A Curly Girl Method Update : 3 Years+ On

Consistently one of the things I get asked about most, and have searched for on my blog, is the Curly Girl Method, so I figured as I last did an update in September 2017 after 6 months, I should probably do another update!

So to say my hair has changed drastically is an understatement. I used to think I had curly hair. As these before photo will show you, what I thought was a good hair day, was mostly a bit of a wave, a lot of frizz and wishful thinking. Back then I shampooed and conditioned my hair with any old shampoo and conditioner, maybe chucked some mousse in my hair, diffused my hair upside down, and maybe put a bit of argan oil in the ends. As you can see, it was not in good condition due to the bleaching.

After that photo, I started the Curly Girl Method (popularised by Lorraine Massey, but most of the principles and ideas in this method are taken from things black women have been doing for hair care forever!). The basic principles are to avoid sulfates, silicones, drying alcohols, parabens, waxes, and shampoo entirely. You use conditioner to both wash and condition your hair, hence the term 'cowash', conditioner only washing. You don't use brushes or detangle your hair unless it's full of conditioner, and all your products should be 'CG safe'.

I cut a lot of dead ends off my hair taking it up to my shoulders 3 years ago, and then kept it around collar bone length for a long time while I bleached and coloured it, until the last year or so when I stopped colouring it and started growing it.

In the below photo is my shorter hair, you can see how drastically it changed, more defined ringlets, it looks thicker, much less frizz and damage, actual curls!

So how is my hair now and what is my routine? Well, I always thought my hair's terminal length was above bra strap length. Despite my best efforts my hair has never really grown any longer so I figured that was all it could do, oh well. Except... that's really not true. Despite regular trims (even through lockdown, I cut my own hair, I qualified as a hairdresser when I was younger but never worked in salons), my hair is now the longest it has ever been. I even cut 6 inches off it in April and my hair is now at my waist when wet. I always joked that I wanted to be like a mermaid and be able to use my hair to cover my boobs and well, I can now! Having not seen a lot of my family for months because of lockdown, when people have finally seen me they've been blown away by how much my hair has grown. My own Mum didn't recognise me when I was stood in my front garden the other week before I had my back to her and she hadn't realised my hair was so long now, win!

Here's some very filtered selfies of my hair now with no product or anything in, just left to do it's own thing. This leaves me with relaxed curls or strong waves, I like being able to have the option of this when I just CBA!

And here it is with products, but still left to dry naturally, the day after I've washed it and slept on it. Despite the length, it still forms spirally curls right through the length, there's very little frizz and it's so smooth and shiny looking. It helps that my hair now is almost entirely my natural colour bar the the odd end that is bleached from a very old ombre I had.

So my routine! Some people's routines are super complicated and involve a whole ton of products. I like to keep it as simple as I can because I'm washing my hair, why would I want to dedicate a ton of time to it?!

1) Smother my hair with Superdrug Fruity Cherry & Almond Conditioner, use my fingers to comb my hair from the ends working my way to up to detangle it first. Once detangled, give my scalp a good scrub with my fingers to cowash my hair making sure all my hair feels like it's covered in conditioner and my roots feel like they've been washed. Rinse out thoroughly. When my carpal tunnel was bad I used a scalp brush to do the scrubbing so if you have problems with your hands, give one a go!

2) Condition my hair like I normally would using the same conditioner, and rinse it all out. Make sure my parting is where I want it while I've got conditioner in my hair as if I don't make my parting, my hair really will part whenever the heck it feels like.

3) Squeeze out some of the excess water from the ends of my hair with my hands and wrap up in a microfibre towel while I get dried.

4) Put a tiny, and I do mean tiny, like, a blob that is 3mm at best, amount of Cantu Curl Activator Cream onto my hands, and rub them together to cover my hands. The tiny amount goes really far and you'll soon find your hairs covered. Fill my hair over to one side sort of upside down and scrunch in, repeat for the other side and the back, make sure I've gotten all my hair. That tiny amount of product really makes a lot of different.

5) Next is leave in conditioner. I use either the same Superdrug conditioner, or the XHC Conditioners, usually easy to find in Poundstretcher and Savers for a quid a bottle, perfect for anyone on a budget. My favourite scents are the tea tree which is lush, and the banana because it smells like those foam banana sweets you used to get in pick and mix as a kid. The strawberry one smells like calpol to me, and I don't like ginger so I haven't tried that one. The XHC conditioners contain protein, hair that is over moisturised as mine can be as I don't use heat or colour etc on it can start to drop, so adding some protein into your routine can perk it back up again. I put a good blob of conditioner onto my hands and rub them together, and again scrunch it up into my hair, working my hair round my whole head. Lots of scrunching!

