Squish to Condish Method (STC)

This method promotes curl clumping formation and helps you with dryness and allows for better hydration. It seals the cuticle and allows you to use less leave in product.


Basically cup your hands with water to scrunch out your rinse out and don't rinse out all of your conditioner. Your hair should feel like seaweed. If you feel dry and your curls aren't clumping, add more conditioner and rescrunch as needed. Use a cheaper conditioner like SN to scrunch with if you are using a lot of conditioner. I do this and add more rinse out and I do not hardly ever use a true leave in any more. :)


http://www.thereoncewasacurl.com/blog/squish-to-condish

http://youtu.be/oDi0OvYSgSA

Antihumectants

This is why some low porosities can feel dried out by shea moisture which is full of antihumectants. Antihumectants=moisture blocker. Thus preventing frizz and straightened hair from reverting back to curly by protecting from excess moisture in the air. In high porosity they help seal in moisture or block from excess moisture that causes frizz. Use antihumectants under your humectants to keep your moisture sealed into the hair. Use coconut oil if you're finer.

Plant Triglycerides – are hydrophobic in nature that is to say they repel water. Examples of these are; Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Olive Oil, and Shea Butter.
As you have probably noticed, apart from the plant triglycerides, all the other examples of anti-humectants are hard to wash out of the hair without shampoo. So if you do use any of these often you will have to shampoo more often. With Silicones, you will have to use a harsher shampoo, as these are very difficult to get out of the hair, and will need a clarifying sulphate free shampoo every time you use them to get them out. Overuse of clarifying shampoo can weaken the hair.

Products: Shea Moisture, Natural Oils


Sources:
http://curly2kinky.com/clinic/anti-humectants/

Humectants

Humectants, few examples include:•

Glycerin• Propylene glycol• Honey• Agave nectar• Sorbitol• Sodium PCA• Panthenol• Hydrolyzed silk protein• Fructose

Low porosity likes humectants to draw moisture into the hair. But you have to be careful, In times of low dew points when there is not much water or moisture in the air, humectants can do more damage than good, as they are not particular in where they draw water from, so if there is no water in the air they will leach the water out of the hair strands on which they have bound themselves to.

In more normal weather, low porosity likes humectants to attract water into the hair and high porosity likes more oils to seal in moisture inside the hair. However, the weather can affect things so be aware of these conditions. La looks gel has humectants, but I seal hair with shea moisture or coconut oil underneath and my hair is not sticky like before in my humid climate.

Low humidity conditions are those such as cold, dry winter air. In this case, if you use products that contain a lot of humectants, there is not a lot of water in the air for the humectants to attract to the surface of your hair. What can occur is that the humectants in your products may prevent the evaporation of water from the hair into the air. However don’t look for ultra-moisturized hair from humectant use in this type of climate because it’s just not going to happen. In fact there is a chance that humectants may remove moisture from the cortex of the hair into the air. Remember diffusion? Moisture will move from areas of high concentration (in this case the hair) to areas of lower concentration - the air! This can result in dry, icky feeling hair. Not cool!

With high humidity conditions such as warm or hot summer air, there can often be A LOT of moisture in the air. Some moisture is good; a lot of moisture – not so much. If your textured hair is dry, damaged and overly porous it can absorb a lot of water from the air. This can lead to swelling of the hair shaft, lifting of the cuticle, tangling and frizz. Combine this situation with a product that is high in humectants (especially glycerin) and you have a situation where a lot of water is attracted to the surface of the hair. This can lead to hair that always feels wet, takes forever to dry and is a sticky, tangled mess. In other words, cotton candy hair. Not hot at all!


Products: KCCC, KCKT, As I am leave in, GVP MAtrix Conditioning balm from Sally's


Sources:
http://curly2kinky.com/clinic/humectants/
http://www.curlynikki.com/2012/12/humectants-weather-and-hair-care-part-1.html?m=1

Wavy Suggestions

RO- GVP CB or Tresseme Undone
Cowash- SN or AIA
Low Poo- SM
LI- KCKT
Enhancer- KCCC, Rocking Ringlets, AG Recoil, FSG
HHG- LA Looks Sports gel or BRHG
Tresseme Undone Line

Apply on damp hair, not soaking wet, ears down to get volume.



