New here. Do I need to transition?

Shalana

Hi! I apologize for the novel, but here is my introduction and questions! Though I am new to this community, I am not new to curly hair. I'm 27, with naturally curly 3a (ish) hair. I have been completely oblivious to how to care for my curls however. I live in Wyoming, where textured hair is next to nonexistent. I have never had a hairdresser who knew how to cut curly hair, rather they insist on thinning my very thick hair, or straightening it to cut it, or even use a razor on it! I recently just had it all cut off, to an A line bob. The hairdresser had no idea how to cut curls so she straightened it to cut it of course, and she absolutely HATED being asked to put a bunch of layers in it but she did it (took 3 hours of her snipping 1/8" at a time)

I use regular shampoo with sulfates, and conditioners and styling products with silicones. My 'routine' now is shampoo, condition, towel dry with a terry towel, squirt some mousse in and scrunch and go. It has no volume and very little definition, a lot of frizz. I blow out and flat iron it very rarely. I use joico shampoo and conditioner and Aussie mousse. I color it darker, maybe twice a year.

Last week I was on youtube and saw a couple videos of absolutely AMAZING curls, defined, shiny and I had to find out if it was possible. A bit of research later, I ordered Deva Curl system (the no-poo, the one conditioner and the light styling gel) in 12 ounce so I can give it a whirl. Right now I have some issues with my hair but I am also having a hard time figuring out the characteristics I need to know. It is very thick, very dry, but it gets very oily and I also get dandruff if I don't wash it every couple days. I can't really tell if it is porous or course, or protein sensitive, or if I need less or more moisturizing. I really don't want to purchase 50 different products to try to figure this out, and my question is, how do I know?

In a nutshell, my hair isn't too damaged. Do I need to expect a 6 week transition of nasty hair or what is the general consensus for integrating the Curly Girl method? Also...what is a clarifying shampoo? Do I need to go get a different bottle or will the Joico shampoo I have work until the Deva Curl gets here (this week). I saw this egg and coconut oil protein treatment on youtube so I gave it a shot. And it is still disgusting. It is oily, crunchy, and I have shampooed 4 times with my regular shampoo and it still feels kind of gross. I worry about dandruff getting worse without shampooing, and my scalp getting too oily.

This community looks fantastic, and I really hope to someday have pretty, springy, defined curls! Suggestions?

pprMACHEheart

Shalana wrote: »

Hi! I apologize for the novel, but here is my introduction and questions! Though I am new to this community, I am not new to curly hair. I'm 27, with naturally curly 3a (ish) hair. I have been completely oblivious to how to care for my curls however. I live in Wyoming, where textured hair is next to nonexistent. I have never had a hairdresser who knew how to cut curly hair, rather they insist on thinning my very thick hair, or straightening it to cut it, or even use a razor on it! I recently just had it all cut off, to an A line bob. The hairdresser had no idea how to cut curls so she straightened it to cut it of course, and she absolutely HATED being asked to put a bunch of layers in it but she did it (took 3 hours of her snipping 1/8" at a time)

I use regular shampoo with sulfates, and conditioners and styling products with silicones. My 'routine' now is shampoo, condition, towel dry with a terry towel, squirt some mousse in and scrunch and go. It has no volume and very little definition, a lot of frizz. I blow out and flat iron it very rarely. I use joico shampoo and conditioner and Aussie mousse. I color it darker, maybe twice a year.

Last week I was on youtube and saw a couple videos of absolutely AMAZING curls, defined, shiny and I had to find out if it was possible. A bit of research later, I ordered Deva Curl system (the no-poo, the one conditioner and the light styling gel) in 12 ounce so I can give it a whirl. Right now I have some issues with my hair but I am also having a hard time figuring out the characteristics I need to know. It is very thick, very dry, but it gets very oily and I also get dandruff if I don't wash it every couple days. I can't really tell if it is porous or course, or protein sensitive, or if I need less or more moisturizing. I really don't want to purchase 50 different products to try to figure this out, and my question is, how do I know?

In a nutshell, my hair isn't too damaged. Do I need to expect a 6 week transition of nasty hair or what is the general consensus for integrating the Curly Girl method? Also...what is a clarifying shampoo? Do I need to go get a different bottle or will the Joico shampoo I have work until the Deva Curl gets here (this week). I saw this egg and coconut oil protein treatment on youtube so I gave it a shot. And it is still disgusting. It is oily, crunchy, and I have shampooed 4 times with my regular shampoo and it still feels kind of gross. I worry about dandruff getting worse without shampooing, and my scalp getting too oily.

This community looks fantastic, and I really hope to someday have pretty, springy, defined curls! Suggestions?

Doesn't sound like you need to transition. Maybe you need to just go into the main Curly hair discussion area and ask all your questions. Maybe post pictures of your hair as well. It could be that your products aren't working for you in the aspect of curliness? Idk. Maybe some other cur lies have a better idea.

