Curly Girls - Page 3

[Spastica]

Yeah, it's typical insulin resistance, PCOS, uterine fibroid thing....


Anyway, I HAD to tell you guys....


I LOVE LOVE LOVE the BROWN SUGAR SCRUB!

That kinda rhymes.

I read somewhere that if you do conditioner only washing, get a TON of lightweight cheap conditioner and just slather it on. It actually lathers a tiny bit if you put enough.

I put my Suave Tropical Coconut and some brown sugar together (I used a lot to entirely coat my head and ALL my hair) and scrubbed like it were shampoo. Lo and behold there was little bitty (barely noticeable, but it was there) lather. I have since rinsed, come out of the shower and dried my hair a little bit and my hair is alllllll soft and shiny.

I feel like I've totally spoiled myself.

[maxwill129]

Oh, my goodness. I can't get on the computer for a day or two and there are so many posts all of a sudden!!!

I tried to post a couple of days ago, but it didn't go through, so I'll retype what I wrote (if I can remember!).

By the Curly Girl book I am a wavy, although the sides of my hair tend to look a little more boticelli, but my back is definately just wavy. In May of 2005 I found MDC and started using baking soda/ACV for my hair and did so until December when I got a really bad dry scalp. Up until then, though, my hair (although I didn't know I was a curly girl) was clean and not greasy. Then I went back to shampoo and conditioner until March when I found out I was a curly girl.

I got the book and started trying things, but to no avail. My hair looks like crap and is super greasy no matter what I do. I even went back to the baking soday/ACV a month ago and my hair still looks crappy and greasy. What do you think I'm doing wrong? Will it just take time for my hair to "heal"?

I have way more to ask, but DS is asking me to lay down with him. I'll be back later, or at least tomorrow.

Keep posting, ladies! I love all the info I'm getting!

Shannon

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by EricaLeigh

BTW on her website you can look up your state & see who in your area has trained with her to become a certified curl care consultant.

Thanks for that info! There is one in my area (of course, the haircuts are a little on the spendy side, but worth it!).

Shannon

[Just_Isabel]

Shannon,
can you post more about what you do with your hair? Like, how do you let it dry, do you use any kind of leave in conditioner, do you brush your hair, do you blow dry it - if yes, how?
Knowing more about your hair routine would help not advicing you to do things you already do/have tried but didn't work.

[Alkenny]

We don't have any high end salons around here, so I went to a couple of cheapo places and everyone was booked! UGH!

I ended up at my mama's house and she cut 8 inches off of me!!!!

It's still about halfway between my shoulders and brastrap, but it feels so much better and the waves/curls are back instead of the frizzies too.

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by Just_Isabel

Shannon,
can you post more about what you do with your hair? Like, how do you let it dry, do you use any kind of leave in conditioner, do you brush your hair, do you blow dry it - if yes, how?
Knowing more about your hair routine would help not advicing you to do things you already do/have tried but didn't work.

Yes, I will get back to you with all of that. I don't think I'll have time today to be on here (we have a baby due in 8 weeks and are hip deep in home repair projects!). I'll try to get on tonight after kids are in bed.

Shannon

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by Just_Isabel

Shannon,
can you post more about what you do with your hair? Like, how do you let it dry, do you use any kind of leave in conditioner, do you brush your hair, do you blow dry it - if yes, how?
Knowing more about your hair routine would help not advicing you to do things you already do/have tried but didn't work.

So last May (2005) I started doing 1 heaping tablespoon of BS mixed with 6 oz. of water. I would pour that on and massage my scalp, pull it through my hair, and then rinse. Then I would pour on 1 tablespoon of ACV mixed with 6 oz. of water. Pull it through my hair (using my fingers), let it set for a minute, then rinse. My hair looked great. I got down to doing that every third day. Then my scalp started getting really flaky (in the winter) so I tried adding honey to my BS mix, and although that seemed to help, I ended up switching back to regular shampoo and conditioner every day. This was before I knew I was a wavy.

Easter weekend I went to get my hair cut and the lady told me I had curly hair. Of course she used tons of salon product, etc on it, but it got me excited (okay, that sounds creepy!). Spastica pointed me to naturallycurly so I tried doing the conditioner wash, conditioner rinse for a few days using Suave Naturals Ocean Breeze. My hair looked super greasy.

The second thing I tried was shampooing twice a week with the Suave Naturals Shampoo (maybe that's bad to use?) and doing the conditioner only thing on the other days. Again, my hair looked greasy.

So then I moved back to the BS/ACV every other day but my hair still looked greasy, but I kept with it thinking my hair would get better. It really hasn't.

Now as far as styling product goes, I'm not sure what to use. I have a mousse (although I think the book says to not do that!) called Curlsomething-or-other. I hate it. It makes my hair crunchy. I tried using a spray gel, but that made my hair look sopping wet, even when it was dry (and again, left my hair crunchy).

I do the whole scrunch with a towel thing after my shower, and I tried plopping, but my hair is more straight right at the roots, that if I plop it ends up flattening my hair down even if I use the pins to uplift the roots (if that makes sense). Also, my hair ends up getting more straight when I plop. So I've been opting to just diffuse dry my hair on the lowest setting, and that works better to bring out my curls.

