Curly Girls

Great to be here and welcome to all!

EricaLeigh, thanks for the props!

I thought I'd post the original links so that everybody can read through all the info and bookmark it, print it out, or whatever they'd like.

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I found plenty of information from the NaturallyCurly website:

Home: http://naturallycurly2.com/home/index.php

Curl Community: http://www.naturallycurly2.com/curlm...a164cf119c7093

and from this website:

http://www.ylcf.org/gotcurl/curlycare.htm

What kind of curly girl are you? Read this information to find out:
http://naturallycurly2.com/curl411/types.php

It just seems to boil everything down to the basics, and the helpful recipes are on this part of the site (scroll at the bottom):
http://www.ylcf.org/gotcurl/curlyshopping.htm

How to use a diffuser on your blow dryer can be found here:
http://www.hdryers.com/use-hair-dryer-diffuser.htm

"Plopping," which is the method to get the biggest, juiciest curls from wet hair, can be found here:
http://www.naturallycurly2.com/curls...les.php?id=140

These sites are also incredibly helpful:
http://motowngirl.com/no_shampoo.php

http://naturalbeauty.8k.com/nopoo.html
(Some of the chemical information here, I disagree with, but the no-poo method and troubleshooting info is here)

http://naturallycurly2.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=56777


I have a lot of websites bookmarked, so if you have questions, just let me know. I'm so excited to find all this information. I wish I had known about this stuff earlier - I wouldn't have spent most of my life blow drying my hair straight and hating my frizzy hair when I tried to keep it curly.

thanks for all of your great links. i've been thinking lately that i want to find some natural alternative to shampoo for my curls. i look forward to trying the scalp scrub.

i can't believe i used to hate my curls. i love them now & rarely (like twice a year) blow dry & flat iron.

I'm glad i saw this. I am a mama of a 6 year old with very curly hair, but I myself have straight hair. That wash and go kinda hair. So I am slowly learning all the dos and don'ts of curly hair. I had been combing it with a pick once a week in fear that it would dread up (fine when she's older, but I just cut off all my dreads and I don't think it's for a 6 yo IMO) I only washed/conditioned 1x a week as weel, but even that was turning into a torture session! So I started taking her to the $8 haircut places and having them wash, condition and comb and trim just the slightest off. I did this maybe every2 months : She seemed to do better with that.
BUT here is my latest store to tell.....
I went to one of these cheap places, they said sign in and then this young hairdresser (who btw was very pregnant) looked at my dd and said "Her hairs a nest, when was the last time you combed it?" I told her 1x a week and this girl made a disgusting look at me so I said "You don't want to cut her hair???" Her reply, while my dd is standing right there was "I'll do it, but it's gonna hurt her!" Obviously we walked right out, my dd now terrified. We went down the street to another place that was sweet as anything, they conditioned and gave me pointers and it didn't hurt!
I cried when I got home and got over my anger....who says these things to children? Another mom at my dd's school asked if I was letting her hair dread (I still had mine at the time) I kind of took offense for some reason. DD does not like to wear her hair in a ponytail, and by the end of the day after running around outside, her hair is all over the place. For awhile braids were working and kept down the tangling....but she doesn't like them all the time. I feel like people think I don't bathe or take care of my children becuase they have wild hair.

Sorry this was so winded.....I just have had a hard time with "hair discrimination "recently and this thread is just what was needed! I will check out those links THANK YOU

Hi! I'm a curly (wurly?) head!
I do use shampoo and haven't read that book though.

I used to wish I had straight hair too, years ago. Until I cut my hair short-ish, and it was so easy to get nice curls out of it then! I'd just wash it and let it air dry, or just make it wet and I was ready to go. Now it's long and not as easy, but the basics are the same - leave the hair alone as much as possible.

Here is what I do: I use a hydrating shampoo/conditioner combo. I shampoo my skalp, rinse it well. Then I condition all the length of my hair, sometimes the scalp too. I haven't figured out what works best for me yet. I detangle my hair while the conditioner is still on, gently, with my fingers. I only rinse it after it is tangle-free. After the shower I'll use some hydrating leave-in product (still haven't found one I love though...), and air dry.
What got harder is that the long hair bugs me, and I tend to make a bun using one of those "hair chop sticks" (forgot the right name), and that will stretch my curls and make my hair wurly (a mix between curly and wavy).

I'll try only using conditioner and see how it goes, but I am afraid of my scalp getting too oily too fast.

treefolk:
My hair was horrible fuzzy when I was young, and I only used to brush it after washing it My mother let me be. I remember once a mother of another girl from my class back then saying what a pitty it was that I didn't take good care of my hair, but at that age I really didn't think looking good was important, or something. I was also called gypsie girl by a girl from my class when I was a bit older, around 11. (I didn't like her at all, and I think the feeling was mutual ) The air was humid and it made my hair very fuzzy...
Good luck figuring out the best way to deal with your daughter's hair!

