Seems all this experimentation is going to warrant some documenting so I may as well start a curl diary.

I’ve been CG since 12/05/2012. First co-wash was simple using just one conditioner, no rinse out, plopping and air-drying and the results were great. Who knew there were actual clumps hiding in that frizzy, blowdried, brushed mess?

Since then I have expanded my routine to:
Co-wash: with Tresemme Naturals Moisture
Rinse out: Naked Rescue Intensive Care
Leave in: Naked leave in

Plopping, air-drying for about 4 hours, duck-bill clipping at roots for volume, re-clipping at night and pineappling on top.

I have just ordered the Babyliss Pro Powerlite Ionic Tournaline dryer with diffuser after diffusing with a hotel diffuser while away on a course and loving the volume (and reduced drying time!)

I recently bought Naked curl creme and Boots purple.

Results with Naked leave in followed by raking and smoothing Naked curl creme were disappointing. I used about a 5p blob of curl creme but didn’t get the usual crunch that I get from just the leave in and therefore when dry my curls were fluffier and less defined than usual. However I have to admit I SOTC earlier than usual and wasn’t completely dry… so this may be a false result.

Results with Naked leave in followed by Naked curl creme followed by Boots purple (raked) were also disappointing. However I was also trialling applying all my products right way up instead of upside down as I usually do to see if my parting and front curl pattern would fall more naturally as a result. Upon removing ‘plop’ I noticed straight away that my waves looked limp and droopy. The crunch also seemed to come out almost on it’s own just through pushing hair out of my face a couple of times and my resulting waves were loose but kinda dry.

Today’s experiment: Naked leave in, no curl creme and liberal amounts of Boots purple all applied upside down. Gel was scrunched in, not raked and spent plenty of time scrunching before plopping. Upon removing plop my waves look safely crunchy (not likely to come out before SOTC time) and also much curlier than usual. Looking good so far! Update later on result!

Leave in, no curl creme and liberal amounts of gel was better than the last experiment but I’m still not happy with something! I got much more curl this way and the definition was there although I don’t generally have a problem with clumping it’s just…

My ends are just too fluffy! they seem to separate where they are freshly co-washed. I don’t know if this is usual or not but I actually get much better definition with second and third day hair, as the ends seem to adhere together into ‘points’ better overnight. I’m after smoothness and hold in my clumps - as if I actually want it to look more producty!

My hair is fine and when straight has always been weighed down considerably with product but when left curly it seems to want quite a bit. Maybe a little oil is what I need in my routine - just a little something to seal, coat and shine each clump to tame the fluffiness a little. It isn’t frizz by any stretch of the imagination, just that overly clean separation of hairs.

Today I have gone back to my curl creme using much more than I think is probably wise underneath my gel with lots of scrunching to make sure I don’t lose my hold. I smoothed in on, the scrunched (squished) in in lots and just scrunched the gel. I am hoping that this extra layer of left-in moisture will be what I need. I will report back when dried and scrunched!