My huge dilemna is, I know I need to keep trying things, but I don't have the money to buy all this stuff to try. We have a baby due in 8 weeks and I need some CD's and breastpads, want to switch to mama cloth, have been trying to eat more whole foods, etc and our budget is tight the way it is. I'm just not sure what to try (I did go to Target tonight to get some Sauve coconut conditioner because it's on sale for 84 cents, but they were all out!).

Anyway, I hope all that makes sense and I didn't ramble too much.

Good night!
Shannon

[Spastica]

Hey Shannon,

I think my hair would get greasy and gross with condition-wash-condition. I pretty much take some conditioner and scrub my scalp and scrub my hair (doing the vigorous short back and forth finger scrubs) and rinse it out well. If my ends feel a little dry in the shower, maybe I'll put a little conditioner or apple cider vinegar, but not much.

I've had luck with the conditioner and baking soda combo for cleaning my hair, as well as brown sugar and conditioner. I used to have greasy hair and then it dawned on me that I wasn't using enough baking soda or vinegar, and I wasn't scrubbing all my hair, just the scalp. It took me a some months to experiment with the baking soda, vinegar, essential oils, and conditioner to find out what is working.

My hair is fairly wavy/curly at places and is shoulder length, I had to use a really big heaping tablespoon of baking soda on my hair (and I thought I was before, but then I looked in the kitchen and took out one of my tablespoons - I eyeballed it incorrectly in the shower and was using a lot less baking soda than I needed). I had to keep using lots of baking soda and even had to do the baking soda washes daily for a while until slowly but surely, I could go a day without washing without baking soda and use something else. I use a little less baking soda now when I do use the baking soda.

My hair is really temperamental with the apple cider vinegar. Sometimes it likes a little bit, other times, it likes a lot. But my hair does like me doing a little manual labor with my fingers with the apple cider vinegar too. I can probably just now spray it on a little, comb it through with fingers and then rinse, but in the beginning, I had to scrub that in and out of my hair as well. You may want to try using apple cider vinegar from ears down only in the beginning (as I did), that seemed to get the greasy feeling down over time. Now I can put more on the top of my head and scalp (from time to time to get rid of any extra oils and to get rid of any flakes or itchies) and it not get super greasy. But again, that was over months.

I really think the transition process takes time for some people, probably even more so for curlies who have oily scalps. The oils kinda sit on your head and don't go anywhere because it's hard for oils to travel down wavy and curly hair.

I noticed you can't treat baking soda and vinegar like your regular commercial shampoo. Most of us kinda slap on the shampoo and move it around on our heads a little and rinse it out. The suds run down our hair and clean that too. Not the case with baking soda, you have to manipulate the length of your hair a bit too. Definitely more finger scrubbing involved and more proper rinsing. It also helps to brush your scalp with a brush or a comb (firm but gently, make sense?) before showering.

Lately, I've used my detangling comb and gently 'scritching' my scalp before showering. This loosens oils and dead skin even more before no-pooing.

Long post, but I hope that helps. I don't buy too many things for no-pooing. I've seen that it takes a bit of experimenting with the basic stuff at home and maybe adding some scented oomph and boost cleaning power with essential oils.

[maxwill129]

Thanks, Gina. I was just thinking yesterday "I wonder if I'm really using a heaping tablespoon of BS." I'll have to measure it and see- I bet I'm doing the same thing you did and eyeballing it wrong. Also, I noticed, too, that some days I need very little ACV and others more, so you're right. I do just have to experiment.

Thanks for the advice, though. I'm kind of impatient on things like this. I just want someone to tell me what to do and I'll do it. I hate having to wait for results!

Shannon

[maxwill129]

I tried the brown sugar mixed with my conditioner this morning and my hair looks great and is so soft!!! No offense, Gina, but I thought you were crazy when you said you did this (even though I know it's in the Curly Girl book). I figured there was no way brown sugar was going in my hair! But lo, and behold, it really works!

Shannon

[Spastica]

Toldja!

I'm used to it though. My family and close friends think I'm nuts for the things I put in my hair and body - all natural stuff.

I did notice one thing though. If you have a tendency toward greasiness, do your baking soda and vinegar/conditioner stuff as usual, but scrub your scalp and hair really quickly again to get rid of the film that the vinegar leaves. That way, your hair has it's pH restored by the apple cider vinegar or conditioner (or both), but it won't be weighing down your hair.

Maybe because today is my birthday and I got a mini trim yesterday, my hair looks great and it's not limp. My hair doesn't get greasy, but the apple cider vinegar sometimes makes my hair look super healthy, but not bouncy.

Steps
Suave Conditioner mixed with baking soda (huge tablespoon or more). Add some TTO. Mix in palm.

Dip head back and drench head with water.

Get baking soda and conditioner mixture on front of my head and back and work it in with fingers. Start scrubbing scalp, hairline, back of head, crown of head, behind ears, everywhere, and scrub length of hair using pads of fingers. Add a teeny bit more water as needed.

