Hi everyone *waves*

I’m not new to CG but I am starting from the beginning again after 2 years of giving up on my hair

Way back in 2008 I went CG. Which went….ok. My hair did get better - but I never really achieved what I wanted, and I was far too busy with university to keep it up.

Its time to try again - and hopefully get the desired results! My routine as best as I could get it at the time was:

Aubrey Organics conditioner or Faith in Nature conditioner
Honey rinse
Boots Curl Cream
Homemade Flaxseed Gel

There are loads more products to choose from now (thanks to the amazing Emporium!) and Im learning more about porosity and texture etc so Im hoping I can get my dream curls.

Anyway - here are some old photos detailing my previous CG attempts.

1st image - I think was after trying out Jessicurl’s stylers. My hair didn’t seem to like it very much, it was still wet here in the photo, but it was very frizzy and felt dry. I think this was a reaction to the salts in her products- I was so excited to get hold of these and try them out, I was bitterly disappointed lol!

2nd image - Pretty sure this is after trying AOHR - it left my hair worse than before CG - very very dry and as you can see, loss of any curl. I figured out after that my hair seemed to like protein (but I never really understood it much further than that lol!)

3rd image - Starting to see some improvement - its always the top/outer layer of hair that I have most trouble with. The ringlets/tighter curls underneath behave much better in general!

4th image - After a coming back from a really bad haircut by a ‘curly trained’ dresser at Tony and Guy. I cried for quite a while after seeing the mess, particularly at the back. It was like a bad, uneven bob that I never asked for! And she feathered it. I had broken, uneven curls for a long time after :(

5th image - Reaction to my hair after returning home to a hard water area - previously I had been trying at CG in a soft water area

6th image - One of the best results from CG I’ve ever had. Lovely curls with some frizz after trying out some aloe vera. My hair was lovely and soft and the curls less tight, but it soon lost its hold throughout the day and became a poofy mess lol!

These were the best hair days I had as a CG girl!

I was pretty happy with my hair at the time, but I still lacked definition and volume and always had frizz.

I think one problem is that my curls are all over the place. I have tight coils underneath, long wavy strands on top - just an odd mixture all over, so they don’t sit well together. It has a tendency to sit very flat. I think a good haircut, with someone who can cut curls properly and separate certain curls so they bounce and curl up and fall better would really help. But, I’ve not found anyone yet who could do that.

:D

hi Kat180! that 6th pic of your hair is wonderful! you have some lovely curls and i do hope that they will thrive with your new CG journey. Gosh, sorry about that hair cut! :(
British Curlies is a fantastic place to be, lots of help and advice from others, and the emporium has such a wide range of products, we are spoiled

Thanks Jackylou!

Well Day 1 on CG:

Last night I clarified using Aussie Moist shampoo - I cannot stand the smell and unfortunately it lingered the next day but it won’t be something I use regularly. It cleaned and conditioned my scalp nicely. My hair certainly doesn’t feel overly dry today like it usually does after shampoo

I did a little co-wash with tresemme naturals to counteract the dryness from the shampoo. This was actually lovely- it had great slip. I’ll need to use this as a proper co-wash to judge how well it works then. 

Then I used my regular conditioner at the moment Dr Organics Manuka Honey. I do like this, however feeling that my hair might benefit from a change.

Scrunched in some Boots curl cream (haven’t used this in a long while) and finished with some FSG.

While wet my hair looked a bit curlier, particularly at the root. So I plopped with a t-shirt for several hours and then went to bed.

Today my hair is very soft, but a bit fluffy (which I expected after shampoo and sleeping on it). Some of my top layers of curls appear a bit straggly and aren’t clumped together as much. It also feels slightly producty. But not a bad hair day. Not much different, except much softer hair but it was the first day.

Mood: Positive (and impatient - my parcel of emporium goodies should be arriving today!)

Oooh, those good day pictures are lovely!  Also, your curls are amazing!  I’m always jealous of people who have more of a 3a pattern - I think it looks really lush and romantic.  (I just have telephone cords on my head!).  I’ll be watching this diary with interest.

kat180 - 18 January 2011 08:28 PM

These were the best hair days I had as a CG girl!

I was pretty happy with my hair at the time, but I still lacked definition and volume and always had frizz.

