Hello everyone!

This is a bit of a hello, introduction and curl diary start all in one. I’ve had an account here since October 2010, and I’ve lurked on and off since then.

I’m a teenager and I’m from the (more often than not rainy!) North of England. My hair over the years has been a reflection of how stressful life’s been, times in my life when I’ve been happy and relaxed, my hair’s look great and I’ve had a good cut. Times when it’s been hard… Well, let’s just say I won’t go super short haired ever again!

To compress my story, my hair journey goes like this: Bob, supershort, strange poofy thing, growing longer, and now it’s at just below shoulder length. I’ve blow dried and straightened my hair for almost exactly a year now, pretty much every single day. The reason would be boys, of course…  And general self confidence.

Anyway, more recently I’ve become more and more sick of spending between 1-2 hours every single day on my hair, for it to look “decent” for a day, and then have to have all the ends cut off every 6 weeks, basically equating to no hair growth.    So I decided enough was enough, and started my major research project into the world of Curlydom!

My hair is naturally blonde, although highlighted during the winter as a pickmeup, fine, but there is loads of it! It’s SWavy/Wavy with a few rare ringlets on the bottom layer. The canopy can be so annoying as it has a tendency to go straight, but I figure that’s probably heat damage so I hope it’ll grow out! So I’ve been experimenting on weekends with my hair, and then finally today I went for it!

I went to school with my hair natural, having experimented for a while and finding a routine I’m fairly happy with. And I’m so pleased to be able to come home and say that everybody liked it and commented on it - and no negative comments were received. I was so nervous, as you can imagine!

So I’ve gone from previously using my sulphate/cone loaded shampoos, my blowdryer, my brushes and my straighteners to my current routine which is:

Products: LowPoo, Naked Bounce. Cowash: Garnier Fructis Repair + Shine or Tresemme Naturals. Leave in: GFRS or Naked Miracle Worker. Curl Cream: Naked Gorgeous Curls Gel: Boots Purple. Finisher/DT: Coconut Oil

My technique routine so far is every second/third day (depending if I’ve been working out) low poo with Naked Bounce. Then I use either Tresemme Naturals/GFR+S to thoroughly massage/smooth through. Comb through with fingers/wide toothed comb, rinse. Rake through leave in and then finger comb. Plop in a large pillowcase and leave for 20 mins. Release and start to smooth through curl cream, using wide toothed comb to sort out parting. Gently half scrunch, then apply gel and fully scrunch. Either leave to dry (which can take up to 4 hours!) or diffuse gently.

I’ve been getting the best results with diffusing, and it’s better for my schoolday routine as I’ve yet to achieve second day hair successfully. Once it’s totally dry with either message, I use a bit of coconut oil to tame the frizz and add a bit of shine. Then I work out wether to clip my fringe back or let it loose, depending on which bits have curled best. Then I’m off!

I find that not including plopping time (in which I get on with some of my homework/makeup!) it takes the grand total of 20 minutes. It’s priceless the free feeling and satisfaction I get! I love this method!!

So, today I bought the Garnier Camouflage and I’m going to try that out in my shower tomorrow morning. I’ve ordered a new diffuser (as the one I have is borrowed!) and the Curly Girl book from Amazon. Stay tuned for some reviews on that and further journey progress. I must say I love being a curly girl! I’ll take some pictures to show everyone shortly, my avatar picture is pre most recent highlights, diffuser and gel!

Oh and guys, I’m already a product junkie (on a very tight budget) so and recommendations from fellow wavies would be wonderful. Call me Beth

Hi Beth - welcome to British Curlies!

Hi Beth and welcome

Right, well I’ve just had my shower today. I used the Garnier Fructis Repair + Shine for my cowash and then rinsed thoroughly. I raked a teeny blob through and stuck my head under the cold water to disperse it. Then I wide tooth combed it and plopped. Got dressed and then raked my trusty Naked Miracle Worker through it. Parted it and then started to half scrunch through the Naked Gorgeous Curls cream.