Diffuse for volume.

DIY Recipes

Dry shampoos~
Corn starch and cocoa powder in an old spice container.

Protein DT~
1 pkg. Knox gelatatin mixed into 1/4-1/2 cup water microwaved steaming hot water. Mix in tresseme naturals, coconut oil, agave or honey. Let sit on hair 5 min and up to 1hr for bleach/heat damage, add heat if extremely damaged.

http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/gelatin-protein-treatment-recipe-update.html

Moisture DT~
Mix coconut oil, olive oil, silicone free condish, and a little honey or agave. (Heat the coconut oil up in the microwave then mix or just stick it into your hair and mix everything else together.

Oily scalp~
Cowash with a thinner silicone free condish with a tiny bit of baking soda added, massage well. Use dry shampoo as needed. Baking soda is abrasive, so only use it sparingly to clarify, if very oily, or to help transition. If you are using baking soda a lot, try instead sulfate free shampoo. If using a lot of baking soda to clarify, use ACV to help seal restore shine and ph after using baking soda. If you're just cowashing the scalp with a little baking soda added while transitioning or occasionally when oily, I don't think you need ACV, but you can if you want.

Also, try granulated sugar instead of baking soda.

Itchy dry scalp~
Coconut oil scalp massage, rinse well. Then mix brown sugar and silicone free condish and cowash by massaging very well and longer.

ACV Rinse- For Hard water, dandruff, or build up. 1 TBS ACV in one cup of water. After low poo or before cowash, rinse the hair with it, let sit a of couple minutes, rinse and then (cowash if you didn't low poo before) and condition as usual.

Sources:
http://science-yhairblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/gelatin-protein-treatment-recipe-update.html

The LOCG, LOC, LOG, and LCO Methods to Lock in Moisture

LOC Method~ Locks in Moisture on dry types. L (Liquid or water/Leave in), O-Oil, C- Cream. The oil seals in the leave in. The cream seals in the oil and smooths out the cuticle. The leave in is usually water based. The oil can be an oil or solid form oil-a butter. The cream can be a anything creamy. Some use conditioner that is creamy. I use creams with emollients like shea butter because they make a film, soften the cuticle, and lock in my moisture. Curls are nothing but water and protein. Just like your body need water, your hair does too. Not too much and not too little. Dry curls need moisture or they will be limp.

Styling:

LOCG- I do this in the winter to lock in moisture on my weaker waves. L-Leave in/Liquid, O-Oil, C-cream, G-Gel. I use SM milk, Coconut oil, SM Smoothie, LALSG. I need the gel to define my weaker waves but many tighter curlies don't need the extra step.

LOG- I do this in the summer to seal in my moisture. I don't need the cream in the summer because there's more moisture in the air. SM milk, Sunflower oil or grapeseed (lighter oils because I am less dry and coconut is too oily in the summer), KCCC, and LALSG. The smoothie made me oily in the summer and was too much moisture.

LCO- Some low porosities do Liquid/leave in, Cream, to pack the moisture into the hair, then seal with oil because it forms a hydrophobic barrier to lock in the moisture. You have to play with both methods to see which works best for you.

Refreshing:

I use LOG to refresh using what I need: using water, leave in, oil, and gel as needed. I wet and smooth the cuticle down and don't spray it because my hair type gets frizzy because it agitates my hair and cause friction and fractionates my curls and causes frizz. The cream makes me weighed down and sticky, so I get less days and I only use it as needed in extreme frizz situations. I can refresh 3-4 days if I am fortunate now.

If you need extra moisture you can refresh with LOCG if you need though. You could play with LCO too.

If you are low porosity or finer, you might not need the extra oil sealing steps. Or you can try just a couple drops of jojoba, sunflower, or grapeseed oil or you might not need any at all.

