So I have been learning a LOT about my type 2C hair recently.
I have found that I need to try to use not too many products to get the best curls, and not too much of very moisturising products.
I also find that if I use a cream, and want to add a gel afterwards then it works best if I let my hair dry a bit before adding the gel , otherwise the weight can make my hair less curly.
I often skip using a leave in , as this gives my the best curls, but I have to be careful to keep an eye on the moisture of my hair - it is a constant balancing trick getting enough moisture but maintaining nice bouncy curls and waves LOL
Also my hair does seem to benefit from an occassional low-poo
This is all far removed from what I thought when I began CG when my hair was so dry it seemed to need loads of heavy moisturising stuff. Also I never realised my hair could get curlier if I found the right balance of products to use!

So far I like: Curls cleanse, conditioner and Gel-les’C , occassioanlly a tiny bit of the milkshake or soufle
Kinky Curly stuff - after MUCH trial and error I found it worked better after I low-pood with the KC come clean!
Mop C curl cream - gives me god curls - dont need a gel as well - only need a tiny bit though!
Conditioners: I am rotating these , still like the AOHR and GPB - but not as leave ins
Curls coconut, KCKT (only use a TINY bit on ends as leave in), Garnier Fructus repair and shine (for co-wash and condish), and original source for co-wash.

So come on all you type 2’s….... share your styling and product tips for making our waves and curls look wonderful

I am now at the conclusion that I am a 2b, with maybe a bit of 3a, I can get ringlets in my hair at the back but my hair does not stand out from my scalp like type 3 is supposed to in fact when I grew out my layers I looked like I was growing out a perm! lol

I’m not CG & I shampoo with sulphates once or twice a week, in between I sometimes just spray my hair with water & condish or rinse through with condish. I tried CG about 3 years ago but gave up after a few months, I also have tried sulphate free shampoo but find that more drying than the sulphate ones!
I also have my hair coloured at a salon every few weeks, they use all Aveda products which are lovely & I intend to buy more of when the mountain of products in my bathroom goes down a bit!

I have a pretty regular routine although my products rotate quite a lot, I definitely get better results if I apply products to wet hair so I get the ‘squish’. Someone once described this as feeling like wet seaweed which it kind of does!
I apply spray leave-in (L’oreal for protecting coloured hair), then rake in a small amount of curl creme (Boots), then rake in a good dollop of gel (having good results using VO5 mega-hold). Then I give it all a good squishing with my head upside down.
I will air dry if I have time or diffuse while trying not to touch my hair if not, sometimes after I diffuse i get a bit of frizz on the top (probably cos I can’t stop touching it!) I just spray on some condish & that gets rid of it.
After all that I rub a pea sized amount of Aveda humecant between my palms & scrunch it into my hair which gives it a bit of shine.
I am getting good consistent results at the moment & pretty good 2nd day hair too.
I also pineapple my hair at night.

coolshot - 30 August 2009 07:57 AM

i know ella thinks i have type 3b hair but i’m still not 100% convinced as it seems alot like yours ,as it certainly behaves more like 2c now and again depending how i style it i proberly have a mix 2c/3a and a bit of 3b quite a mix it is a constant battle trying to figuer out how to make the most of my hair.
sometimes if i get a good day it can be very curly amost 3b but mostly it looks 2c/3a my hair feels very odd at the moment and i’m not really sure what is going on i think i may need to use a sulphate or clarify my hair.

I bet if we did a poll with a pic of your hair people would not say 2c!! Lol.

WavyDawn - 30 August 2009 03:41 PM

I am now at the conclusion that I am a 2b, with maybe a bit of 3a, I can get ringlets in my hair at the back but my hair does not stand out from my scalp like type 3 is supposed to in fact when I grew out my layers I looked like I was growing out a perm! lol

I’m not CG & I shampoo with sulphates once or twice a week, in between I sometimes just spray my hair with water & condish or rinse through with condish. I tried CG about 3 years ago but gave up after a few months, I also have tried sulphate free shampoo but find that more drying than the sulphate ones!
I also have my hair coloured at a salon every few weeks, they use all Aveda products which are lovely & I intend to buy more of when the mountain of products in my bathroom goes down a bit!