What's your routine like when you wash your hair? do you use a leave in?

Shalana

Here is my hair as of today. The photo on the right is my hair longer obviously, but also before I had two kids. It used to be SO much curlier! The white streak is not color treated, it is my birthmark. I have darker color in my hair right now. I just bought Deva Curl and used it for the first time after a clarifying shampoo, and then put in light defining gel. I don't have a leave in. I can cross post this if you think I need to, I just am sort of at a loss as to why my hair is so straight compared to what it used to be, so I sort of just assumed I needed to transition!

PerriP

My curl pattern is much much looser than it was before my last pixie cut. I've cut it and grown it several times but this time it's just completely different. Age, medications and hormones all play a part in it, I think.

dixygirl

transitioning is growing out a relaxer:confused1: you dont have one

KiraSavannah

You meed a clarifying shampoo to rid the silicone that is attached to you hair ex: (garnier -pure clean). And its great your doing the CG method! I have heard sometimes the first few weeks are rough.

Sent from my SGH-T999 using CurlTalk App

Shalana

I'm sorry, I thought transitioning was just transitioning to the cg routine. I heard it takes quite a while for your hair to 'transition' from using sulfates so I assumed it was all called 'transitioning'. Pardon my mistake. I'm about ready to give up anyway, I used a clarifying shampoo one last time before I started no pooing, I have only used cg products and my hair has never looked worse. It's horrid, just a big dry ball of fluff.

pprMACHEheart

It does take time for your hair to adapt don't give up yet. Give it a good month of consistent CG first.

CGSince2002

First, so you don't get lost with the abbreviations, here's where to find what they all mean: http://www.naturallycurly.com/curltalk/general-discussion-about-curly-hair/58468-acronyms-abbreviations-definitions.html

If you can buy the "Curly Girl Handbook" I recommend that you do, or at least find out if your public library has it or the older one "Curly Girl" because I can see you really don't know much about the CG routine. In the meantime, go here and read the Introduction to CG (which I wrote a very long time ago! ).

Frequent shampooing upsets the natural balance of our scalp and makes it overproduce oil in its effort to try to compensate for any oil it puts out being quickly washed away, so, naturally, when you stop shampooing it takes a while for the glands to adjust... but trust me, after a while your scalp will be healthier and you'll be glad you stuck with it. I recommend that you massage your scalp very very well when co-washing and that you rinse and rinse. Do not apply CO near your scalp, only to your length.

Frizz is basically due to one reason, lack of moisture inside the hair shaft. The regular use of 'cones eventually "suffocates" the hair because most are non-water soluble so they tend to build-up on the hair forming a "shield" that keeps moisture and nutrients out, so in other words your hair may be "malnourished" and dry. I'm not familiar with the shampoo you were using but it would be good to check it doesn't have any 'cones too, otherwise it won't remove the buildup. In some cases the buildup is so significant that regular shampooing might not be enough to remove it all anyway, in that case a DT made of an oil with 2 or 3 EOs added, such as lavender, peppermint, lemon, thyme or eucalyptus, which are high in terpenes (solvents) will break the buildup down.

Another thing that might remove the buildup (and other types) is borax, this is sold in a big box in the laundry section at some Targets and Walmart, and incidentally, a solution of 1 tsp. dissolved in 1 C. of water (will only dissolve well at boiling point, so you'll have to wait until it cools off to lukewarm), will cure stubborn cases of dandruff too.

Adding honey to your co-wash will also help break 'cone build up too, btw.

It often doesn't work to put a bunch of moisturizers on the hair, one has to make sure the porosity of the hair is corrected first as any moisture that goes in will quickly go out again. This is done by using a good quality protein DT at least once a week for maybe a month. You can apply moisturizers after the DT, but proceed with caution as some actually do the opposite that they promise to do, but this is more an individual thing and a trial and error area...

I had bad dandruff when I started but my co-wash had TTO [plus 4 or 5 other oils] so very soon my scalp was healed. You can get TTO just about anywhere these days so get yourself a bottle so you can add some to your co-wash (let me know when you get it and I'll tell you how much to use).

At another time I got dandruff again after traveling to another country, but using an ACV rinse 2-3x/week cured it, so as you can see there are ways to deal with that. However, chances are once you stop shampooing for good the dandruff might resolve itself as very often the flaking is nothing but irritation of the scalp. Don't even be surprised if it starts itching as that is only a sign that it's healing.

You definitely experienced quite a drastic change in curl pattern, but they all have their beauty and you may soon find yourself enjoying your "new" type of hair, the most important thing is that it's healthy and that should be your #1 goal. So first, try to learn all you can about hair in general, there is a wealth of information here, not only in the forum but in articles on the site, just take advantage of the search function and read, read, read and soon you'll be a "pro".