding that if I squirt my entire head and hair with apple cider vinegar and rinsing, it helps with the curls, but sometimes it looks stringy. On certain days, actually massaging the apple cider vinegar into my scalp and massaging my hair too, makes my hair look more normal and nice. I have to find a happy medium.

If the ends of your hair feel dry, you can take one drop of olive oil or jojoba oil and rub your hands together and smooth out the bottom of your hair with it. You can also do a weekly hair treatment with a couple more drops of olive oil and working it into your hair and letting it sit for as long as you can before shampooing or no-pooing it out. That helps too. Some people do egg washes, mayonaise washes, mashed ripe bananas, mashed avocadoes, but the thought of it is just messy to me and that's just a waste of yummy food.

The no-poo method recipe, I am finding, varies with the seasion and varies with how my hair is doing. Don't be afraid to change your basic recipe if your hair needs change.

Some other things that help with no-poo is using a pinch of oat flour. I've noticed that my hair looks fuller, but if I use too much it weighs my hair down. Oat flour is pretty much the "Hydrolyzed Oat Flour" or like the "Wheat protein" that some expensive shampoos have to make your hair look full and smooth.

I hope that helps a little bit. Try a little more acidic stuff like the apple cider vinegar or lemon juice rinse in your hair - it'll perk up your curls. Honey can also help with any moisture, conditioning/hair-slip-factor, or curl-definition problems.

I'm addicted to this forum, so if you have questions, I'll be back to answer them, hehe.

[Alkenny]

What she said.

Just wanted to add that if you need some moisture afterwards, aloe works wonderful as a "gel" for curly hair.

[Sharlla]

I rub a little coconut oil on my hair after I towel dry.

[dynamicdoula]

Do your friends get hungry whenever ya'll are around?

I want to try no-poo but I don't quite have the ovaries for it yet!

[Spastica]

Alternate Curly no-poo method - in line with CurlyGirl

You know, I've been having the best luck this past week (and probably because it's summer) just washing with apple cider vinegar only on days I don't use the baking soda (have to do the scalp massage method with the apple cider vinegar and gently massage my hair too).

Also, something else worked too, my hair is fabulous today! I've tried this one other time before long time ago, but I think I didn't use enough baking soda and my hair was still transitioning off reg shampoo.

But here's what I did:

I mixed a tablespoon of baking soda with about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of my Suave Coconut conditioner (silicone free, yay!) and made a creamy paste. I shampoo'd with that all over my hair and scalp and rinsed. I then squirted my apple cider vinegar all over my hair and massaged that a little and rinsed and then used the Suave coconut conditioner on the bottom of my hair, where it tends to get dry and lackluster.

I finally have the va-va-voom hair that I had when doing regular shampoo and conditioner, only my hair is in better shape and doesn't have split ends because I'm using baking soda (since Feb 2006) instead of my usual Biolage and using apple cider vinegar. I have also switched from silicone laden conditioners to a much cheaper, silicone-free and less chemicals Suave (yeah, that surprised me too).

My hair looks clean, thick, shiny, isn't flat, isn't brittle, and it smells good, like when I used to use shampoo.

I'm sure you can substitute any of the conditioner you use, especially those of you who use more natural ones. Just wanted to share my success story

I tried just doing the conditioner and baking soda only yesterday to see what my hair would do. It looked fine and it was shiny, but I did a strand check(finger combing my hair until a stray hair came out and then I yanked on that strand to see if it snapped quickly or had some elasticity) and it seemed that my hair lacked some elasticity. The apple cider vineger helps that so I used that today.

I hope this continues working

This basically takes no-poo and Curly Girl conditioner washing together to the next level. It's probably good for curly-haired girls who still feel like their scalp needs cleaning and conditioner alone isn't sufficient to clean their hair, but don't want to buy special curly-hair shampoos or strip their hair dry with other things.

[linn06]

Hey...
I'm loving all of your tips and advice!! Thanks everybody.

Spastica, the fact that you use Suave conditioner and that it's silicone free jumped out at me. I'm impressed! I'm really glad to hear that and plan on getting some.... I've been looking for a really affordable conditioner that doesn't have too much of the bad stuff in it; i seem to need to condition so much.

One thing I wanted to know, do you find it necessary to wash/rinse/whatever your hair daily to retain the curl? I just can't seem to get around it! When i wake up in the morning, my curl's gone and its just frizz!
...but this may change as my hair adjusts. Hope so!

[linn06]

[QUOTE=Spastica]Howdy Linn:

And you know what? I had hideous frizzy weird curls after years of blow drying it semi or mostly straight. My hair forgot how to look nice and curly.

THIS is what I'm going through right now.... I know exactly what you mean. It's awful. I spent years trying to tame my hair straight with the straightener and the serums and all that. When I realized the folly of my ways.. haha.... it was too late and my hair was fried and unmanageable. I'm trying to come out of that right now.