The NaturallyCurly site has a special section on how to work with children's curly, kinky, nappy, and fuzzy hair.

http://naturallycurly2.com/curlcolum...p?type=curlyQs

I would use diluted conditioner in a spray bottle on your child after coming out of the shower and use a wide toothed comb or pick.

The thing about hair is that hair sheds too - and you may have loose hairs tangling with regular hair, which contributes to the more tangling and dreadhead-ness. Scrubbing with the pads of your fingers to clean the scalp as well as combing stimulates bloodflow to the scalp to grow hair too!

Also, for combing, don't comb from top down. Gently comb the bottom of her hair and detangle, and work your way up. I'm sure the NaturallyCurly kids forum will have much more information. This particular link made me think of you:

http://naturallycurly2.com/curlcolum...les.php?id=608


I'm glad you guys are finding this thread helpful! I look forward to sharing tips and stories!

I really like this thread. I also love the burt's bees avocado hair masque before washing and Kiehl's creme with silk groom as a leave in (works great at smoothing, and no frizzies). I wash my hair about once or 2x a week. I don't wear it down much these days. I highlight it (mousy brown is the natural color) and it doenst mess with the curl. I never blow dry or straighten.

Great links and tips!

Curly girl here!
And I read the Curly Girl book--good book! It is more than just a hairstyle, it's an attitude!
I still use shampoo, but much less of it, and less often. I hope my DD's hair gets curly as she gets older.
Big hello to my sisters in curliness!

I'm a lapsed curly. :

Out of desperation I had my hair straightened in April of 05, then again in September 05. I liked how it looked but it completely fried my hair, tons of breakage and split ends. I'm waiting for it to grow out so I can try to finally make peace with my curls.

Ladybug,

Man, do *I* have a story for *YOU*...

I wanted to get my hair chemically relaxed, so I went where I usually get my hair cut. The lady was an older white lady and she was nice enough and said it would be no problem. She'd use a solution and huge rollers to straighten my hair.

To her horror, and mine, another hairdresser, an African-American woman, found out what she was doing and then they proceeded to wash out the perm, which was already nice with big waves, but she insisted that relaxer is what I needed, not perm solution.

So she put on relaxer on my hair. It stank. It burned.

When it was all done, I had the most horrible hair on the planet. It was frizz dried, fried looking, looked like a mop of ugly pubic hair.

Later in college, I used kiddie relaxer, which worked, but left the ends looking ugly and it just made my hair flat and straight, not straight with any kind of volume.

I quit after a few times and haven't put anything to straighten my hair since, but I continued to use blow dryer on the highest heat setting and pulling my hair straight with a brush. Then the new Raphaelite curls were on the runway and with people like Faith Hill and every celeb sporting romantic curls, I thought I could just let my hair be and my curly hair would be 'in' for once.

If I let my hair dry by itself, it looked ugly, frizzy, and stupid. It didn't look romantic at all. In fact, it looked so bad, that one day, I was going to get my haircut, so I left the house after I showered, but the salon had a wait, so I called up my boyfriend to go have lunch with me somewhere. By that time my hair had dried naturally. He took one look at me and laughed his ass off for 30 minutes straight. He almost cried he was laughing so hard.

I finally did some research on how to get the curly style and how to style curly hair, and I stumbled on the no-poo stuff and Lorraine Massey's book information online.

And here we are!

I still use a blow dryer, but it's at a lower heat setting, and I don't blow dry it bone dry, nor bone straight.

My hair is much happier now I even have new growth and length to my hair now.

Things I use that have been working wonderfully:

- Suave Tropical Coconut conditioner - as a base for no-poo and for conditioning.

- Baking Soda

- Essential oils like Tea tree oil, orange, and lavender.


On days I feel I need to 'shampoo' I get a tablespoon or less of baking soda and mix it with the conditioner, mix it up completely and use that to scrub my scalp and hair. I keep that on for a few minutes and then rinse. Sometimes I squirt diluted apple cider vinegar on my hair, or if I want super silky hair, I'll get some more conditioner and squirt some apple cider vinegar in the fresh conditioner and THAT, my friends, turn into a super luxurious acidifying conditioner. Other days, if I just use the plain conditioner after doing the conditioner-baking soda mix, my hair feels a little rough and feels dry at the ends, but it's big and huge and looks nice.

One some days, I can get away with putting tea tree oil or lavender on my scalp and 'mock-shampooing' with that. Or I can shampoo with conditioner only. I pretty much experiment everyday.

