Ok! Had a breakthrough yesterday with styling my curly hair yesterday. My friend A came over and helped me last night. Showed me how to apply products and style it. Man such a difference! I think I like it. I have to be patient and keep this going!!!
First things first: find your curl type! It’s important to understand what your curl type is to understand how your hair behaves and what could work for you. The process I explained below would remain the same but products will change based on your hair type.
Here’s what I did yesterday:
1. Washed my hair with my regular shampoo conditioner. Didn’t shampoo my hair twice like I normally do. That’s to help leave natural oils locked in.
2. Used my fingers to comb through my hair in the shower and remove tangles. Flipped my hair over with my head down. Also scrunched hair up to form more curls.
3. As soon as I came out of the shower I could stand my hair with water dripping 😛 so out of my habit I used a thin cotton towel to wrap it. A told me absolutely not to do that again 😬
4. This is where A helped me. First used curling cream on my soaking wet hair when it was still really ver very damp. She used generous amounts of the cream and applied it to sections of my hair while ‘clumping’ several sections together. She went all the way from the top to the absolute bottom of my hair to ensure the product got well applied. Applying curling cream on damp hair helps lock moisture in the hair which is super critical for healthy curls. This also helps curls to stay in place. She also twirled my hair so curls would form during this step. Picture of the curling cream below.
5. Next step - apply gel. This helps hold curls after your hair dries. She also applied a lil bit of oil to my hair in the front because it’s especially dry and frizzy. That seems to a common problem for most people. While applying gel twirl your hair around to create curl patterns.
By this step your hair is still damp but not soaking wet.
6. Dry hair. Use an old t shirt to wrap your hair up. Loook it up on YouTube - there’s tons of videos. So you leave your hair like this till it’s about 70-80% dry. This step helps lock moisture in your hair and minimizes fly aways while hair dries. This is key to minimize frizz also. I left it on for 15-20 minutes. And then took it off.
That was it. My hair was still a lil wet but I eventually let it air dry.
7. It was time to sleep - so I used a satin pillow case, plopped my hair over my head and got a good night’s sleep while dreaming how gorgeous my hair would be in the morning 😜
8. Woke up in the morning - surprise! Fly aways and frizziness in the front! As expected! But my hair in the back was good, curls were in tact! So I pinned up the front section of my hair and let it be.
DO
1. Use products generously atleast till you figure out a routine that works for you.
2. Use both curling cream and gel. Otherwise you will not get desired results.
3. Use products on wet hair and style. Use tshirt to dry hair.
DONT
1. Absolutely NO hair dryer or other hot styling products.
2. DO NOT use a comb! Ever!! I know it’s hard but you have 10 fingers so put them to good use 😛
You could use a diffuser, I haven’t tried that yet.
Next steps for me:
1. Switch out shampoo and conditioner. I’m considering buying Mielle products. Have to do more research here.
2. Apply oil before washing hair and leave moisture in.
3. Fix flyaway hair! Gotta figure this out today since I’m stepping out of the house today.