LOCG Demo:

Curly Girl Method Steps

Curly Girl Steps

All products must be sulfate or silicone free. Silicones end in xane, conol, and cone.

This is a link to the method with pictures:
http://www.wikihow.com/Follow-the-Curly-Girl-Method-for-Curly-Hair

Step 1: CLARIFY: Clarify twice with sulfate shampoo for the last time, make sure it is silicone free...save it just in case you accidently use cones.

Step 2: CLEANSE: Do NOT use regular shampoo. Use a CG approved cleanser only: Use a sulfate free shampoo (low poo) if you are extremely oily or a silicone free conditioner to cowash (conditioner washing the scalp, instead of using shampoo.) Cowash with a light conditioner if you are more oily or a thicker more moisturizing one if you are dry, put it on your finger tips, massage the scalp well, then rinse. Just do the scalp, the cleanser will rinse the tips and pull the impurities off of the hair.

Step 3: CONDITION: Use a thicker more moisturizing conditioner (called a rinse out conditioner), let sit while washing the rest of your body, detangle with your fingers or a wide toothed comb only, then rinse out completely or not if hair is drier and curl type is stronger. If you cannot detangle, add more conditioner. You should have slip when you are detangling. I rinse mine out halfway until the point that my hair feels like seaweed still.

Step 4: LEAVE IN: Use leave in conditioner. It can be any conditioner. If you're dry use the moisturizing one, if it's too heavy use the lighter one. Skip this step if you are fine, get weighed down easily or don’t have dry hair. You should have enough leave in to have slip and should be able to rake your ringers through with slip and no resistance. Smooth it on or rake it in.

Step 5: Smooth or rake, and then scrunch stylers into hair: Gel, mousse (I do not like it at all), curl enhancing gel, cream gel, cream or butter. Smooth the products in for a more curly look and rake them in for a more elongated or wavy look.

Step 6: Air dry, plop, or diffuse. Diffusing may give more volume, less frizz, and tighter curls. Plopping may not work on shorter hair types or tighter curl patterns.


Keep it simple in the beginning.

Four steps: cleanse (cowash or low poo), rinse out, leave in, styler (gel or cream or butter.)

Use only one cleanser. Use only one conditioner as a rinse out and the same one as a leave in. Use only on gel/cream.

Example: Suave naturals cowash, thicker rinse out like Tresseme naturals, leave in Tresseme Naturals, and La looks sports gel (or herbal essence totally twisted if you're nervous of hard gel) or Shea Moisture Smoothie if you need a cream if you are a tighter curl pattern.

POROSITY HELPS YOU PICK PRODUCTS:

Use Shea Moisture if you are higher porosity from heat, dye, or bleach damage. Your hair may not look dull and feel rough and dry. You may also just have naturally higher porosity hair.

If you are low porosity you GVP Matrix conditioning balm from Sally’s, As I am, or Kinky Curly. Your hair may look shiny and feel smoother than higher porosity.

Only change on thing at a time, including technique, so you know what's working.

Products
Most sulfate and silicone products are in the natural hair or natural cosmetic/body area of Wa-lmart, Sally's, Target, TJMax, Whole Foods and Marshall’s. You can find them on amazon and Curlmart.com.

Sulfate shampoo to clarify, use twice, then never again, unless you accidently use silicones: Suave naturals is good.

Cowashes: Suave naturals (the cheap one for a dollar, not suave prefessionals), Tresseme naturals (heavier), vo5 (lighter), As I Am cowash

Sulfate free shampoo: Shea moisture retention (moisturizing doesn't strip, lathers but can build up on low porosity hair), eden tea tree or gud to help oily hair transition it’s not CG approved but has a milder sulfate (from Sally's, deeper cleanse, may strip if not careful, only use on roots if used daily)

Rinse out: The thicker, the more moisturizing: Tresseme naturals (light), GVP Matrix biolage conditioning balm (from Sally's, thicker), Shea moisture conditioner (most moisturizing, pick the gold or pink one to start. May build up on low porosity.)

Leave in: High porosity: Shea moisture milk. Low porosity: Kinky Curky Knot Today or As I Am leave in.

