#and white women do not get to co-opt the natural hair movement no matter how hard they try

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omg please drop all of your haircare knowledge, asking for a wavy/curly friend

HELLO YES I LOVE TALKING ABT THIS

So once upon a time I spent weeks on end on naturallycurly.com reading about wavy hair care specifically. I had just moved to Colorado six months before and my hair was Not loving the climate shift - the higher altitude results in dryer air and my hair was unmanageable and gross 100% of the time and I was sick of it. This article in particular was unbelievably helpful and it formed the basis of my research.

Here’s my before (spring 2019) and after (spring 2020):

(I have not really been styling my hair and/or taking selfies since then because. Pandemic. Not much point in going to that much effort just to work from home lol)

Below the cut are more specific tips for washing/styling, featuring linked articles, tutorials, and products. I do want to acknowledge that these are adapted from the methods Black women have been using to care for their (type 4) hair for generations - the methods largely work for 2&3 hair types too, but with some modifications (e.g., white people don’t generally need to add extra oil to moisturize their hair between washes). If you’re going to buy products, buy from Black-owned companies whenever possible! Ecoslay and Inahsi are two of my favorites.

Some general tips:

Know the general state of your hair. Is it dense or thin? Are the strands coarse or fine? Is it damaged from color and/or heat? If it’s dense and/or coarse, you’ll want heavier products to penetrate the strands (like gels). If it’s thin and/or fine, you’ll want lighter products to not weigh them down (like mousses). If it’s damaged, you’ll want heavy stuff with a lot of protein to get it healthy.

Protein and moisture are key to balancing your hair. Protein deficiency/excess moisture results in hair that’s too soft and doesn’t hold a curl, while moisture deficiency/excess protein is when your hair feels crunchy without anything in it. Odds are if you’ve been using sulfate-heavy products you’ll need a heavy dose of both. My hair was so protein-starved that I had to do two gelatin treatments to build it back up but I haven’t had to do anything like that since

Ingredients: cut out sulfates and silicones. Sulfates dry out your hair and silicones coat the strands and weigh it down. Ingredient labels are your friends - sulfates are pretty easy to spot (e.g., sodium laureth sulfate) and silicones usually end in ‘cone’ (e.g., dimethicone). Some people also avoid heavy oils and butters (e.g., shea butter) but it really depends on how thick your hair is and how tight your curls are. I generally avoid them because they weigh down my looser curls but others with tighter curl patterns find them moisturizing and helpful. When in doubt, plug the ingredient list into Curlsbot to see what's curl friendly and what's not.

You do not need fancy products. I've linked some of my faves in here but there's plenty of inexpensive stuff available at drug stores. @coffeecurlygirl on Instagram has some highlights where she's reviewed curl-friendly drug store products. I am also American, so product availability may be different in other places. Curl Maven (based in Ireland) is a treasure trove of product information for Europe, as well as an excellent source for curly hair care in general.

Washing:

The most important part of washing your hair and scalp isn’t the cleanser, it’s the friction. Some people find success with cowashing, which is when you use a conditioner to wash your hair. This moisturizes your scalp and prevents your hair from drying out with the cleansing agents. Others like having something more cleansing and use a sulfate-free shampoo (usually containing something like sodium olefin 14-16 sulfonate). I tend to switch cleansers whenever I wash - I like the As I Am Dry and Itchy Scalp cowash, Trader Joe’s Tea Tree Tingle shampoo, and a medicated shampoo & conditioner 2 in 1 deal. (My scalp is dry 100% of the time, it’s a struggle.) I also recommend getting a shampoo brush to really scrub it in there.

Conditioning is probably the most important step in your routine. Again, knowing your hair is really important here! Conditioners come in a huge range of heaviness. I have relatively thick hair and I like heavy conditioners. You want one that you can apply to your hair and practically feel it detangle itself. I like Giovanni conditioners best - the Deeper Moisture and Tea Tree Triple Treat are both good. You want to avoid your scalp because that’s where buildup happens, so apply to the length of your hair and squish it in (tutorial) from the bottom to form your curl clumps and ensure it penetrates each strand.