6) Last step is the product. I like the Eco Gel range and usually opt for the Black Castor & Flax Seed Eco Gel. Again, another blob, rub hands together, more scrunching into my hair. Lots of scrunching. Scrunch scrunch scrunch. I find the more I encourage my hair the better it is.

I then usually leave it to dry naturally, and once it is dry, I scrunch out the crunch (SOTC) with my bare, dry hands to get rid of the crunchy look the gel leaves. Sometimes I don't bother with any product and just scrunch in a bit of conditioner for a more relaxed curl.

About once a month I do what we call an 'AVC Rinse' to clarify my hair and get rid of any potential product build up. I take a plastic cup in the shower with me, and put a small amount of apple cider vinegar in it, fill the rest of the cup with water, and carefully pour over my hair making sure I've covered all my scalp and hair. Yes, it does smell strongly of conditioner when I do this, but once I've rinsed it out it really doesn't! The vinegar smell doesn't linger I promise.

At night I sleep in a 'pineapple', I flip my head upside down and form a very loose ponytail on top of my head and use an invisibobble to keep it in place. I also have a satin pillowcase as it doesn't create frizz. In the morning I will usually use some of the XHC Conditioner and scrunch it into my hair to refresh it a little, if I've thrashed about in my sleep or it's looking particularly flat, I'll also use some of the Eco Gel and scrunch that in too, both on totally dry hair, and when that has 'dried' or is crunchy looking, scrunch out again with my bare dry hands. Scrunching is key to my routine!

If my hair has any frizz or fly aways I want to tame, I use lube, yes, that lube! It needs to be a water based lube for the ingredients to be suitable, but a small amount of lube can really help smooth out curls. You can also use it on your hands when you SOTC. I've used the Tesco own brand gentle and unflavoured lube and tend to find it helps when I'm pushing day 3 or 4 hair when I tend to have a bit more frizz.

So, my words of warning. Technically, I break a lot of the super strict Curly Girl Method rules with my routine. They don't like lots of scrunching (you shouldn't touch your hair! you'll make frizz!), and very recently they decided that the Superdry conditioner I use isn't CG friendly. All because it has a teeny amount of one ingredient that Lorraine Massey has added to her banned list that a lot of other people are arguing is water soluble and not damaging. So I've opted to keep using it because clearly it's working for my hair, as well as being vegan and cruelty free. I try wherever possible to use cruelty free products, but getting information about some brands and companies is nearly impossible.

Some of the Facebook groups can be REALLY intimidating to a newbie, everything looks really really complicated and the rules seem to constantly change. Me and my Mum both do our own versions of the method but don't follow it 100% because what works for one person's hair, might not work for someone else's. My Mum's hair loves a lo-poo (a gentle type of shampoo), whereas mine loves to be totally shampoo free. Even all my scalp eczema has totally cleared up! I know a lot of people seem blunt in their answers to questions and I'm so sorry, and I am happy to do my best to help you here!

The method is also very focused on Caucasian hair in these groups, despite all the concepts coming from black women. You'll see people with wavy hair tell people with Afro hair that they shouldn't use oil for example, or shout about no combs ever, and I don't like that. What works for 4C Afro hair is going to be totally different to what works for my 3A Caucasian hair, and the focus on Caucasian hair makes me really uncomfortable. It feels like a lot of the Curly Girl language and ideas has been co-opted from the Natural Hair movement with none of the credit and a sudden focus on Caucasian hair. So while yes it works, this method is problematic and I wish more people were more thoughtful in their words and use of hair terms. I am forever seeing white women say their hair 'dreads up' when they are describing matting, and are using dreadlocks as a negative descriptor, or saying their hair is an unruly Afro when it's not gone to their tastes and it's really frustrating. In the UK in particular, hairdressers are often trained with no thought at all for Afro hair, and I can say this because the hairdressing school I attended had NO courses for Afro hair, and when I asked about getting one, none of their tutors were qualified in any Afro hair cutting or care either!

So ultimately, what works for one person's hair, doesn't work for all hair. I 100% think that this method has helped me recover my hair and allowed it to grow, but I don't think being perfectly CG 24/7 is necessary, or productive to insist on. If you want to straighten your hair for a night out a couple of times a year, it is going to cause some damage, but it's not going to destroy all your hard work in one fell swoop now that your products and conditioners aren't damaging your hair.

