am I doing this right?
makemewavy
Posts: 15Registered Users
in Hair Type 2
I think I am a 2 (my mom has really curly, coarse hair so it might turn in to that?) my hair is definitely not fine, it straightens really well and also holds curl from a curling iron but that takes 1-2 hours and I want something I can do everyday.
I stopped using anything with sulfates and silicones (basically everything I own). Right now I am using Colorgen shampoo (I didn't see it on the product listings here) every day because I get really oily, and I did a baking soda/ACV rinse the other day with Dr Bonners organic conditioning rinse and then put on Dr Bonners Organic hair creme and Giovanni sunset lotion and scrunched/plopped my hair. I haven't had time to plop my hair as long as I want to yet but I plan on doing a lot of experimenting over Christmas break.
I also don't have a diffuser that fits my blow dryer now, so I am looking to get one. Should I get a sock one for my current dryer or get a new dryer with a bowl diffuser? Does anyone have a good hair dryer rec?
The results I'm getting are poofy, triangle shaped hair (it may be my cut) that frizzes. I live in Florida so there is ALWAYS moisture in my hair.
I just feel completely overwhelmed and I just want to straighten it! At the same time I want to love the hair I have but it's not working with what I'm doing. Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
(PS I also have colored my hair A LOT, but my stylist says it's in good condition because I was good about doing a lot of deep treatment. Could it be that I have to wait for new growth to see results? Say it ain't so!)
I stopped using anything with sulfates and silicones (basically everything I own). Right now I am using Colorgen shampoo (I didn't see it on the product listings here) every day because I get really oily, and I did a baking soda/ACV rinse the other day with Dr Bonners organic conditioning rinse and then put on Dr Bonners Organic hair creme and Giovanni sunset lotion and scrunched/plopped my hair. I haven't had time to plop my hair as long as I want to yet but I plan on doing a lot of experimenting over Christmas break.
I also don't have a diffuser that fits my blow dryer now, so I am looking to get one. Should I get a sock one for my current dryer or get a new dryer with a bowl diffuser? Does anyone have a good hair dryer rec?
The results I'm getting are poofy, triangle shaped hair (it may be my cut) that frizzes. I live in Florida so there is ALWAYS moisture in my hair.
I just feel completely overwhelmed and I just want to straighten it! At the same time I want to love the hair I have but it's not working with what I'm doing. Any help or advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
(PS I also have colored my hair A LOT, but my stylist says it's in good condition because I was good about doing a lot of deep treatment. Could it be that I have to wait for new growth to see results? Say it ain't so!)
2b/c(?)/m/iii
0
Comments
i'm not sure whether the dye job would affect your curling that much as long as your hair is well-conditioned.
the frizz issue may be a the styling products you're using...they may not have enough hold for you, or there may be some ingredient in them that your hair doesn't like. i'm not familiar with the dr bronner's or the GD sunset lotion, so i don't know what kind of clumping (making curls stick together) or hold (keeping curls curled) they give you, if any.
and CO is generally short for conditioner, and co-wash is conditioner-wash, which refers to the conditioner used in place of shampoo in the CG (curly-girl) method.
HTH!
embracing the waves since 10/20/08
my hair loves protein and hates jojoba oil, my scalp hates propylene glycol, my face hates silicones.
embracing the waves since 10/20/08
my hair loves protein and hates jojoba oil, my scalp hates propylene glycol, my face hates silicones.
By final clarifying do you mean the baking soda/ACV treatment? I did that once but the conditioner I used was dr bonners and I had to mix it with water to dilute it so maybe I need a "real" conditioner. I saw VO5 strawberry on here so I'll probably get that to try for the next one.
So a co-wash is the "shampoo"? I'm using a shampoo that's sulfate/silicone free in place of regular shampoo but I'm afraid to put real conditioner on my roots. I'm still a little confused by the difference in those two.
But thanks for all your help! You've definitely clarified a lot
by clarify I meant did you use a silicone-free sulfate shampoo to start with? the purpose of that is to remove any cones that might have built up on your hair in products or conditioners you were using prior to go CG or mod-CG. otherwise, you might have cones clinging to your hair blocking moisture OUT. no bueno. this doesn't have to be a fancy shampoo, especially since you won't need it again (unless you later need to wash out cones again). a lot of people have used the suave naturals shampoo. i used the v05 tea therapy. just make sure to read the label to make sure there are no cones, and that it has one of the harsher sulfates like ALS or SLS (ammonium laureth sulfate and sodium laurel sulfate I *think* are the full names).
a co-wash is washing with conditioner. the condish is actually there more to lube up your hair so you can easily move it around (the friction between your fingers and scalp is actually what's removing the dirt) and as something for the loosened dirt and oil to cling to and get rinsed out with.
what you are doing would be considered a modified-CG method, which is to use a low-poo (cone free silicone free shampoo). some people find that works better for them...certainly it's much better for your hair than cones and sulfates!
hope that clarified things a bit more...keep asking questions if you need to! us curlies are all in this together!
embracing the waves since 10/20/08
my hair loves protein and hates jojoba oil, my scalp hates propylene glycol, my face hates silicones.