Curl enhancing gels/creams: Ecostyler, Flax Seed Gel (home made), Kinky curly Knot Custard (Target), Camille Rose Curl Maker, Shea Moisture Smoothie (better for second day hair, porous hair or curlier hair types), eden curl cream, cantu curl cream.

Gels: La Looks Sports gel (best affordable strong hold), Aussie insta freeze (moderately strong hold), Biosilk rock hard gel (extreme hold), Herbal essence totally twisted (medium hold)

Best all purpose conditioners: Tesseme naturals (cowash, rinse out, leave in), Sauve Naturals Cowash and refresher.

I'm not a fan of mousse anymore like I was, so I don't have a lot to say other than if you want to use it try herbal essence totally twisted. It doesn't give me the hold and curl definition I am looking for. It feels heavier with more product residue.

The more you move up in curl type the dryer the hair, usually, so you need more moisture. Add oils.


Styling:

The basics: Leave in and gel or just leave in if you are curlier

Type 2 Waives
Fine wavies:
LEG- L-liquid (water), E-Curl enhancer, and harder gel
LOG- L-Leave in/liquid, O-Oil, G-Gel (add just a couple drops of a light oil like joboba or sunflower if you are very dry)

Porous or curly wavies:
LEG- L-liquid (water), E-Curl enhancer, and harder gel
LOG- L-Leave in/liquid, O-Oil, G-Gel
LOEG- L-leave in/liquid (water), O-oil, E-Curl enhancer, G-hard gel (summer)
LOCG- L-leave in/liquid (water), O-oil, C-Cream, G-hard gel (winter)


Type 3/4 Curlies
Condidtioner only
Leave in and gel
Leave in and oil
LOG- L-Leave in/liquid, O-Oil, G-Gel
LOC-L-leave in/liquid, O-oil, C-cream
LCO- L-Leave in/liquid, C-cream, O-oil (packs in moisture for lower porosity under the oil)
LOCG-L-leave in/liquid, O-oil, C-cream, G-gel (G gives definition) LOC- L-Leave in/liquid, O-oil, C-cream (Lock method to Lock in moisture) LCO- L-Leave in/liquid, C-cream, O-oil (packs in moisture for lower porosity under the oil)
LCOG- L-leave in/liquid, C-cream, O-oil, G-gel (G for definition)

Lock in your moisture with oils over your leave in: joboba, sunflower and grapeseed are lighter options. Coconut is heavier.


Deep conditioning
Use to jump start your transition to silicone and sulfate free. The sulfates dry and strip your hair of all moisture and without the silicone blocking the hair from the moisture in the air, your hair will frizz up to the moisture in the air. When your hair is moisturized it will stay down and not frizz. Lock in your moisture using penetrating oils in you deep conditioner.

Low porosity: Mix GVP conditioning balm, coconut, olive oil and/or sunflower oil and honey (moisture and shine)
High porosity: Mix coconut oil, olive oil, shea moisture retention masque, honey

More add ins: aloe vera juice (moisture), agave (moisture), yogurt (protein)

Add a shower cap or walmart bag, add heat if you want (good for low porosity), leave in at least 20 min. but best at least an hour or longer if you can avoid hydral fatigue.

You may have to low poo the oils out of your hair after deep conditioning.


Technique:

No towel drying, use t-shirts or a micro fiber towel. Towels suck the moisture out of your curls and create frizz. Curls need moisture. The towel creates friction and frizz. No brushes.

Apply products when hair is soaking wet, unless you are a finer type. If so, dry the hair first, then add stylers so you don’t get weighed down. Tilt head over for more body on top. Rake product with fingers for more of a wavy look, smooth products over hair with your hands like you are praying for a more curly look. Then scrunch all stylers into hair. After stylers are in scrunch water out of hair gently with a t-shirt or microfiber towel. Stop if it begins to frizz. If your hair has no slip and snags when raking and feels dry, add more leave in. If it’s frizzing, wet add more leave in, water, or gel. Frizzing wet hair could also be build up. If the hair isn’t clumping, add more leave in, gel or curl enhancer. If the hair is weighed down and not curling up when wet, it’s weighed down and something is too heavy in the technique. If it doesn’t set, right it, it won’t look right.