Hair should be fun, and the method shouldn't be a super serious almost cult like rule book with one woman being heralded as the rule creator. So while I do describe myself as doing the CG method, it's a loose thing, and it's just not that serious!

Much love,

Kitty

xxxxxxx

My 2017 Favourites

I've written about my favourite outfits of 2017, and shared some of my highs and lows, but I just can't resist doing one last 2017 blog, sharing some of my general favourites from the year. These range from apps, to beauty products and more, just things I have to share that I might not necessarily have blogged about during the year.

First up, the app I just couldn't stop playing, PokemonGo!

I've played this app every single day since it's release in 2016, and got even more into it as 2017 progressed. The introduction of the raid system brought a whole new social side to the game we hadn't had before, we saw the introduction of gen 2, and the first waves of gen 3, meaning a whole loads of new Pokemon to catch. My personal favourite new aspect of the game is the very new weather system. It means increased spawns, and totally different spawns depending on the weather system. That there are now weather specific spawns is so exciting and definitely encourages me to go out no matter the weather!

I tried my first Lady V London Lyra style dress, and ended my year with three of them. Absolutely obsessed! I always thought a wrap over style dress was something more suited to those with a larger bust and wouldn't look great on me, but I LOVE the Lyra. I've got one short sleeve and two long, and my only gripe is that the long sleeves are nowhere long enough for me at 5ft 11. I just push the sleeves back and wear them anyway because I love them so much. I'm desperately hoping they release more spooky/alternative style designs like the one I'm wearing!

One of the biggest changes I made this year, and absolutely a favourite, was to start the Curly Girl Method. I started back in March and cannot believe the difference to my hair! I plan on doing a full update blog post soon talking about all the products I use and my exact routine because I think I've got it pretty nail on now. I never thought I had curls like I do, but I've even been asked when I started getting my hair permed!

My favourite beauty product of 2017 was an easy choice, Colourpop Super Shock Shadows. I have hooded lids and no eyeshadow has ever stayed on my lids like these do. I apply them with my fingers, and once on, they don't move. They never crease or build up in the folds in my lids, and even my Nanna loves these, I've ended up doing bulk orders for her and all her friends! If you struggle with eyeshadow I really recommend you give these a go, they are cruelty free too.

I finally found a cruelty free mascara that I truly love! The Elf 3 in 1 mascara. The brush is amazing, it has a normal section for applying the normal coverage, and then a larger ball section on the end that really helps you get all those small lashes and really get some length on the corners of your eyes. I've really struggled to find a good cruelty free mascara, my previous fave was discontinued so I was thrilled to find this.

What were your favourite finds in 2017?

Much love, 

Kitty xxxx

The Curly Girl Method : 6 Months On

I've been following the Curly Girl Method for 6 months now, so I thought it was time for a hair update! I wrote about when I started it here and 2 months in here, and now I've finally got a pretty set routine and feel like my hair is done transitioning it was time to share again. This weekend I had probably the best hair day I've ever had. Also, I totally bleached and coloured my hair because I missed my fun hair!

So, an update on my routine! I co-wash using either Tesco Pro Vitamin B 5 Care & Protect conditioner, or Tesco Pro Vitamin B5 Volume & Shine conditioner. I use these both for my actual co-wash, and as a leave in conditioner as well. They cost about 90p a bottle, and I get through a bottle in about 3 washes. I wash my hair twice a week at the absolute most. Some people spend a fortune on products but so far I'm finding these cheap ones work really well for me! For my product, I find that gel works really well. When my hair is soaking wet I absolutely pile on Tesco Everyday Value Styling Gel. This gel is 30p. Really. 30p. And it's amazing. I've used more expensive gel, but this is my fave! I use a lot to really get coverage and to get a good 'cast', when your hair goes stiff from product.

I tend to wash my hair at night, so I then plop over night in a net, I use these from Salons Direct. I plop how you would with a tshirt, but using the net instead. I then pop a couple of grips behind each ear to keep the net in place because I am a very wiggly sleeper! In the morning my hair isn't 100% dry, but when I take the net off my hair will stay put in what we call 'snakes'. I knew my hair was going to be great when my hair looked like this. Good snakes generally means good curls. I then diffused my hair till it was 100% dry on the cool setting. I never touch my hair till it is 100% dry, this is important! It means less frizz. This then leaves my hair with a cast.