After that I got out my new product, Garnier Fructis Camouflage gel after reading some promising reviews. The smell is… Interesting. Very heady and strong, but it doesn’t seem to be lingering. The gel scrunch looked absolutely great! Glycerin is high up in the ingredients and I haven’t really had any problems with glycerin, but does anyone else find that when using glycerin hair takes a lot longer to dry?

I started diffusing the bottom layers, as per my normal routine. WOW! Ringlets have been forming! I think it’s a combination of all the TLC I’ve been lavishing on it, and the chance to dry curly!

The gel feels a lot different to say, Boots Purple. It’s much more gloopy and gelatinous, but it seems to spread really easily. I’ve got some nice clumps with this. I diffused for about 5-10 minutes, and my hair still wasn’t dry, so I stopped. On examination there is next to no crunch. I’m not sure how I feel about that, because if my hair were to dry in the lovely curls and waves it’s given it, and then I could scrunch out the residue, there would be a very happy wavy here! I suppose I’ll have to see how the day goes.

More later!
Beth

Hello, again! :D

I’ve just counted and I’ve been CG for a grand total of… three days today!

Well, my hair’s totally dry now. I really like the definition the gel gave me at the back, but the sides are a bit pathetic. In future I think I’ll slightly change my technique and put less gel on the bottom and concentrate more on the top bits using the diffuser.

The sun came out so I (well, my mum!) took a picture of the back of my hair so I can see how it’s going. I really like the highlights (I got them done about a week ago) and my best curls/waves are at the back. I think that’s because I never really concentrated on straightening the back. The colour’s a little bit off through the whole photo thing.

As you can see, it’s still not totally dry at the roots, but I’m very impressed with the definite SWaves going on there! I’m hoping to grow it to about BSL, maybe more. Today wasn’t the best hair day I’ve ever had with it wavy, but I’m still loving it!

Here’s to all the great wavy hair days to come (yes, I am a total optimist!)

Beth

wow it looks gorgeous!

Thank you CHM! It really means a lot for me, I’ve been feeling so self conscious about wearing my hair like this out after being a straightened and blow dried girl for such a long time!
I see you cowash with a conditioner bar? How do you find that? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone using a conditioner bar, or maybe I’ve just been living under a rock!
Beth

I really like it - after cowashing you can swipe where you need the conditioning most

Hair looks fantastic MissWaifer!

A note re the GFRS - you might find it a little heavy/oil rich to use as a cowash. IMHO, switch to something lighter/thinner for cowashing and use GFRS as a pre-poo/rinse out/DT.

Ohh thank you! I’ll try switching that up tomorrow morning with my Tresemme Naturals. I do love the smell so I’m glad to not loose it from my routine totally!

Okay, my update for the day!

Today I went to the Lake District with my family and did some river swimming (which was absolutely gorgeous!) so my hair only lasted a few hours, after that I had to tie it up otherwise I might have had a horrible case of the frizzies.

Following CT’s suggestion I’m going to switch to using Tresemme Naturals to cowash with, and use the GFR+S as a wash out when my hair needs more moisture.

So this morning’s shower was:
Overnight DT; Coconut Oil (used sparingly on some of the dry areas still recovering from straightening)
Cowash; GFR+S (I figure this has been doing a world of good to my dry hair so far, but as CT said this could get a bit too heavy.)
Leave in; Naked Miracle Worker (Smells amazing and leaves everything beautifully smooth!)
Curlcream; Gorgeous Curls (High glycerin content so especially good in the DewPoints we’ve been having recently, my hair seems to love it!)
Gel; Garnier Fructis Camouflage (Verdict still undecided…)

It all worked great, but I’m still unsure about the Garnier Fructis Camo. It’s great because it’s not crunchy and it leaves me with lovely defined waves, but there’s something I can’t quite put my finger on that I don’t like about it. I don’t think it’s a strong enough hold- I really like to SOTC with things like Boots Purple. Hmm, I’m not sure. I’ll try it for another few days and see if it’s a time thing.