I think one problem is that my curls are all over the place. I have tight coils underneath, long wavy strands on top - just an odd mixture all over, so they don’t sit well together. It has a tendency to sit very flat. I think a good haircut, with someone who can cut curls properly and separate certain curls so they bounce and curl up and fall better would really help. But, I’ve not found anyone yet who could do that.

:D

fab curls kat180!

Thanks!

I tried out Kinky Curly Knot Today- I remember my hair liking this product before. I was concerned as it was drying that it would be frizzy- I seemed to have a lot of halo frizz. But now it is properly dry and I have scrunched it out a little, I have curlier hair today - I seem to have tighter curls than normal on my canopy Its very soft, a bit fluffy - not sure the curls would hold outside, but not frizzy as I feared it would be.

I conditioned with Dr Organics Honey and washed out
KCKT as a leave in
FSG to finish

I also used my Curlease towel for the first time.

Not impressed at first- it got soaked immediately and I thought no way would this help dry my hair. Its taken a good 5 hours after 20 minutes of plopping for my hair to dry fully. However I don’t seem to have much frizz. Don’t know yet if this is due to the KCKT or the Curl-ease.

Mood: Satisfied

Well today I used the same products/routine as above, except I also co-washed with Tresemme Naturals.

Then I plopped for roughly 20 mins, air dried for an hour and diffused with the Pixie Curl method for the first time. As you can see, today my hair was quite frizzy and it felt a little drier than usual.

This could be for several reasons - from using Tresemme to co-wash/KCKT not being a great leave-in for me/diffusing - always seems to cause frizz but many curlies diffuse just fine- I’d like to be able to as well/ or simply because the last two days I have just water-washed because problems with our heating.

I really wish my hair was more 3a. I hate these tight ringlets. Its goes slightly more 3a when it is cut into short layers as you can see above but the underneath stays as ringlets :(

Didn’t realize how much of my scalp you can see! :S

With my curl pattern - is it possible to get separated and defined curls that bounce up more? Rather than what I have now- where it looks more like kinky waves? :( I’m desperate to get curls that clump and spring, my hair is so flat right now.

As you can see from the pictures I have a lot of surface frizz, particularly at the back today. Sorry about the blocked out parts- all pictures are with my baby cousin and I didn’t want to put her up on the internet without permission from her mummy!

Never noticed how dark my natural hair colour is….

Mood: A little sad - and wishing for 3a curls!

Oh and wish me luck for tomorrow curlies!

Wait for it…..

Im going on a boat ride. On the Thames. And a picnic. In January.

  I imagine my face was something like this when I was told.

Still it’s a friend’s birthday (bless her - insane creature) and Im sure it will be a great day. Cold. But great.

I don’t however have high hopes for my hair in such conditions. Bitterly cold. Wind. The splash of the Thames. Cold. Possibly raining. Cold.

I was planning to just try out KCKT and FSG. Will it be enough I wonder…..

Updates tomorrow

OMG your hair acts JUST like mine - super clumpy.  I find that doing a lot of styling while semi dry helps with volume.  I’ve posted this elsewhere, but I basically wash, put some leave in in, then wrap my hair up in a flour sack towel (in turban style) to soak up some water while I dress.  After dressing, I comb through my hair, scrunch it, then scrunch in whatever stylers I’m going to use.  I usually use some curls like us towels to scrunch out the excess water, and if I have time, I plop for a bit.  If not, I diffuse till about 90% dry (low heat), which tends to give me really good volume (still a flat top, though).  Unfortunately, doing it this way can generate some frizz, but that’s sort of the trade off - having 4 really defined curls or a bit of frizz but hair with shape. 

My only suggestion for tomorrow (I guess it’s today, isn’t it?!) would have been to make sure your hair’s totally dry before going out.  For some reason, the cold and dry air is harsher on semi-wet hair than it is on dry hair. I also try to stay away from large amounts of humectants in my stylers when I’m gonna be outside a lot (particularly aloe - for some reason I’m okay with glycerin).  Some people seal, but that almost always just makes my hair greasy.

I’m wondering whether KCKT is just not moisturizing enough for my hair.

Since I started trying it out, I have curls much the same as before, but I have a lot more frizz, particularly surface frizz and my hair is very slightly dry.