This is a good cast. The wilder the cast, it seems the better the curls. I 'scrunch out the crunch' (SOTC for short) using jojoba oil. I rub some into the palms of my hands and start at the back of my head, scrunching the oil into my hair to break the hard cast. My hair looks ridiculous in the cast, but once it's all scrunched out, this is the end result.

 This is the hair I've always dreamed of. And it's on my head. It's my hair. I have beautiful big ringlets, volume, bounce and shine, my hair is what I always wished it could be. And it's so easy. Magic!

There are a few different options for protecting your hair at night, I'm a wiggler so I tend to use a combination of methods. I sleep on a satin pillow to avoid frizz, this definitely helps me a lot because I know whatever I cover my hair in will usually be lost by the time I wake up, so this minimises the damage. I sleep in a 'buff'. which is an elasticated tube of material. I make sure my hair is totally inside it and that it's pulled down over my forehead so I keep as much volume as possible without crushing my curls. This video shows you how I do this brilliantly. You can also sleep in a 'pineapple', which involves piling all your hair on top of your head and securing it. Rather than using a normal hair elastic, I use a generic version of the invisibobble, or a scrunchie will work too.

My hair isn't very thick, so pineappling doesn't tend to work for me which is why I prefer a buff. Here is my hair right out of a buff with no refresh or work done to it after a night's sleep on the left, and with a little oil to smooth it out on the right.

 

Once you get to grips with the curly girl method, it becomes second nature and every day can be a good hair day. Here's a little before and after to remind you of what a 'good' day was before co-washing. PS. My amazing tiger paws necklace* is by the awesome Sugar & Vice.

 

If you have any questions about my routine do feel free to ask away!

Much love,

Kitty xxxx

Goodbye iPhone : My Facial Injury

*denotes an item gifted to me, in no way does this impact upon my opinions which are entirely my own.

A Curly Girl Update

I'm now a month into the Curly Girl Method and I thought I'd share a little update with you! You can read my first blog post about it here if you want more info on the method itself and what I do. The short version, I've ditched conditioner and now only using 'curly girl' approved conditioners to wash and style my hair.

So here is the before....

One wash on the left, and two washes in on the right.

And here I am one month in! I'm genuinely amazed at the curls that have appeared. Disclaimer, I have cut about 6 inches off my hair because it was in dire need of it, but just look at it! Particularly at the front there are so many more ringlets. It's so cool! Particularly in my fringe area it's so ringlety now. 

I can now easily go 4-5 days between washes if I want to and my hair doesn't really get greasy. It used to be greasy by day 2 and I was a total dry shampoo fiend so this makes me very happy. I've gotten so many compliments about my hair and I'm so pleased with the way it's changed.

I think I'll probably do another update in 6 months or so to see how it's getting on! I'm very tempted to get my ombre re-done as with the chop it's mostly grown out and I do really like it.

Much love,

Kitty xxx

Photoshop and Bloggers : Thanks for Nothing OOTD

The Curly Girl Method

I've always dreamed of my waves being ringlets and getting amazing curls all over my head, but always thought my hair just wasn't that curly. My Mum's hair is stunning ringlets and I had such hair envy, so when I saw Curvy Wordy mention the 'Curly Girl Method' I was intrigued. Her hair is absolute goals, so maybe mine hair would like this method too! I did a bit of reading about it but it was when I found the Facebook group 'Curly Girls! Conditioner only washing' that I really got to grips with understanding what it entailed. I highly recommend joining the group and reading all their files for way more info than I could possibly share in one blog post.

This is my 'before' hair on a good day. It has some texture to it, and some waves, but no real curls. Every now and then I'd get the odd ringlet and be hopeful for more, but this is a photo from a pretty standard good hair day for me.

The first step of going CG is the prep. You'll want a good shampoo for your final wash, and a CG friendly conditioner, and a CG friendly gel. The general aim is to avoid all sulphates, silicones, drying alcohols and various other 'bad' ingredients. Your final wash is the last time you'll use shampoo on your hair, and the aim is to remove all the silicones from your hair using a sulphate shampoo. A baby shampoo will work a treat, or even a diluted washing up liquid. You'll want to really scrub and cover your hair to try and get rid of all the silicone build up you have.