I have a pretty regular routine although my products rotate quite a lot, I definitely get better results if I apply products to wet hair so I get the ‘squish’. Someone once described this as feeling like wet seaweed which it kind of does!
I apply spray leave-in (L’oreal for protecting coloured hair), then rake in a small amount of curl creme (Boots), then rake in a good dollop of gel (having good results using VO5 mega-hold). Then I give it all a good squishing with my head upside down.
I will air dry if I have time or diffuse while trying not to touch my hair if not, sometimes after I diffuse i get a bit of frizz on the top (probably cos I can’t stop touching it!) I just spray on some condish & that gets rid of it.
After all that I rub a pea sized amount of Aveda humecant between my palms & scrunch it into my hair which gives it a bit of shine.
I am getting good consistent results at the moment & pretty good 2nd day hair too.
I also pineapple my hair at night.

That sounds a great routine, and so great that you are getting consistent good results - and 2nd day hair! You have obviously figured out what works for your hair - I’m still getting the hang of that LOL!

Lol I would… I am armed with pics!!! LOL. Only joking.

Oh I don’t know. What will we do with you! I have some 2C’s and some straight-ish bits in my hair right now.
And the gel I used wasn’t strong enough and also it made my curls droop so I had some 3A at the front which was weird!

Lol haha, I meant, my products and styling techniques make a huge difference, it’s crazy. That gel I used yesterday is out the window!

You have, and if that’s not the best then your hair must be like WOOOOOW at its best!

I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m a 2 something… not a 3a at all!

pelicano - 31 August 2009 08:38 AM

I’m coming to the conclusion that I’m a 2 something… not a 3a at all!

It can be quite hard to accurately pin down hair type I think , and often your hair may be a mixture, or in between. What matters more is finding out what works for your hair and learning to understand what your hair needs and respondig to that.
Have you found any products or routines that are working well for you pelicano?

Yes, I think in some ways the whole categorisation thing just gets confusing!  Especially since I think probably the porosity of the hair is probably more important than the curl pattern etc.  I can’t use leave-in products, but I find the best thing I’ve found so far is a home-made shea butter, coconut oil and glycerine leave in.  Oh and to drip dry (which takes bloomin’ ages!)

coolshot - 04 September 2009 06:37 AM

pelicano - 31 August 2009 05:51 PM

Yes, I think in some ways the whole categorisation thing just gets confusing!  Especially since I think probably the porosity of the hair is probably more important than the curl pattern etc.  I can’t use leave-in products, but I find the best thing I’ve found so far is a home-made shea butter, coconut oil and glycerine leave in.  Oh and to drip dry (which takes bloomin’ ages!)

depending on your hair type some strong gels can hold your curl back abit and i have found that for me i get curlier hair if i use more light products for hold

Yeah I have found the same with my hair coolshot!

Hi Curlies.
If you want i did a thread on what’s your method (think that’s what i called it)you can check it out. Mine is so simple.

I have 2b/2c coarse, thick below-shoulder-length hair with short canopy layers that I’m growing out from a razor-cut, blended layer style so I can have a blunt-cut, soft layers style. Yesterday, by sheer luck, I happened on a method that gives me tidy, well-defined, well-clumped waves with some spiral curls on my nape layers. I thought I’d share It also got rid of the frizz that I usually get on top two layers of my hair.

I’ve given up combing my hair entirely - it’s finger detangling for me from now on, although, now that I’ve started following a substantially CG haircare routine I no longer have tangles. Another reason for me to be glad I decided to give up straigtening my hair.