[Spastica]

Hi again Linn:

It's good to start out with a trim to get rid of split ends. You'll have an easier time actually seeing how doing low-shampoo or no-shampoo will affect your hair. Curly hair, I have read, is more fragile than straight hair, so it tends to break more, split more, and get frizzy.

I wrote something a while back on what I've read on silicones. It seems to have a cycle of making your hair look great on the outside but forming a barrier to moisture to your hair on the inside, so it eventually dries out your hair. This is only for silicones that don't rinse clean with water. Some people use water-soluble silicones and do fine. It's the ones that don't rinse off that you will have problems with.

Lemme link that other thread, hold on:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...light=silicone

Your hair will probably look worse before it looks better (may look greasy or limp), but you'll notice that the QUALITY of your hair is improving. Some people get greasy hair, some people get flakes, some people get odd scalp pimples -- all which go away anywhere from 2 weeks to 4-6 months.

Now that my hair is looking a little bit better and there is more humidity in the air (my hair was SO flat during the winter with no-poo) - I can say that with curly hair, it's probably better to use a little more acid based stuff like lemon or lime juice or apple cider vinegar to keep your hair nice and bouncy and full.

I really like the Suave conditioner. It doesn't have an ingredient list a mile long and it's cheap. It smells like a pina colada! There are other Suave Naturals 'flavors' that you can choose from. What I like about the Tropical coconut is that it actually has coconut oil in it and also has rosemary oil, which promotes hair growth. It's a lot of hair-friendly stuff in a cheap bottle.

You will also notice that no-poo will reduce the frizz in your hair and eventually, you won't have to put gobs of conditioner in your hair like you did before.

Apple cider vinegar also mends split ends to a degree, so you'll be happy to see healthier hair in a few months.

The scalp massage method outlined in the Forum Sticky is also great for removing oils, dirts, and sebum from the hair and stimulating the bloodflow to the scalp - all this means that your hair will have a happy, fresh place to grow from. I had really hard to grow hair and I'm having a better time growing out my hair now that I'm doing the no-poo and scalp massage method combo.

Try doing a deep treatment with a couple of drops of olive oil massaged through your hair and scalp too before shampooing or no-pooing. Very pretty hair as a result! Just don't use too much or else you'll have too much oil sitting on your hair and it'll be hard to shampoo it out. A little dab will do ya.

[Spastica]

: :

Yippee!

The Suave plus baking soda, apple cider dousing, and Suave on ends is working fabulously!

You should have seen the big shiny curls I had yesterday! Little to zero frizz too, and it was raining yesterday too.

[BabyBumblebee]

I am *sooooo* tempted to try this - but I'm just too scared I am terrified that I will just have a giant fuzzy puffball on my head.

Ack! Help me get up the courage to wean myself off the crazy expensive shampoo and conditioner that I've been buying :

[Spastica]

You can try a pinch of baking soda with your existing shampoo and keep using more baking soda and less shampoo until you don't use your shampoo anymore.

Also, you'll find the right amount of baking soda for your hair type and length. The good thing about no-pooing is that you can adjust the formula at any given moment.

With curly hair, don't forget the apple cider vinegar rinse - that is the surefire way to keep your hair from frizzing.

Some people add honey to their baking soda mix too. That keeps the frizzes away too.

[linn06]

Spastica,
Used my new Suave conditioner,and loved the way my hair felt and looked. You can't imagine how thrilled I am at it. I am one who used to pay alot for conditioners.... now my life just doesn't allow it and I'm making many changes. Not only money-wise, but in purging myself of commerical bodycare products. So inspired!

Anyway... my curls felt nice and light; not weighted down. Thanks for the info on silicones. Something I need to be more aware of.

[Spastica]

Silicones do make your hair feel luxurious, but maybe you can save them for a special day, like a wedding, big date, or interview, but honestly - I'm getting crazy shiny hair just by using the apple cider vinegar.

The Suave conditioner felt a little light to me at first because my hair was a little bit damaged from high-heat blowdrying and shampooing everyday - probably more so the blow-drying.

Since I discovere I couldn't make my hair nice, healthy-looking and wavy, let alone curly, I thought I'd give my hair a break, even it was just a little by using lower heat. Now the Suave conditioner feels right, not too heavy, not too light. I'm not sure if I can use it during the winter, but it's working nicely for the moment.

You'll see a good difference in 2-4 months! Get some trims to get rid of your split ends and any damage.

If you'd like, you can get your hair cut specifically suited for curly hair. You probably get your hair cut straight or in some layers made for straight hair. I like that style too, but this past time I got my hair cut, I noticed that the guy cutting my hair noticed my hair was on the curly side and he cut it so the curl defined more. He took large chunks of my hair and scissor-cut them on a bit of a diagonal, something that I'm not used to seeing. That made my curls get more spirally and lock into each other instead of stacking on top of each other and making my hair look huge and triangular. I mean, I like huge hair, but like Julia Roberts or Brooke Sheilds big hair, not Don King huge.