Oh, and I got my mum to take another picture this morning. I’m struggling to see how much change there is, but I think there’s more definition. This was before I used my beloved Coconut Oil to defrizz, so that could be why there’s so much frizz and more definition. Have a look and tell me what you think- I’m really uncertain at the moment!

Beth/MissWaifer.

MissWaifer - 03 July 2011 05:15 PM

Ohh thank you! I’ll try switching that up tomorrow morning with my Tresemme Naturals. I do love the smell so I’m glad to not loose it from my routine totally!

You’re most welcome! Where I find the GFRS does the most in terms of moisture for me is to use in lightly damp hair before I cleanse/cowash. I try and leave it to soak in for at least 30 mins before cowashing. It made a massive difference to my hair during March/April/May when we had the hot weather as my hair had gotten really dry. HTH!

Urgh, Monday! Never the best of days by no means. But this Monday was brightened up to me by the arrival of my Curly Girl Handbook and new diffuser (the XL Diva Diffuser - I got it off Amazon). Sadly they came after I arrived home from school so I couldn’t trail out any new techniques or my new diffuser. It looks great though!

And the CG handbook? WOW! I think every single Curly Girl should be given one at birth! I’m already thinking of ordering a few as presents for my curly friends, especially since I’ve already started telling them about the method. I’m so amazed I found this technique, I can literally see more curls come though every day, and from what I can see in the books and forums, the best is yet to come!

No picture today, but I low pooed, and then used Tresemme Naturals conditioner as a rinse out. Then I raked through my usual Miracle Worker and plopped while I sorted my clothes and makeup out. Then I released the plop, widetoothed combed it through and scrunched in Boots Purple (I wanted to see how much difference it could make from the Garnier Camo.) I then diffused and clipped my fringe back for the warm day.

Right, now I have a dilemma. I don’t know whether it’s the Boots Purple or the general hair condition improvement that made my hair look so much more curly and soft today! Either way, I’ll use the Boots Purple tomorrow along with my new diffuser. Who knows, I might even plump for one of the recipes in the book for this evening afterall!

And tomorrow is Sports Day at my school! Most certainly not my favourite event of the year. I think I’ll swing for a nice low curly ponytail and do my best to make my fringe nice and swooshy for tomorrow! Until then,

Beth

Another morning, another routine!

Last night I had a lovely relaxing bath and used some coconut oil to help make my hair more moisturised and happy, it’s still in rehab from the years of blowfrying and straightening! I rinses and cowashed that out with Tresemme Naturals, then used some GFRS as a rinse out- that worked really well! After that I skipped the gel and everything because I was going to be showering in the morning anyway.

In the morning I thoroughly cowashed with the Tresemme and used a tiny tiny bit of the GFRS on the ends. Quick rinse, out of the shower. Miracle worker, wide tooth comb to sort my parting out. Plop. Get ready for school sports day. Scrunch in generous amounts of Purple Gel (according to the CG more gel is better when using a diffuser, and with the results I’ve seen I’m inclined to agree!) and then diffuse using my new diffuser, which is great because it’s a lot bigger. It took less time and they were more defined.

Overall, hair’s looking really happy with the routine, I think the sulphate cut out and the DT’s are making it very very happy! It’s even starting to get some shine back!

Plus, yesterday I got my very first blog post published. I’d recommend checking the blog out, there’s some great articles! A bit of a shameless plug, but hey, why not?! It’s http://www.curlyandyoung.blogspot.com/ and I’m their new guest writer!

Happy hair days to all reading,
Beth

I enjoyed reading your ‘curly and young’ blogspot. It’s lovely to see that you are embracing your natural curls and encouraging others to do the same. Keep up the good work!

Great article MissWaifer!