Ok, so I've decided to start a blog. Well, re-start it anyway. When I started CG back in June, I wasn't too adept at documenting my routines and experiments. Taking pictures and posting them proudly on facebook and fotki aren't worth much if you can't remember what you did to get those beautiful curls! So this will mainly be a way for me to document what's working, what's not working, and investigate the ins and outs of curly hair. I know, it's a big thing to take on, but I'm up for the challenge! And if I can help one curly out there, I'll have done my job. My new computer has a webcam, so I don't even have an excuse now for not taking pics while at school.
I guess I should tell you a little about me. I'm a college student, if you hadn't guessed. I'm in my third year, but have been classified as a Senior since I finished my summer classes in July (courtesy of AP credits and transferring schools after my freshman year). I'm majoring in interdisciplinary studies, which is a fancy term for education. After graduation and certification, I'll be qualified to teach math, science, social studies, and english/reading for grades 4th-8th.
I'm the only true curly in my branch of the family, though my brother has a good wave going. Actually, today he went on an anti-CG rant at me and suggested I go back to what he's using - John Frieda mousse (lol, as if). It would be funny if he wasn't so serious. So obviously they're not understanding of the the whole curly thing that has become my "obsession." They roll their eyes and make fun of my plopping, but that's about it. I tried getting my sister to go mod-CG, which she pretty much is. If she dedicated herself more and used product, she'd be about a 2a/b. But she brushes, so it's usually straight. My 12- and 13-year old cousins have at least 3b curls without even being CG. I'm so jealous! I did a brief workshop and demonstration for them in August, complete with a fifteen page "Curly Girl Addendum" that covered most of the stuff the book didn't. I've gotten a few friends started on it, but I'm pretty sure they're not into it now.
I don't consider myself to really have one type of curl. If I had to type it, I'd say 2c/3a. According to Lorraine Massey (author of
Curly Girl), I have straight hair. I have pretty much no shrinkage. It's sad. Oh wait! I guess I
had no shrinkage. I just did the boing test and I have 2 inches of shrinkage! Woohoo Sedusa! Clarification to come in future posts. But basically my hair is a mixture of loopy S curls and elongated spirals/ringlets. I still have trouble deciphering between the two. My hair likes to clump with the right product (FOTE!) but only when scrunched in. Absolutely dislikes raking and/or combing (tried that once; see fotki for results).
I guess I'll give a brief history of how CG has worked for me.
Before: My hair has always been curly. I was bald for the first two years of my life, but when my hair finally came in, it was thick and curly. I didn't know what to do with it until my mid-teenage years. I was surprisingly good in caring for my curls considering I wasn't CG yet. I only combed my hair (no. brushes. EVER!), blotted with a towel instead of rubbing, shampooed maybe 2-3 times a week... Not bad, but also not good. I started taking the pill when I was sixteen, and that combined with bad health problems (that would plague me for the next four years....) left my curls looking barely wavy.
It's crazy to look back and see how clueless I was. I knew it wasn't as curly as it had been, but I still thought I was pretty curly. I'm dubbing this "Curly Ego Syndrome." It happens a lot with the newbies on nc.com. We curlies have been the curly girls when around families and friends. We're constantly told how curly our hair is, and when we encounter the typing systems, it's a bit of a wake-up call. I used to use mousse (usually John Frieda - gross - but pre-CG it was HETT) and then medium-sized jaw clips to scrunch sections of hair up to my scalp. I'd do that for an hour or two to help with the curl. Then I'd hairspray the crap out of my hair, because dry hair almost always equalled frizzy hair.
After: I decided to jump on the CG bandwagon about five days after my brother graduated from high school. My hair looks so much different from when I started, so I pretty much cringe when I see those pics. My first day CG consisted of using Suave Lavender for co-wash/rinse-out and then the Aussie Sculpting gel. I believe I plopped in a t-shirt for a while and then let it air dry. Like I said up there, the early days are pretty fuzzy to me now.
During the summer, I pretty much used just conditioner and a gel. I rotated between the Suave conditioners (lavender, coconut, green apple) and gels (HEBE, HESMU, ASG). At some point I
added FOTE. I always plopped for at least ten minutes in a t-shirt.