Modified CG does sound better for my hair, just because I have such oily hair. Like have to wash everyday before CG oily hair. At least to ease the transition to CG.
One more question, what does it mean in your siggy after the 3a part? I've seen a bunch of iii's and other letters that I don't know what are for.
it may be that half the oily problem is that your hair still has cone build-up in it. but again a lot of us prefer to use a low-poo sometimes.
when you see a marker like that in someone's signature it's their hair type according to the fia system, which doesn't always correspond to the typing system listed on naturally curly (but sometimes it does). a lot of people use the fia because it's a continuum of curliness, rather than big groups that leave a lot of room for confusion, and because it incorporates the thickness of your individual hairs (fine/med/coarse) and how thick your hair as one entity is (i/ii/iii).
Here's a link to the fia system: http://homepage.mac.com/annsofie.henriksson/hairtyping/Personal27.html
and here's a link to the one NC.com lists: http://www.naturallycurly.com/hair-types
here's also a link to Struttswife's page, which has a slightly different (but I think very valid) perspective on how you should "type" your hair that has nothing to do with curl pattern: http://livecurlylivefree.com
embracing the waves since 10/20/08
my hair loves protein and hates jojoba oil, my scalp hates propylene glycol, my face hates silicones.
I think I like the fia categorization better, it describes my hair better I think. And I really like the livecurlylive free site, that's where I got all my product info when I was buying the sulfate/cone free stuff. Its got it all condensed in one place.
Thank you so so SO much!
What's pixiecurl? Diffusing til it's almost dry? That's a new one to me haha I've heard of plopping and pineapples but not that.
I agree, the experimenting is a lot of fun. I found a good combo today, but I'm going to keep trying til I find something I love! (Then I will still keep experimenting;) )
You said you used to straighten every day, do you ever straighten now? I used to a lot for going out type of look but I'm not sure if it will look the way I like with out all the silicone-packed products I used to use.
with the hair dryer OFF, cup a family of curls into your diffuser and put the diffuser to your scalp. this kind of holds the curls scrunched.
turn on the heat for 1 minute while keeping the diffuser in place (recommendations for the setting go from low heat, low fan to high heat, low fan to low heat, high fan...personally i think the most important part is the low fan, because you want your hair blowing as little as possible)
turn the heat off and release the hair from the diffuser.
move to a different section of hair and repeat.
most people will say to diffuse until your hair is like 80% dry but to let it air-dry the rest of the way...the right balance varies from person to person.
PS - glad you've found a basic routine already! that's great!
embracing the waves since 10/20/08
my hair loves protein and hates jojoba oil, my scalp hates propylene glycol, my face hates silicones.
In the summer I don't diffuse at all and air dry. But in the winter it takes too long for my hair to air dry so I diffuse. It's finding the right combo that works for your hair. If I diffuse until fully dry my hair gets too frizzy as does most curlies around here. I don't know exactly where but if you go to the general discussion forum and go back a bit you can find a lot on the pixiecurl method. There might even be video.
As far as straightening goes I don't anymore at all. Since going CG I used a blowdryer and round brush to straighten once and it was awful because of all the natural curl my hair had found since CG. It took 45 minutes and was still big and frizzy and had bumps. Mind you this was how I normally straightened my hair for YEARS. I used a straightener (it's a $200 straightener) on Halloween as I wanted my hair to look a certain way with my costume and, while it looked great that night, it took my waves and curls over a week to recover. Since then I've been using clips and headbands to dress up my hair to go out as I love my hair too much now to do that to it. I did see a thread in the 2s about this though so you should check it out. That was just my experience. But I started as you did, wanting to bring out my waves so I didn't have to work so hard and now I have 2b/c waves that keep getting better!
i also went to buy the vo5 you recommended but the store didn't have tea tree so i got tangerine or something. and i just use that once, right? to get the old cones out?
Jess, you just made me never want to straighten my hair again! I bought some antique-y barrettes today to try and dress up my hair without straightening it from now on. it seems like a waste to mess up all my hard work now.
and barettes, especially nice ones, can be a very elegant way to style wavy/curly hair.
so glad you're liking your natural style! enjoy!
embracing the waves since 10/20/08
my hair loves protein and hates jojoba oil, my scalp hates propylene glycol, my face hates silicones.