Product Suggestions and Styling Based on Porosity, Thickness and Curl Pattern

Product Suggestions Based on Porosity and Density

A lot of curlies and wavies struggle with CG because they are picking the wrong products for their hair type. You must take the time to learn you hair properties. If you are a fine haired wavy loading your hair up with Shea butter, heavy conditioner and oil constantly, you are going to eventually have product build up and greasy limp waves or curls. Here's my suggestions based on your hair type. Of course, CG is all trial and error and I cannot guarantee they will work for you, but I can give you an experienced guess.

These are listed in order of lightest to heaviest based on my research.

Cowashes (using conditioner to cleanse the hair): 
Vo5
Suave Naturals (the one for a dollar)
Your regular conditioner
Yes to Carrots
Eden BodyWorks Cowash
DevaCurl No Poo
Devacurl Decandence No Poo
As I Am Cowash (has castor cil, could build up)
Camille Rose Caramel Cowash

You can use ANY conditioner to cleanse the hair, but conditioners advertised as cowashes have more cleansing properties.

Low Poo (occasional use for build up)
All Shea Moisture Shampoos
DevaCurl Low Poo
Eden Tea Tree Tingle (clarifying, use sparingly)
Kinky Curly Come Clean (very clarifying)
Ion Hard Water Shampoo (for those with hard water)

Conditioners (Rinse Out):

All hair types
Tresseme Undone (May be too light for coarser/porous types)
Tresseme Naturals
Yes to Carrots
Nature's Gate Pomagrante and Sunflower
Generic Value Matrix Biolage Conditioning Balm from Sally's (has parabens)Tresseme Naturals
DevaCurl One Condition

For higher porosities and densities, leave in all the conditioner and do not rinse it out or just rinse the roots. Finer/wavy types can rinse it all out or rinse out or add more ears down or away from the roots down.

Fine/Thin Hair or Low Porosity

Suave Naturals
Tresseme Undone
Tresseme Naturals (the avocado oil in it may weigh down very fine haired wavies)
Generic Value Matrix Biolage Conditioning Balm from Sally's (has parabens)
DevaCurl One Condition

Coarse/Thick Hair or High Porosity

Tresseme Naturals
Yes to Carrots
DevaCurl One Condition
DevaCurl Decadence One Condition
All Shea Moisture Conditioners and Masques
Shea Moisture Raw Shea Butter Restorative Conditioner Conditioner

Leave in Conditioners:

You can leave your regular conditioner in as a leave in or after you rinse it all out, you can use it as your leave in. Or you may have better results adding a leave in to your routine, after rinsing out all the conditioner or adding more on top of your regular conditioner if you left it all in.

Medium Thickness or Normal Porosity
As I Am Leave In
Kinky Curly Knot Today Leave In
DevaCurl B' Leave In
Your Rinse Out Conditioner
Shea Moisture Milk (can be heavy on some textures)
Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Leave in  (can be heavy on some textures)


Fine/Thin Hair or Low Porosity 
As I Am Leave In
Kinky Curly Knot Today Leave In
DevaCurl B' Leave In (can be heavy on fine wavies)
Camille Rose Coconut Water Leave in
Your Rinse Out Conditioner

If you are a fine wavy, you may not need a leave in. especially if your hair looks weighed down.

Coarse/Thick Hair or High Porosity
As I Am Leave In (may be too light)
Kinky Curly Knot Today Leave In (may be too light)
DevaCurl B' Leave In
Your Rinse Out Conditioner
Camille Rose Coconut Water Leave in (may be too light)
Shea Moisture Milk (lighter)
Camille Rose Moisture Milk
Shea Moisture Jamaican Black Castor Oil Leave in

Creams (not needed for fine wavies...except possibly in the extreme cold, apply over your leave in)
DevaCurl Styling Cream (light, good for low porosity or finer types but also good for thick/porous)
DevaCurl Supercream (a little heavier, very volumizing)
Camille Rose Whipped Aloe Butter Gel
Eden BodyWorks Coconut Shea Curl Defining Curl Creme
Camille Rose Almond Jai Twisting Butter
Camille Rose Coconut Water Style Setter (has castor oil, great shine, can get heavy with too much)
Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie (heavie, forms up the curls and stops frizz)

Curl Enhancing Gels or Custards (use over leave in or creams)
Flax Seed Gel (FSG)- (homemade, can freeze and can customize with additional ingredients, awesome definition)
Jessicurl Rocking Ringlets (Similar to FSG, with lots of salt for curl enhancement)
Ecostyler (not exactly a curl enhancer, but gives good definition and curl clumping if your hair loves protein, it will tighter the curls)
Kinky Curl Custard (wavies love this stuff for curl enhancement tighter curlies love the definition)
Mop Top Custard (many like it better than Kinky Curly)
Shea Moisture Curling Souffle (heavier than Kinky Curly and too heavy for fine wavies good definition)

Gels (used over leave ins, cream, or curl enhancing gels, listed lighter to harder hold)
Ecostyler (protein heavy, light hold, type 2-4 hair)
DevaCurl Light Defining gel
GVP Sebastian Wet (great for finer hair that gets crunchy or weighed down easily type 2-3 hair)
Jessicurl Spiralicious (good for fine to normal types)
La Looks Nutra Curl (light hold)
La Looks Mega (medium hard hold, may be crunchy if you're very fine, or don't use much/very moisturizing leave in, mix (cocktail) with a lighter gel if you like, type 2-3 hair)
La Looks Sports gel (very hard hold, type 2-3 hair)
La Looks Extreme Spikes Gel (very very hard hold gel, type 2-3)
Beyond the Zone Bada Bing Gel (this feels like a mixture of La looks sports gel and Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee, clumps well)
Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee (extreme hard hold, wavies love this cocktailed with kinky curly custard for ultimate lightweight curl enhancement, hold and volume, it has protein which fine hair loves and holds the waves up, apply with wet hands and mix with another clumping or curl enhancing gel if you can't get it to clump well)

Mousse (not a huge fan of them because they don't have much hold so they don't provide much definition and don't fight frizz as well, but many fine wavies that do not have much frizz love them)
Herbal Essence Totally Twisted
DevaCurl Foam
Tresseme Sea Foam
Shea Moisture Fruit Fusion Coconut Water Mousse (has a drying alcohol, but is so moisturizing it didn't affect me...it's the only product I use with an alcohol and not often...this is the best mousse I have tried actually)

You can use mousse alone, over leave in or under gel for more volume without being weighed down by a cream.

You can layer products in these methods:
CO - Conditioner only (one product for cowash, leave in and styler)
M - Mousse
LG - Leave in and gel (the basics of the curly girl method, can leave all your regular conditioner in)
LM - Leave in and mousse
LC - Leave in and curl cream
LCG - Leave in, curl cream and gel
LCEG - Leave in, curl cream, curl enhancing gel and hard hold gel.
LO - Leave in and oil
LOC - Leave in, oil and curl cream
LOCG - Leave in, oil, curl cream and gel
LOG - Leave in, oil, gel
LEG - Leave in, enhancing gel, and hard hold gel
LMG - Leave in, mousse and gel
E- Enhancing gel (fine wavy types)
EG - Enhancing gel and hard hold gel (fine waives wanting curl enhancement and volume)