Leave in and do other things or rinse (this is up to you)

Rinse really well when you do

Take a smidge of the conditioner, a squirt of your apple cider vinegar and mix that, put that on ends of hair and a little bit near the top, but not too much. Comb through with fingers.

Rinse well.

Take fingers and scrub most of it out. Your hair will have slip, but it won't be super slippery and when you get out of the shower, you'll have the big bouncy hair without the limpness or over-conditioned look.

Style as usual.

[Spastica]

BTW, brown sugar is in a lot of spa and facial products because a) it feels good b) you feel like you're spoiling yourself with something yummy and c) it works and there's glycolic acid in brown sugar, which improves skin.

Glycolic acid works like alpha hydroxy acid to improve skin. Hair and scalp likes acids too.

A brown sugar and baking soda scrub (moisten with water) for the face is really nice too!

What is Glycolic Acid and why does it work?
http://www.brbeauty.com/glycilic_acid.htm



Salt or Sugar Scrub Recipe
http://www.ridleyfamily.org/cora/herbalcrafting/scrubs/

[maxwill129]

Awesome! Thanks! I have another question, though. When you do your ACV mixed with a little of the conditioner, is the ACV diluted or do you use it full strength? I did just a conditioner wash today and my hair looked like crap (well, it IS 90-some degrees today with really high humidity, so that might have something to do with it! Plus we don't have air...).

Shannon

[Spastica]

It's the same bottle I have for everything 1/2 ACV to 1/2 water.

If the conditioner 'shampooing' isn't working out in the hot weather, maybe you can do the conditioner plus just a little bit of baking soda.

or

Apple cider vinegar 'shampooing'

or

Take a TON of the conditioner and scrub your hair. For some reason, the tons of conditioner cleans better than a standard conditioner amount (it's the surfactants in it).

or

Condish and lots of tea tree oil. It'll be cooling and cleaning.

or

If your hair liked the condish plus brown sugar, stick to that for non baking soda days.

For baking soda days, do what you're doing or do the conditioner plus baking soda. I find that cleans much better than water and baking soda, dunno why.

[lmkirche]

What a great thread! I am starting this hair care philosophy today! You are awesome for posting this

[laisett]

oh man, i can't wait to try this stuff out! i've been using chagrin valley shampoo bars w/an ACV rinse for the past month or so. no conditioner (*ducks*)! my hair isn't any worse off than it was, but it isn't really better, either. i'm determined to get it better!

i can't decide what my hair type is, tho...2b, or damaged 3a? i've looked at those curl type finders before and never been able to work it out...

[maxwill129]

Originally Posted by laisett

i can't decide what my hair type is, tho...2b, or damaged 3a? i've looked at those curl type finders before and never been able to work it out...

I can't ever figure it out either!!!

Shannon

[coloradoalice]

This thread has inspired me!!

I got my hair trimmed, and I gave my self a wonderful olive oil treatment!!

My hair is shiny and silky and lovely!

Thanks!

[Spastica]

Originally Posted by laisett

oh man, i can't wait to try this stuff out! i've been using chagrin valley shampoo bars w/an ACV rinse for the past month or so. no conditioner (*ducks*)! my hair isn't any worse off than it was, but it isn't really better, either. i'm determined to get it better!

i can't decide what my hair type is, tho...2b, or damaged 3a? i've looked at those curl type finders before and never been able to work it out...

I think most people find that their hair is curlier than they think it is, but frequent shampooing and blowdrying and whatever has damaged the cuticles of their hair or has given them split ends. As a result, hair is dry, frizzy, and less apt to curl properly.

You can get a small trim to get rid of any split ends and then mend your hair slowly with apple cider vinegar and do some treatments with olive oil.

I don't think conditioner is evil, so long as it's not packed full of nasty ingredients, it doesn't cause acne in an obvious way (from bad or pore clogging ingredients) and it's not clogging to the scalp. The less ingredients in the list, the better, I think. It's easier to figure out what's what that way.

You don't *have* to use conditioner if you're already doing apple cider vinegar, but for curly hair, I think it adds a nice bounce.

For your situation, try using a lot of apple cider in your hair and scalp one day (diluted 1/2 water to 1/2 apple cider vinegar), leave it in as long as possible and then do what you usually do in the shower. If you want to use your fingers to scrub your hair and scalp a little, that's fine. You may see a difference that same day.

[Jessamy]

cotton top and lil tribe of cotton tops :P

I have naturally curly hair and remember as a child sitting on the back steps once a week having my hair literally pulled out of my head to try and get a brush through it after washing with good old fashioned lux soap and rinsing in beer ( the sixties were tough on hair).

Now its a breeze, conditioner and shampoo have replaced soap and beer in my hair. There are some amazing hair care products ( I live in Australia and use Stefans hair managing serum). No more frizzy ends!!!!! No more wild and erratic hair standing on end. It's great, just a dab on my fingertips in the morning and rub through my hair and brush glides through.

My kids are very happy not to have to go through the weekly torture of washing thier hair.