I’ve got a confession to make. I haven’t touched a hair dryer or a pair of straighteners, or ‘styled’ my hair for around 4 months now. I’ve been completely letting it do it’s own (slightly wild) thing, and it’s actually been really ok. Amazingly ok in fact.
No one has pointed in horror in the street, no one has told me I look like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backward, I’ve had compliments on the curls being my natural hair, and it feels great.
I didn’t actually know that my hair was so curly, over the past two decades I’ve had many variations of bob, super short hair, super long hair, and everything in-between. I always tended to wash my hair in the evenings (who has time for that in the morning??) and was always told by my Mum not to go to bed with wet hair so always tended to blow dry it.
I think when my sisters and I were small we always had a bath in the evenings too and mum would then dry our hair, like a mother-daughter bonding thing. Blow-drying seems to just whip the curl right out of my hair, so much so that I forgot it was ever there.
When I was at high-school in the early 2000’s, straighteners had just become a thing, THE thing to have. Before that, girls I knew would actually iron their hair, on an ironing board, with a clothes iron…so wrong. I never had GHD’s, but I did have a much cheaper version that had changeable heating plates so you could swap the flat ones out for a crimping version. Yes, I wore crimped hair to school on non-uniform day teamed with a tie dye top from tammy girl. And no, it was not a good look.
I can remember my hair never looking quite as straight as everyone else’s, especially when there was even a slight bit of moisture in the air. I don’t know why I kept bothering, it was just a thing that you did. A thing I ALWAYS did. And I kept cutting my hair short because I got bored of it easily, and it kept doing that straight but not straight enough thing even more and it was always frustrating. I had super short hair a little while ago when I cut it off for charity, it was slightly longer one one side and I wore it curly but I still always blow dried it…and then styled it curly! What a numpty.
So the hair epiphany started when I went self-employed, I was at home a lot at the beginning, I had time to shower in the morning and wash my hair – yay! I had nowhere to be, I was working from home so I just started to let my hair do its thing. I would let it dry on the early morning dog walks, I’d come home with slightly windswept but lovely curls.
As anyone with curly hair will know, frizz can be a big part of your life. You have to treat curls differently to straight hair, you have to treat them kindly. I was still washing normally with shampoo and conditioner, brushing it with a normal brush, and not really putting any products it. Some days were ok, but some days were a bit of a frizz fest, those days I’d just put it up in a bun and forget about it.
Then I started to think, there must be a way I can tame this mane, without using loads of smoothing products that just make it greasy. I had a little look on my good friend ‘google’ and stumbled upon the ‘Curly Girl method’. There’s a whole book written about it (Curly Girl: The Handbook, by Lorraine Massey and Deborah Chiel), I didn’t read it, but the internet did give me a summary of the most important bits, which I am going to relay to you, my curly friend…
- Shampoo is not your friend. Curls need moisture, do not strip them of the moisture that your body gives you hair naturally! They will just hate you and most definitely frizz up in rebellion. Shampoo should be an ‘only when necessary’ accessory. I don’t care if you tend to get greasy roots, get some dry shampoo.
- When you do shampoo, only shampoo your roots. End of. Jujjing your hair with water and the excess watered down shampoo that runs off your roots is enough. Honestly.
- Get a shampoo that doesn’t have that silicon, paraben yada yada yada stuff in it. Google that bit for more info (I can’t do everything for you…)
- Buy a good conditioner. Conditioner is your best bud. No silicon etc etc again though. Choose your best bud wisely. Maybe try a couple (travel mini’s?) see what works best for your hair texture, don’t rush into this relationship. Stick with it when you find a keeper, no cheating.
- Don’t brush your hair. Really, do not do it. Not when it’s wet, not when it’s dry. Your brush is not your friend, no matter what anyone says.
- Comb your hair with your fingers if you can, if you really have to you can get a wide toothed comb. I use one, but only when my hair is wet.
- You know that material they use for towels? It’s good for drying your body, but for gods sake, get it away from your hair.
- An old t-shirt, that’s what you need, this will be your new ‘hair towel’. It is soooo much kinder on your hair. Just wrap it round your head and leave it on for a bit. That will soak up the excess water. Do not rub/towel dry your hair. I think this is one of the biggest things that has made a difference to my hair.
- Sea salt spray is your friend, so is mousse, so is any curl enhancing oil based thing (only on the lengths though). Try some different products, there are many different types of curls that respond better to different things. I find sea salt spray and mousse work best for my hair which is somewhere between a wave and a spiral. Just don’t use too much of anything, a little goes a long way.
- Leave it to air dry, this is how your curls will look at their best. You won’t catch a cold if you go out with wet hair, it will just dry quicker if you’re out and about. A cold is a virus and has no bearing on whether you’re actually cold, or have wet hair or not.
- Enjoy your curls, embrace them. They’re gorgeous, and so are you.
Do you have any tips for curly girls? Have you tried this method? Let me know how it goes!
When life gives you lemons... 