Plop to soak water out of hair and decrease dry time and create volume on top, plop for just 5-15 minutes if you get weird curls. Put a microfiber towel inside the t-shirt to absorb more water faster. Change t-shirts after the first one is damp to absorb even more water out. Can sleep in a plop if you don't get wonky curls when you plop. It may not work on very tight curls or short hairstyles.

Don't touch hair while it's drying!!! Use a diffuser and pixie diffuse just air dry. Once gel cast starts to form, push diffuser into hair for more body flip head over for more volume on top.

No brushing hair! Comb only with a very wide toothed comb or finger comb when conditioner is in wet hair. Finger combing allows best curl formation and is best for preventing breakage.

Pineapple: Go to bed with a loose scrunchy holding your hair on the top front part of your head to wake up to volume on top and intact curls just wet hair with water in a spray bottle and scrunch. Satin pillowcases reduce frizz also. I sleep on it without pineappling sometimes and my hair looks fine. You may have to refresh a little more for second day hair.

Refresh your curls with water, spray gel (mix gel and water in water bottle), conditioner, curl cream or a combo depending on your hair. A great spray combo is equal parts conditioner, water, and gel. I get frizzy from spraying the hair, so I just wet my hands, then add leave in, oil, and gel as needed. Refresh them in them in the morning, evening or if you style you hair and it didn't work out the way you wanted and it isn't curly and is frizzy.

Trouble shooting
If your curls aren't looking right, you may have not got all the silicone out of your hair. Try another sulfate shampoo and start from step one.

You will be very dry in the beginning from stripping sulfate shampoo and silicone blocking your moisture and may look worse before you look better because CG leaves the hair naked and it is no longer covered up by silicone (it’s synthetic oil and acts like rubber caulking) so you see the hair in its true state. Deep condition a lot. If you have damage, after deep conditioning a lot to restore moisture into your parched stripped hair, you can add protein and do a protein treatment if needed if you have heat, bleaching, or dye damage. Some people are protein sensitive, so be careful and experiment with protein before doing one because too much protein can cause brittle dry hair and breakage.

Also, clarify with sulfate free shampoo once a week or month as needed to remove build up from heavier products. If your hair is frizzing wet, it may be build up.


Have fun and play with it!!!

 Raquel

Sources:
http://www.wikihow.com/Follow-the-Curly-Girl-Method-for-Curly-Hair

Places to Find CG products

Sallys~SM,Eco,GVP CB,AIA
Walmart~SM,AIA,LAL,
Target~SM,AIA,LAL
Whole Foods~KC, oils
Trader Joe's~Condish and oils
Amazon~Anything and oils
Ulta~Lot's of goodies. I will explore more of it soon.
HEB- Mop Top

http://m.iherb.com/Bath-Beauty Nature's Gate, Andalou Naturals

http://m.vitacost.com/categories/body-and-shower-products

http://www.curlmart.com/

http://www.soap.com/

https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetCurlsElixirs (FSG)

Ulta -- Deva Curl
Amazon, Target online -- DevaCurl for much cheaper
Whole Foods -- Kinky Curly, Nature's Gate, and tons of other CG lines
Trader Joe's
TJMAX -- Nature's Gate, Andalou Naturals, Shea Moisture
Marshall's -- Nature's Gate, Andalou Naturals

Google search the curlmart coupon.
http://www.retailmenot.com/view/curlmart.com?c=5747515

Sign up for the Sally's beauty card and email. It's free if you're military I believe. Get rewards and coupon sent to your e-mail. Google the monthly coupons.

Google the Ulta coupons or sign up for rewards for coupons. I love the $3.5 off a $10 purchase coupon.