Then, it's time for your first co-wash. Co-washing is short for conditioner only washing. Instead of using a shampoo, you use just a conditioner to clean and condition your hair. You'll get through a lot of conditioner! My personal method is to put a big glob of conditioner in one hand, and use my other hand to really scrub it into my scalp, starting at the front of my hair and working back, making sure to also get all round my ears and fully scrub my whole scalp. I spend about 15-20 minutes doing this to make sure my scalp is really clean. Once I've done that I give my hair a really good rinse out whilst finger combing through my hair to get rid of any knots. Then it's time for the second condition, this time I do the 'squish to condish' method. I take conditioner and I scrunch it into my hair from the ends up, leaving my roots till last. I tend to leave this on my hair while I do everything else someone might need to do in the shower, and once I'm done, I dunk my head under the shower, but do not fully rinse my hair out. The aim is to leave a milky dewy sort of look to my hair so that the conditioner is left in. Then I wrap my hair in a microfiber towel and leave it to take the bulk of the moisture out.

When it comes to picking your conditioner, different products work differently for different hair types. They key thing is that you need to avoid certain ingredients. These tend to end in -cone, sulphate, certain waxes and oils and drying alcohols. This Wikihow has an extensive list for you,  it can be tricky to find good products but don't worry that you'll end up using super expensive products, there are own brand Superdrug, Sainsburys, Aldi and Tesco products that are CG friendly for example! I'm not going to recommend specific products in this blog because unfortunately products are reformulated so often that they might be CG friendly as I type this, but in a week's time they might not be. The CG Facebook group I recommend are always happy to help you determine if something is CG friendly, and they have a list of approved products too.

Once my hair has been in the towel for a little while, I then add gel to my whole hair. I worried at first that this would weigh my hair down but it doesn't. I apply the gel using scrunching motions and make sure all my hair has some gel in it. Then it's time for to 'plop'. A plop is the term for a way to let your hair dry and get volume in the roots without crushing your curls like a towel wrapped around your hair might. The YouTube video below shows how best to do it, and you'll need a 100% cotton t-shirt to avoid creating frizz in your wet hair. I bought a long sleeved men's t shirt from Tesco for this, super cheap and works a treat!

I tend to sleep in my plop overnight because I usually wash my hair at night, in the morning it's not 100% dry, so I then use a diffuser on a hairdryer on the cool setting only. No heat! Heat is bad for your hair. This usually leaves a crunchy look to your hair that is called a 'cast'. Once your hair is totally dry you can then 'SOTC', or scrunch out the crunch. A micofibre towel or cotton t shirt is fine to use for this, and you'll be amazing at how different your hair looks after!

This is my hair after my second ever co-wash and my first successful cast. Look how ringlety my hair is! The difference is amazing. I never knew my curls could be this defined and well.... curly! I'm easily getting 3 days out of my curls without having to wash them. In the mornings I refresh my hair using a spray bottle I've filled with water and a good blob of conditioner and then diffuse to dry. Super easy and quick for those mornings I'm in a rush!

One of the other things I do to protect my curls is sleep on a satin pillow, as a satin or silk pillow will create less frizz, and I sleep in a 'pineapple'. To make a pineapple, flip your hair upside down and pile your hair into a pony tail right at the top of your head and put it in a very loose bobble or scrunchie. I've been using a bandana so far as I don't actually have much hair, but I need to invest in a scrunchie! It helps keep all the volume in my hair and means I'm not squishing my curls. Other key things to note are that to really optimise your hair, you need to avoid all heat on your hair, and not brush or comb your hair. Finger comb only when you are washing your hair with conditioner to avoid breakages. Microfibre towels are much better for your curls than regular towels and can be bought from most sporting shops or online easily.

I'm so excited to see how my curls improve over time, most people experience a transition stage for 4-8 weeks and I've been pretty lucky in my opinion, but I need to work on less frizz at my roots and being less afraid of using gel in my hair. All your products need to be CG friendly, from any mousse you might want to use to hairsprays etc. While I use gel currently, there are CG friendly mousses people use instead, but as gel is so cheap I'm sticking with that right now as it seems to be working well for me!

If you've got any questions do feel free to ask away and I'll do my best to answer them, but I highly recommend the CG Facebook group, everyone is friendly and helpful and there is all the info you could ever need in it. This is a method that women of colour have been using for a long time to look after their hair that was introduced to the masses via various books. I think it's important to acknowledge that this method of hair care has it's roots in Afro hair care, and comes from women of colour.

Much love,

Kitty xxx

Things I Love About Being Tall : Colourpop Pressed Eyeshadow