I'll use Avalon shampoo on rare occasions where I feel uber dirty, like the other day when I was stripping the paint off some furniture and sweeping pollen off my balcony. I didn't want to chance having that crap in my hair, so I shampoo'd with Avalon, which has low risk in chemicals.

I want to experiment using baking soda, essential oils, and aloe. Think that would make a nice 'un-shampoo'?

Ladybug: to help restore your current hair a little bit, try lots of apple cider vinegar or the apple cider vinegar plus silicone free conditioner that I mentioned. You can even do deep treatments with olive oil once a week. That will make your hair restore some of it's shine and smooth some of the damage until the damage grows out.

Chemistry time

IIRC the hair cuticles open up in an alkaline environment, and close in an acidic one.
Baking soda, sodium hydrogen carbonate NaHCO3, is alkaline. Do you use ACV or some other acidic solution to neutralise the carbonate after you wash your hair with it?

'Nother curly girl checking in...I love all the tips and websites from you other curl goddesses. HappiLeigh has it right on...curly hair is an attitude I strut around sporting my curls with pride even through I'm surrounded by a sea of straight-haired ladies.

I spent most of my adolescence fighting my curls through blowdrying straight, "relaxing" perms and straight irons...what a pain! And if there is the slightest bit of humidity, fuggetta about it.

I do wash, condition and use gel daily as this seems to work best for me. I've tried not washing and I end up with flat, big loopy curls and I like my tight curls better. (I have a really oily scalp.)

The coolest thing is the my DH is constantly telling me how much he loves my curly hair and prefers it to straight

JustIsabel:

You are correct, an Apple Cider Vinegar or Lemon juice rinse is recommended after shampooing with baking soda.

FamilyLove:

The no-poo method is actually helpful for people who would like to use less shampoo (if at all), less styling products, and normalize the excessive oilyness on their scalp. The theory is that if you shampoo excessively (daily is considered excessive), your scalp pumps out more oil to compensate. More shampoo==more frizz or damage==more gels and products to tame curls.

I have the same issue as you, oily scalp, curly hair, and I used to shampoo daily. I read about taking care of curly hair and really didn't think that shampooing everyday was healthy for my hair (and I found out the chemicals in shampoo wasn't that great for my health either), so I'm trying to cut down.

My hair is in better shape now and I don't have to use gels or heavy conditioners like I used to to 'tame' my hair.

You may want to try it!

Ugh! I just realized my post never went through...and it was a long one!!! Oh, well. I guess I'll retype it later, because I'm off to bed. Just wanted to say I'm happy for this thread. I was just thinking the other day of starting one for Curly Girls.

And Spastica, I'm SO HAPPY to have you here because you are AWESOME for information!!!!

Shannon

I feel the love! Thanks Shannon!(@*#)(@*#)$&$!!($)% (<-- super excited)

:

EricaLeigh, howdy!

Hell no, I don't boil herbs and all that. I use the same stuff that I use as body spray, deodorant, and insect-repellent: my Burt's Bees Lavender Facial Mist.

Of course, I have since bought my own essential oils since buying the first bottle of the Burt's Bees and I make the mixture myself now -- but I love it.

For this mixture, I put a capful of lavender EO, capful or less of Bergamot, and 1/2 capful or less of cedarwood EO. You can just stick with Lavender EO and put like 1-2 capfuls in a bottle with about a cup of distilled water. It does very well to prevent frizz. Just spritz some in your hair when your hair is wet or damp/almost dry.

I did do a conditioner-only 'shampoo' today and my hair was oddly dry at the ends. My hair isn't even remotely greasy. I'll need to add some more conditioner and/or some apple cider vinegar to the ends next time. I think the agitation of your hair and getting rid of shampoo for months really does adjust the oil production on your scalp, it's really quite extraordinary.

The reason I stick with the Suave Tropical Coconut conditioner is because:

- Coconut is a natural cleanser -- I know my hair and scalp will get clean somewhat, whereas I'm skeptical about some other kinds of conditioner. Soap even has Coconut oils and coconut-derived cleansers.

- This conditioner has some rosemary oil in it: It helps your hair grow!

- It just smells delish. Nuff said.

I'm a curly girl!!

I don't wash but once a week, and I always condition. I have been using John Frieda for awhile, but it is losing it's appeal, so I am glad to have this list of things to try. I am going to give a new brand a whirl and see how it goes!!

This is the picture I always have my cuts based off of: http://www.matrix.com/find_your_hair...spx?scroll=605
But you know how curly hair is, some days I can make it look like that and others, not so much!!!

I am so hoping my dd ends up with curlies too!! She has a little curl on the back, but not much. My curls didn't come out in full until I was around 3, so I still have a little time, keeping my fingers crossed!!!