In comparison when I use Dr O Manuka Honey, my hair is much softer and less frizz.

If I use the DrOMH rinsed out, followed by KCKT as a leave-in - again I get more frizz and slightly drier.

So is it because the KCKT simply isn’t moisturizing enough for me?
Or is there an ingredient in KCKT that is known to cause these problems with curlies?
Or does it suggest that there is a particular ingredient in the DrOMH that my hair really likes (ingredients below)?

Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Aqua, Polyglyceryl-3 Methylglucose Distearate, Glycerin, Cetearyl Alcohol, Honey Extract, Butyrospermum Parki Butter, Glyceryl Caprylate, Hydrolyzed Milk Protein, Panthenol, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium Choride, Tocopherol, Helianthus Annuus Seed Oil, Aroma, Sodium Benzoate Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Phytate, Benzyl Salycate

I shall have to try around with distributing products. In the past I have found I cannot even finger comb stylers though my hair or I seem to loose my curls. But this may be different if I found a product that my hair loves.

Alright hair day.

I read on NC that for frizzy hair when wet you want to keep adding and adding conditioner until it all clumps together nicely. So today I used DrOMH and put twice as much in. I was slightly less frizzy but stopped there because I was concerned my hair was get lank/weighed down. I then raked quite a lot of FSG from roots and tips instead of scrunching. Plopped, diffused, then air dried.

Well, my hair went very crunchy and after I got the crunch out I had quite nice curls. Bit softer then yesterday, slightly producty -but whether from all the conditioner or FSG Im not sure. It was a bit less frizzy but still very weighed down. My curls need a lift. Im hoping some products will do that for me, but I think I need a haircut as well, have some layers put in the canopy.

Sadly I cannot afford one right now - and it would be nice to find a CG routine that is working for me first.

Nearly out of Tresemme to co-wash with so I got some Inecto coconut conditioner to try out - large bottle for £2 I can’t tell yet if co washing is working for me or not.

I wanted some aloe vera gel to see if this would help moisturize my curls and as it was buy one get one half price I grabbed some DrO Aloe vera conditioner to try out too Bargain!

So 3 new products to try tomorrow. I probably should just try one at a time but we all know Im impatient so I will probably use them all together - and then have no idea what worked well or not lol!

I’m enjoying reading about your curly journey kat   Your curls look fab - long and a lot of them in comparison to my hair which is short 2c/3 (& frizzy).  I’m just starting my journey back to CG as well so am starting to experiment with products too.

Dr OMH shampoo & conditioner are 2 I’ve bought to try.  I’m using the cond as both a rinse out & also a leave in & it feels to have softened my dry frizzy hair some although I have to admit there’s still a lot of frizz left

I’m wondering about the Aloe Vera gel you mention trying though…..  Is it the gel in a tube you can buy from Holland & Barrett, or something else altogether?  I already have a tube of the gel from H&B (keep it in the first aid kit for calming any skin rashes or mild sunburn), so could try that maybe as a rinse out cond or even a leave in?  How did you use it?

Thank you Its nice to know a couple of people are reading lol

I had a good hair day today - well better than had in a while.

Cleansed with Daily Fix
Dr O Aloe Vera Condition left in
Aloe Vera gel
FSG

My hair seemed to like the aloe vera gel - I thought it might. My curls were smoother and had less frizz. I also seem to be getting the hang of diffusing - I don’t get frizz from it (as far as I can tell so far) which I thought I would. Though I might need a stronger gel to stop my curls falling out.

Unfortunately I went out in the afternoon for 15 mins in the cold and drizzle and my hair expanded - lost its curl on the canopy and went fluffy. Is this the weather or the aloe reacting to the weather? I don’t understand humidity and dew points yet

My hair feels soft - Im used to feeling stripped clean after washing it - so Daily Fix is taking some getting used to - I have used it twice now and I think it is working nicely at cleaning my hair -it just doesn’t feel the same clean as before if that makes any sense. Anyone else found that with Daily Fix? Or just co-washing in general?

The gel I used was Dr Organics Aloe vera gel - its meant to be used for skin, but I put it in my hair instead lol I just raked it through like any other conditioner or gel. Although its called a gel - it isn’t a styler, which is why I put FSG over the top.