Haaaaiiirr
apowerj;lwera;lewrj fucking weather.
So I'm trying this CurlyGirl method to see if I can rejuvinate my hair back into being healthy and curly. Right now it's... in need of some help. Well, actually, it's a fair bit better now, but a week and a half ago it was sad. Everything was so dry and limp, poor babies. My hair has always been rather perplexed with itself, never sure of whether to wave or curl, or on rare occasions straight. Usually my canopy is wavy and everything underneath is curly.
But so there's this CurlyGirl hair care regimen, all about embracing your curls and moisturizing and what not. Because curly hair is structurally different than straight hair, it has vastly different needs. Modern-day American Advertising is all about the straight shiny sleek hair. Anyone with even the most remote hint of curl knows that this is Impossible to achieve short of a wig. Curly hair is a lot rougher strandwise and greatly more porous than straight hair. It also absorbs and handles moisture differently, usually that it's easier to both gain and lose. The trick is to get your hair healthy enough to support its own weight and moisture enough to curl happily.
Sulfates are the active ingredient in most readily-available shampoos. Sulfates are really really good at stripping things of oil and grease, which is also why they're the active ingredient in Dish Soap. No lie, exactly the same. But curly hair can't really deal with a cleanser that strong, because the oils in our hair are distributed differently. Also, Americans have a severe tendency to over-wash their hair. What happens is that we over-wash so our glands overproduce oil trying to keep everything from turning into a desert, but then the overproduction makes us want to wash more, which then repeats the cycle. Everyone, straight hair and curlies alike, only need to wash 2 to 3 times a week. Curlies, with time, can get it so they wash once a week even! Crazystuff.
Also in most common styling products are these lovely things called Silicones. They coat hair to keep down frizzies and flyaways, so naturally they're everywhere in curling creams/gels/sprays/what not. While Silicones make great quick-fixes, they seep into the pores of Curly hair, and just mess everything up real fast. But! There is a product to get rid of these nasty silicones! Guess what that is?!
TADA, SULFATES.
And guess what helps keep away all the frizz and dried-out mess of Sulfates?
TADA, SILICONES.
Another great cycle!
The solution to all of this is to use products without Sulfates and Silicones. CG's (curlygirls) usually wash with a thin conditioner like VO5 or Suave Naturals then condition-condition with something thicker, then use a curl cream, let your hair dry, and then apply a gel or so. That's the rough estimation, there are lots of variations and lots and lots and lots of CG-friendly products. Another thing that CG's do is not to dry your hair with a terry-cloth towel, as it completely sucks out all of the moisture you try to put in. They either buy special micro-fiber towels or do what I do, dry with an old tshirt.
There are many wonderful websites that are far more eloquent and informational than I am, most notably NaturallyCurly, that can tell you all sorts of stuff about curly hair and how to care for it.
I'm also reading The College Curly's blog, because she's like me, a relatively poor college student. She's a bit more of a product junkie than I am, but she has similar time constraints and approaches.
Colorado Curly is another great blogger who talks about important things like dewpoint vs humidity and the effect of humectants in a drier climate.
My point is that I'm trying this new CurlyGirl thing, with medium success as so far. We kindof have curl?
My hair curls in places? It's... yeah. But so I bought a gel to try, see if it'll encourage my curls to stay, because that's what I'm having the most trouble with. Needless to say I shower, co-wash, condition, plop and apply gel. Hunkydory.
Mandy then trundles off to the post-office freshly dressed and ready to roll. When she walks out of the post office? IT'S POURING DOWN RAIN. So I get to walk back to the dorm and end up soaked, with my hair... I don't even know. I've just let it sit and airdry while typing this up, I'll look at it when this is done. I'm just frustrated that all of that effort went into getting hair properly gelled and set and close to curl only to get RAINED ON. I've never spent this much time on hair before, it's a little overwhelming.
Just wonderful.
So I'm trying this CurlyGirl method to see if I can rejuvinate my hair back into being healthy and curly. Right now it's... in need of some help. Well, actually, it's a fair bit better now, but a week and a half ago it was sad. Everything was so dry and limp, poor babies. My hair has always been rather perplexed with itself, never sure of whether to wave or curl, or on rare occasions straight. Usually my canopy is wavy and everything underneath is curly.
But so there's this CurlyGirl hair care regimen, all about embracing your curls and moisturizing and what not. Because curly hair is structurally different than straight hair, it has vastly different needs. Modern-day American Advertising is all about the straight shiny sleek hair. Anyone with even the most remote hint of curl knows that this is Impossible to achieve short of a wig. Curly hair is a lot rougher strandwise and greatly more porous than straight hair. It also absorbs and handles moisture differently, usually that it's easier to both gain and lose. The trick is to get your hair healthy enough to support its own weight and moisture enough to curl happily.
Sulfates are the active ingredient in most readily-available shampoos. Sulfates are really really good at stripping things of oil and grease, which is also why they're the active ingredient in Dish Soap. No lie, exactly the same. But curly hair can't really deal with a cleanser that strong, because the oils in our hair are distributed differently. Also, Americans have a severe tendency to over-wash their hair. What happens is that we over-wash so our glands overproduce oil trying to keep everything from turning into a desert, but then the overproduction makes us want to wash more, which then repeats the cycle. Everyone, straight hair and curlies alike, only need to wash 2 to 3 times a week. Curlies, with time, can get it so they wash once a week even! Crazystuff.
Also in most common styling products are these lovely things called Silicones. They coat hair to keep down frizzies and flyaways, so naturally they're everywhere in curling creams/gels/sprays/what not. While Silicones make great quick-fixes, they seep into the pores of Curly hair, and just mess everything up real fast. But! There is a product to get rid of these nasty silicones! Guess what that is?!
TADA, SULFATES.
And guess what helps keep away all the frizz and dried-out mess of Sulfates?
TADA, SILICONES.
Another great cycle!
The solution to all of this is to use products without Sulfates and Silicones. CG's (curlygirls) usually wash with a thin conditioner like VO5 or Suave Naturals then condition-condition with something thicker, then use a curl cream, let your hair dry, and then apply a gel or so. That's the rough estimation, there are lots of variations and lots and lots and lots of CG-friendly products. Another thing that CG's do is not to dry your hair with a terry-cloth towel, as it completely sucks out all of the moisture you try to put in. They either buy special micro-fiber towels or do what I do, dry with an old tshirt.
There are many wonderful websites that are far more eloquent and informational than I am, most notably NaturallyCurly, that can tell you all sorts of stuff about curly hair and how to care for it.
I'm also reading The College Curly's blog, because she's like me, a relatively poor college student. She's a bit more of a product junkie than I am, but she has similar time constraints and approaches.
Colorado Curly is another great blogger who talks about important things like dewpoint vs humidity and the effect of humectants in a drier climate.
My point is that I'm trying this new CurlyGirl thing, with medium success as so far. We kindof have curl?
My hair curls in places? It's... yeah. But so I bought a gel to try, see if it'll encourage my curls to stay, because that's what I'm having the most trouble with. Needless to say I shower, co-wash, condition, plop and apply gel. Hunkydory.
Mandy then trundles off to the post-office freshly dressed and ready to roll. When she walks out of the post office? IT'S POURING DOWN RAIN. So I get to walk back to the dorm and end up soaked, with my hair... I don't even know. I've just let it sit and airdry while typing this up, I'll look at it when this is done. I'm just frustrated that all of that effort went into getting hair properly gelled and set and close to curl only to get RAINED ON. I've never spent this much time on hair before, it's a little overwhelming.
Just wonderful.