Curl Enhancers and Curl Definers

Enhancers- Enhance or create curls

Rocking Ringlets- Use generously (good for protein sensitive)

KCCC- Use sparingly (glycerin free)

FSG- Use generously  (glycerin free)

SM Curling Souffle- Use sparingly, heavy with oil

Ecostyler- Use generously, curl clumper (protein and glycerin heavy)

Mop Top Custard- Use Sparingly

AG Recoil- A wavy Favorite

Definers- Defines ones already there making them clump and be less frizzy

SM Smoothie- Very heavy, frizz fighting, can build up

DevaCurl Super Cream- Use sparingly, only a few pumps or less, unless very thick, coarse or curly, very volumizing and curl enhancing

DevaCurl Styling Cream- Lighter cream

Camille Rose Aloe Whipped Butter Gel- Medium cream, has castor oil

Eden Curl Creme- SM Smoothie almost dupe, has more coconut oil

How to Use Apple Cider Vinegar with the Curly Girl Method

Apple cider vinegar (ACV) has excellent benefits for the hair:

ACV-
Helps remove build up or hard water
Balances the pH of the hair
Balances the scalp and helps with dandruff and itching
Smooths and closes cuticle
Conditions the hair

Dilute it 1-2 TBS per 1 cup of water.

Try it before cowashing or after low poo, let soak a couple minutes, rinse, then condition and style as usual. Do NOT use baking soda with curly hair, except diluted with a tiny amount if you have severe build up once in a while to clarify because it is too abrasiveness on curly hair and dry it out. The pH is also too high and can damage the hair over time.


Used on the hair, apple cider vinegar can smooth the cuticle, making your hair appear smoother and shinier. It does this by balancing pH levels unlike commercial shampoos that strip the hair and leave it looking rough, dry or dull. It also removes buildup and can help with dandruff and an itchy scalp.
Simply use ACV as a rinse. Dilute it and dump over your head while in the shower. Give it a moment to sink in before rinsing.

One of the biggest hang-ups people have about using ACV is the smell. Yes, this is a vinegar so it does smell a little like a salad or pickles. But that smell quickly dissipates.

Sources:
http://coconutsandkettlebells.com/apple-cider-vinegar-hair-rinse/
Read more: <a>http://naturalsociety.com/how-to-use-apple-cider-vinegar-healthier-skin-hair/#ixzz3z2O26ZhQ</a>

How to Deep Condition: Jump Start the Curly Girl Method

Deep conditioning will jump start the curly girl method and get your curls back fast!!

Wash or clarify with low poo or sulfates if first going CG (curly girl method), if needed, if you have build up or silicones in your hair. Just wet your head in the sink if you don't and go straight to deep conditioning.  Wet it add heat with a hooded dryer, blow dry, warm towel, or body heat with a beanie and shower cap etc. It's usually better if you wash before and add heat to let the ingredients penetrate. Do a minimum DT (Deep conditioning treatment) in the shower 5 minutes, but it's best if you can do the treatment 30 min to one hr. You can go longer than an hr, but beware of over-conditioning and hydral fatigue when DT too long or overnight. That is not necessary.


Many DT while working out or before the shower and then wash and style as usual. Or if you already washed before DT, then just rinse out and condition (if you need more conditioner) and style as usual.



Best cheap DT:
Rinse out conditioner, honey and oil (olive oil is easy access). You can refer to my oil blog post for more info on other penetrating oils to add. Low porosities and anyone else may benefit from humectants such as adding AVJ (aloe vera juice), honey or agave.

Best store bought DT-
Shea Moisture- Raw Shea Butter Masque (high porosity), Manuka Honey Masque (low porosity or wavy, unless fine)

Curl Junkie Rehab- (anyone but especially fine or low porosity hair)



Best Cheap Low Porosity or wavy DT - GVP (generic value conditioning balm from Sally's), honey and olive, coconut or sunflower oil, depending on what your hair likes. Sunflower is a good option for a cheap penetrating oil that is light and protein free.


Info on oils:
http://rockyncurls.blogspot.com/search/label/How%20to%20Oil%20Curly%20or%20Wavy%20Hair

Check out how to deep condition!