Keep your eye out for hair specialists that have curly hair or somebody who deals with ethnic and curly hair. They won't butcher your hair or cut it too short. I'm trying to grow out my hair and this guy I went to recently actually UNDERSTOOD that you can't hack off 3 inches off my hair because it will shorten by 6 inches.

Good luck and be kind(er) to your hair! If you have questions or would like to compare results and share good/bad results, I'm around!

[EricaLeigh]

Well I have recently been through a change with my hair! I was straightening it for over a year with a hot iron. After time on days that I'd try to go curly it was a mess. Then I cut it & had it double processed : ! I'll NEVER do that again!!! Have you always wondered how you'd look blond? Well I looked BAD! So 8 days later I went back to cover the blond with my regular color which is dark brown. Well that was in October. My color is still off I can vaguely see the difference in my color compared to the roots. I have also refrained from cutting it all this time. The style is blah, & my curl is getting better but it still isn't what it was. I used to have nice ringlets, now I have wavy in the back with some curl around my face. Should I get it trimmed? I ususlly just wear it in a low pony! I was reading that people how have used henna over time tend to loosen their curls since the henna changes the texture of your hair to be silkier. On hennaforhair.com they suggested using Dr. B's liquid soap instead of shampoo. Well...... I tried it but I think I used too much. It wasn't sudsing so I kept adding more. My hair was very greasy feeling! It was more curly but also looked like I hadn't showered in a few days! So Yesterday I mixed my regular shampoo with the Dr. B's & water & then I conditioned, that worked well. My curl was improved but not greasy at all, I'm going to go try that again today. So anyone know what products don't contain silicone? I normally mix Biolage Gelle` & Generic shine drops in my hand. I'm also wanting to rid my products of parabens which the gel contains! I allow my hair to mostly dry on its own & I finish it up with the diffuser which makes my hir much curlier than if I air dry the whole way. I really wanted to try henna & indago 50/50 to improve the color & add alma which helps the curl, but I think at this point I don't want to mess with it. Anyone try any of those things?

[Spastica]

If I were you, I'd get my hair trimmed to get rid of the obvious frizz-dried damage. Then, I would just let my hair recuperate for a while. The curl will come back naturally with some TLC, but don't force it.

To mend hair, try doing an apple cider vinegar rinse. ACV helps mend split ends.

Also note that anything with "Shine" in it usually means it has silicones. You can check out the back and see if there are ingredients with '-cone' in it. Some are water soluble, which is good, other's just stay on your hair and cause build up and more damage.

Henna is a good choice because it moisturizes so well. On days that you have time, like vacuuming on the weekends before showering or whatever, put about 5-6 drops of olive oil in your hands, rub it together and put it throughout your hair, with special attention to the ends. This will help.

When using low-sudsing products or more natural ones that don't have so many detergents (that cause sudsing), be sure to rinse your hair thoroughly. If you don't take a few minutes to thoroughly rinse your hair, you'll have product sitting on your hair and dragging it down.

Also, next time you shampoo, use a pinch of baking soda in the mix - it will clarify your hair from styling gels and buildup.

[linn06]

EricaLeigh,
I too am dealing with hair that I straightened the life out of for years... and then dyed!
Now that I have completely forbidden myself to use the straightener or even the blowdryer for several weeks, my hair is coming back to life slowly but surely. I've almost completely quit using shampoo and I think that's really helping.
For awhile my hair was so damaged.. there was no way I would get any curl out of it. Just frizz. My hair was shoved into a constant low ponytail that made me feel so unattractive. Then when I made the changes with no shampoo and no heat appliances, I started letting my hair air dry. Letting it dry on its own was key for me, and i woke up a little earlier every day so that by the time I left the house it was almost done. This was the only way my curls formed well.
So now I always let it dry on its own even though it's a little more inconvenient. Sometimes I find that if I go do something outside for a bit after a shower (water plants, get the mail, etc) It speeds up the process and looks good.
..its something with curly hair.. I think it looks so much better when it dries on its own.
But anyway... its a slow process i know and one that I'm going through right now.. but I'm definitely seeing good results!

[Spastica]

Linn,

There's a snazzy way of using claw clips at the roots of your hair, especially the crown of your hair to give your hair some lift while it dries. That way the top of your hair doesn't look flat. It's on the naturallycurly site!

I still don't air dry my hair, but I use lower heat and don't dry my hair bone straight. On occasion, I'll use the diffuser, which helps a lot.

[linn06]

Spastica,
I will check that out. That's one thing i do not like about air drying is the flatness on top. I somethimes use some bobby pins to pin up sections as it dries, so it's not just hanging. I'd like to see another method though. Thanks!
Linn

[Altair]

I find the key with no-pooing my curly hair is to use a LOT more oils than I think i need.

I put some oil in the bath as I soak/wash/rinse. As I get out, I put some oil in my hands and rub, then run through all my hair. As it dries, I use whipped shea butter and mango butter. I need to REALLY over moisturize and wieigh my hair down to curl. otherwise it frizzes!

here's my no-poo curly hair:

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...15&uid=4257764