Clarifying is also something you want to do every so often. You’ll end up with some buildup on your hair no matter what so this is when you need an actual cleanser to break it down. You can get clarifying shampoos (Bumble & Bumble has one but I’ve never used it) but honestly you just need a normal sulfate shampoo. I use Suave Daily Clarifying (do not use it daily) which is like a dollar and will last forever.

After clarifying you should deep condition to restore moisture to your hair. My favorite these days is Jessicurl, but when I first started out this whole thing I needed something super protein-heavy so I used Curl Junkie’s Repair Me. In the middle of the road is something like Inahsi which is relatively balanced between moisture and protein. It all depends on what your hair needs. Apply after washing, let it sit on your hair for 30-45 minutes (use a shower cap and ideally a heat cap for max effectiveness). Rinse and style as usual.

Don’t use a normal towel to dry your hair. Terrycloth is a one-way ticket to Frizz City. You can buy microfiber towels made specifically for hair but you can also just use a tshirt. Also don’t rub your hair when you dry it, instead squeeze the water out from the bottom to preserve your curl pattern and prevent frizz.

You probably don’t have to wash your hair as often as you think. I wash my hair once or twice a week and it gets the job done. It takes much longer for curly hair to get gross and oily than for straight hair - my sister’s hair is stick straight and she has to wash every day.

Styling:

The products you use are much less important than the technique. Youtube is super helpful for demonstrations of how to apply products - reallife+curlygirl has my favorite channel for this.

Leave in conditioner is a must. I recommend finding something that’s intended to be a leave in, but some people just leave in some of the conditioner they used in the shower. Same deal, apply only to your ends, not the scalp.

After the leave in, here’s where the fun begins! Apply your styling products when your hair is soaking wet (like, immediately after your shower). I like to use a curl enhancer (eg Ecoslay’s Orange Marmalade or Uncle Funky’s Curl Magic) and then a gel over top (pretty much any drug store brand works - Aussie, LA Looks, etc.). Squish it in like you did your conditioner and use a lot of water. I legit have a mixing bowl that I keep in my shower and fill partway with water when applying so I can scoop in more water as needed. Squish until you can’t really feel the product anymore and then you’re good.

Plop your hair to set the curls (tutorial). Let it sit for 15-20 minutes. If you’re feeling extra you can add more gel once you take it down.

Diffuse dry (tutorial). DO NOT use a hair dryer without a diffuser, the direct heat is too intense and won’t give you good results.

Your hair will probably be a little crunchy after you’re done. Wait however long you want/can (at least until your hair has cooled down and it’s 100% dry) and then scrunch it out. No ramen noodle hair and your curls have set!

This can all be super overwhelming but is super worth it. You can see how much it's benefited my hair and I have no regrets. Most of these tips are things that have specifically worked for me, but if you want a more general (and better explained) quick-start guide for curl care, Curl Maven is a fantastic resource. There are a zillion places on the internet to get information, but I strongly recommend just sticking to a few: Naturally Curly, reallife+curlygirl, and Curl Maven are the best I've found and seem to cover the most ground. There's also a thriving Instagram community but proceed with caution - big Mormon mom energy over there, for whatever reason.

Finally, while the curls are great, the biggest change I’ve seen has been in the overall health of my hair. Washing less means my hair doesn’t get dried out as quickly, and even when I don’t style my hair (leave-in only and air dry) my hair still has some volume which is nuts. You don’t have to do all the styling every time you wash to get the benefits.

Hope this is helpful! Godspeed, my friend.

#smolpoe #answered #face #hair care #curl care #sorry this took a few days and is very long #my problem is that i have spent so many years in academia that i'm incapable of writing anything less than a well-sourced novel #no matter the context #lmk if you have any more questions and/or if anything i wrote needs further clarification #also i didn't mention it in the post but generally speaking this is based on the curly girl method #which i don't love bc (a) why gender hair care and (b) the lady who coined the term is. hm. Not Great #i try to be thoughtful with hair stuff bc. as i said. black women have been doing this for centuries #and white women do not get to co-opt the natural hair movement no matter how hard they try #but like i said the methods still work. you just can't claim that you came up with them #which is what the 'founder' of the curly girl method did. then she created devacurl very explicitly to profit off that knowledge #curly/wavy hair is not political for white women and too many bloggers seem to think it is #anyway! all this to say i'm trying to stay in my lane and share the info i've found most helpful #while acknowledging the actual sources of said info