So yesterday, my shower routine was to wash with Organic Blue Mandarin & Neem shampoo, rinse with ACV, condition with Organic Blue Mandarin & Neem conditioner - raking my fingers through my hair to forestall tangles. I rinsed my hair and then, I stayed in the shower, applied about a 50p sized blob of John Masters Citrus & Neroli detangler to soaking wet hair, very quickly followed by a similar sized blob of John Masters Sweet Orange gel. I raked the detangler and gel through with my fingers but not very vigorously (I wasn’t really awake at the time lol) the application style was more like coating my hands with the product and then squeezing clumps of hair with my coated hands. Then, I put a towel round my shoulders and let my hair drip dry - didn’t touch it with my fingers again. At this stage my hair still looked more or less like it had in the shower, it was fairly wet and sitting as it would if you’d just come out of the swimming pool - lying back flat on my head with clumps and strands of hair trailing down my neck. I let it sit like that for about 5 mins while I pottered round the bathroom, then I sprayed my hair with homemade AVG & Peppermint Oil spritz and homemade sea salt spray.

Normally, at this stage, I would start gently scrunching my hair with a micro-fibre towel, or my hands, to encourage curl but I didn’t y’day - don’t know why. I just tipped my head over and plopped it in a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt (still haven’t touched my hair with my hands or squeezed out any moisture) and then went and got dressed. After 10-15 mins I pushed the palms of my hands onto the top of the plop to gently crush out moisture, cause my hair was still quite wet. After I’d done this a few times, the t-shirt got quite wet and I let my hair out of the plop, still not touching it with my hands, and I had amazing wavy clumps. I was heading out, and I was pushed for time, so I didn’t have time to air dry my hair, I had to use a dryer. I decided to diffuse my hair without scrunching to see if the wavy clumps would set and they did. Instead of settling the hair in the bowl of the diffuser and lifting it to my scalp, I just held the dryer horizontally and put the diffuser up against the waves. for the first 10 mins I used a low speed high heat, then for the last 10 mins, after the clumps had set, I used a higher speed lower heat setting.

I let the hair cool and then, very loosely piled the ends of the top, shorter layers of hair up onto my scalp with 2 roller clamp clips, I took tiny amounts of Anita Grant Carrot Pomade, emulsified it in my hands, and then gently squeezed the crunch out of each clump of waves - almost like how you squeeze the water out of a pop sock if you were hand washing it LOL. I was trying very hard not to disturb the lovely clumps. Then took a de-crunched section of waves and pulled it through my lightly closed fist to evenly distribute whatever pomade was left after crunching. I did this for each of my three layers and then applied some Sante natural hair spray when I was finished.

At the end of this I had lovely strong, well-clumped, well-defined, s-shaped waves, with no frizz and no scary volume. I was really pleased with the results. In the interests of science I tried the technique again today and got the same sort of results. The only difference being that today I tried Balm Balm organic baby balm as my pomade and I think I used too much, plus I forgot the salt spray. Having said that, I still didn’t get the oily, producty look that I normally get if I try to define my waves with pomade. Also, today, I discovered if my waves on the top layer are too well-defined I can run my fingers through them from underneath the top layer and loosen them up a little, this means I don’t create frizz on the top layer.

I am never scrunching my hair again, it seems to create frizz in my hair and it breaks up my natural waves. When I allow my hair to sit and dry in natural clumps, it’s much better behaved. Keisha Jo was right that if I stuck with it that I’d have a good hair day :D

Hope this essay-length post is of use to other Type 2s out there :D

Edited to add photos. One showing how my hair looks when I scrunch it and two to show the new non-scrunching method

Your hair is gorgeous!!

I can’t believe I hadn’t found and read this thread!!

I find scrunching is the best way to get my waves going; raking (with careful blow drying) does get me straight hair without GHDs now so useful to know for (the very rare) occasions when I feel like straight hair.

I do find I have to use a leave in (but only GFR&S has worked for me so far), I follow this with a light gel, plop, then add curl creme and a harder gel..this seems to pull my hair into spirals.

I also get good results with FSG, although am still experimenting with that (and hoping that is not the cause of what is a very nasty case of spots on my neck).

Pineappling also helps my hair overnight, when I remember…but I use either a pop sock or a cut up pair of tights (whatever I had happened to ladder most recently really).

thanks for your post, you certainly got good results and your hair looks incredible.  Once i can get myself back into the “hair zone” (am very lazy at moment and hair has been tied up for days!!) I will try your method.  Thanks