I started diffusing after a few weeks because 1. it takes like six hours (at least) for my hair to dry completely, and 2. it gives me volume. I had a diffuser for three years. The first time I tried it, I used it like a regular dryer, got a lot of frizz, and then it stayed under the sink until I started CG. That dryer only lasted until October. Kinda sad. I realize it was three years old, but I had only used it for a few months. Probably shouldn't have bought another Revlon diffuser (I have the Ionic 1875 now) looking back, but it was cheap. I actually just started having problems with it tonight. Using high heat and high speed with my Sedusa attachment resulted in sparks flying from the end of it. So I'm contemplating getting a new one, but that's a different story.
Diffusing usually consists of pixie-curling with the medium heat setting and the low speed setting. I'd start upside, diffusing different sections one at a time. Then I'd flip to the left and do the same, then to the right. I diffused until my hair was crunchy, then clipped the roots. After it finished air drying, I'd scrunch the crunch and be good to go.
Clipping is another story. When I first started CG, I attempted to use those metal Conair clips everyone was talking about. I tried the msgiblet way, the shellynot way, and a few others. The clips always came loose and slipped out. I got a lot of frizz just trying to insert and remove them. Then I read that you should bend them into a banana shape. It didn't do much for me and I didn't bother with clipping again until it got cooler. Now I'm using mini-jaw clips and doing the loops around my crown that shellynot does in her clipping video. It's working pretty well.
As we progressed into fall, things changed. Our weather is freakin' CRAZY. For example, Saturday was a sunny, breezy day. It was in the 80's. In January. Today it was in the low 30s with freezing rain and ice. There was one day in December that started out in the 70s. The temperatures began dropping around noon, it got super windy, and by six it was in the 20s. Humidity and dewpoints also vary. This all makes it just a little bit more difficult to get a routine down. Not even that, but I've really learned that everyone is different. There's another curly that lives pretty close to where I go to school, and we can't use the same products sometimes. I have better luck with FOTE on wet hair, she prefers it on dry.
Anyway, when fall hit, my schedule changed. One thing I value a lot is sleep. With class in the morning, it was pretty much impossible to wash then. Even with diffusing, my hair takes around 2 hours to dry completely (though that has changed with Sedusa, so we'll see how this semester goes). I would wash at night, diffuse and clip, and then pineapple. At one point I added a satin cap, and then towards the end of the semester I used a silk scarf. In the morning I'd scrunch the crunch left and refresh with water and some FOTE.
One thing I've realized is that pineappling pulls out my curl. My hair is pretty long (BSL), so I have to pineapple more towards my forehead then the direct center of the top of my head. This pulls out curl. If I do the ponytail with two loops instead of just the one, that pulls out curl.
The satin cap didn't help much for me. I pineappled under it until I realized that wasn't working. Then I tried just the satin cap, and that pulled out curl because it could move within the cap and it was squished weirdly. I guess I should say that I'm not a still sleeper. I toss and turn. A lot. I think of everything I've done at night, the silk scarf has the most potential. I'm still experimenting with it though. I'll probably do an update on that once I go back to school, unless I end up being able to wash in the mornings (later classes + Sedusa = awesome!).
I think I'll do some individual product review posts, because this is getting pretty long. Yes, I'm rambling. The title of this blog should give you a good clue as to what to expect, lol. So much for brief. The pics layered throughout this entry are the befores, and then weeks 2, 3, and 4. And then Christmas Eve is down below. I haven't transferred all of my pics over to this computer yet, so that's all for now.
I should mention that with the start of this blog, I'm going to clarify and almost re-start CG. I've used a few products over the past few months since I've last clarified with a sulfate that I'm sure are building up. I'm currently investigating polyquats, and recently had some bad experiences with a mild protein conditioner (oh how I wanted to love you LVPNG!) and the panthenol in KBB (sigh). So I'm going back to what worked in the summer. Not the humectants, obviously, just a simpler routine with products that moisturize and don't weigh down my curls. As I type
this, I have a bottle of Pink Boots on the way thanks to a curly who spent the holidays in England. So I may make an exception at some point and layer that before my gel. But overall, it'll be a big change.
And I literally just spent two hours of my life writing this. I'm being a slow typer tonight, I guess. Anyway, stay tuned for what's to come! I have a lot of reviewing and some picture posting to do!
