Hi there. I first heard about Curly Girl from a community on livejournal back in like 2003-04. I tried to go no-poo cold turkey and my hair looked like the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in a matter of days. I managed to get a few slight waves, but after 3 weeks I abandoned the no-poo routine. I looked disgusting and it wasn’t worth it to me. However, I knew it was better for my hair, so I always looked for gentle shampoos and cone-free conditioners.
I had soft waves as a small child. I’ve always had fine hair, but I had a lot of it when I was younger. My mom never tried to encourage the curl. For as long as I could remember, she would weigh it down with lots of “No More Tangles” spray. I continued this habit through much of my adulthood.
In 05 I had my one and only child. By the time she was 18 months old, she had amazing 3a/b hair.
It was a bit flat and smooth on top, but she had spirals that would not quit sprouting out of the sides of her head. I didn’t have to do anything special to her hair; it was always beautiful. We used baby shampoo and no conditioner and she looked fabulous.
That didn’t last long.
By the time she was 2, I was getting frustrated with the knots and began using the No More Tangles spray on her too. This worked for a while. But she has a kidney disorder and during a period of complicated health, I think we just didn’t bother to keep up with her changing hair texture. We brushed it and it grew to not like being brushed, and we were too focused on her other needs to be concerned about it. Look at this rat's nest!
When her health settled down and I got fed-up with her hair, I joined Curltalk (as Nats_mom) to get some support. I sort of knew what I needed to do, but I had forgotten some of it.
We both went sulfate-free about 2 years ago when L’oreal came out with their line. But to make it even more gentle, I would water it down and put it in a foaming pump dispenser and just wash my hair with a few pumps of foam. I co-wash my daughter’s hair with Suave Naturals Coconut or Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition Condition (which came to a halt when they changed the formula, grrr).
My daughter hates her curls. She is 7 years old now, and very stubborn. She doesn’t want me to co-wash and detangle her hair. She doesn’t want to plop. She doesn’t want to keep her head off the sofa until her hair dries. Her hair is often a complete wreck. What’s a mom to do? She needs a trim. One minute she says no, the next she says she wants it like her cousin (a smooth, straight bob). I tell her I could cut it that length, but it would never look the same, so she changes her mind… and around and around we go. She wants straight hair, and I can’t give it to her. I refuse to flat-iron her hair every day.
A couple of weeks ago I left my hair in a turbie-twist for about an hour after my shower. When I took my hair down, I was surprised by the amount of waves I had. They were wonky and crushed, but this was more wave than I ever had when I went CG 10+ years ago. I decided to play with this. The next time I showered, I rinsed upside down and scrunched like a mad woman. It looked really good, but once my hair was dry, if I ran my fingers through it, it lost all the wave and my hair just looked limp and shaggy. The next time I washed my hair I added some mousse and let it air dry and then SOTC. I was so proud of my waves. They looked pretty good. I was addicted now. I had to figure out how to make it better. I decided to go no-poo again. I returned to Curltalk for guidance, this time for myself.
I haven’t been able to be completely no-poo yet since I got enticed into doing IAgirl’s PT and a DT. I had to ‘poo those out because neither of them would simply rinse clean. I used my L’oreal foam trick for that and I’m using Evercream to co-wash the rest of the time. It’s only been 3 days since my last foam-poo so I don’t know yet if I’ll have another sebum disaster.
My goals here are:
• to find my hair twins and to learn all I can from their experience
• share my own experiences
• find the balance between moisture and protein for my hair
• find a curl booster/enhancer that will tighten/shrink my waves into curls {a girl can dream!}
• find a non-crunchy super-strong fixative that doesn’t need to be heat-set
• and make my curls DEFY GRAVITY!
Me with a fresh haircut and style from the salon:
My hair, after buying a bottle of Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee:
See you around the board. I do most of my reading in the "2" forum.
2Likes
Introducing... me ;)
Linear Mode
