So perhaps you were on naturallycurly.com, the de facto headquarters of the method and an absolute treasure trove of information, and you just wanted some product recommendations or a cut that would help you tame your curly hair. Maybe you heard about the Curly Girl method from a friend or coworker. Maybe you eagerly looked at the WikiHow article on how to follow the method or went to your library or bookstore to pick up the book that inspired it all.
No matter how you found out about the Curly Girl method, I guarantee that once you found out about it, you had some mixed feelings. You heard about not shampooing and no silicones and plopping and pixiecurling and sulfates and surfactants and probably got a little overwhelmed unless you happen to have a degree in chemistry.
I want to straighten everything out in one place. Read on, and perhaps you'll find out that the Curly Girl method is exactly what you and your curls have been looking for.
WHAT DOES CG MEAN? WHO CAME UP WITH IT?
"CG" is the abbreviation for the Curly Girl method of caring for curly hair. It was developed by Lorraine Massey, owner of Devachan Salon in New York City. She's considered one of the foremost experts in curly hair care.
WHAT DOES THE METHOD DO TO YOUR HAIR?
CG does not work for everyone, but when it does work, the results are absolutely startling. Check out the Before and After thread on the CurlTalk forum on naturallycurly.com. Many find that when they follow the CG method, their once frizzy, dry damaged curls transform into well hydrated, glossy, soft, bouncy curls that are every bit as healthy as they look.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND CURLY GIRL
Here is why the method works so well. It is completely scientifically based.
Most commercial shampoos contain sulfates. Check the ingredient label on your shampoo bottle. Odds are, it contains something like "Sodium laureth sulfate," "Sodium laurel sulfate," or "ammonium laurel sulfate." Perhaps you already knew this.
What you probably don't realize is that if you check the ingredients list on your favorite dish detergent, odds are it also contains one of those ingredients very high on the list.
That's right. One of the primary ingredients in your shampoo is the same as one of the primary ingredients that is in your dish detergent. The same stuff you are putting in your hair is the same stuff you're using to scrub the meatloaf off the dinnerware.
A fun comparison: Here is the shampoo I used before CG, next to a bottle of the dish detergent I use.
Below is a comparison of their ingredient labels.
You'll see the first two ingredients are exactly the same. These two ingredients make up most of the product.So why would they put dish detergent ingredients in shampoo? It's simple: sulfates are surfactants. Surfactants are molecules that can reduce tension between oil and water. To put it simple: they are highly effective grease fighters. They can cut through oil and grime and leave the things they touch oil-free.
So now maybe you're thinking, well if it cuts grease, I suppose it's ok for my hair. Wrong. And here's why.
Curly hair is fundamentally different from straight hair. Ever wonder why your friends with straight hair have glossy, shiny hair, while yours is dull and frizzy? Biologically speaking, straight hair is naturally better moisturized. Straight-haired people have a head start on us curlies in terms of moisture! This is because the oil secreted by the sebaceous glands in your scalp can't travel down your spirals as well as it can for straight hair. The results? Straight hair looks glossy and healthy, while curly hair looks dry and frizzy, often with an oily scalp to boot.
Not fair, right? Well it gets worse. Curly hair is also more porous than straight hair. This means that there are more tiny holes in the cuticle layer of your hair strands. Where does that leave you? Those harsh sulfates that are in your shampoos (and dish detergent!) get into those little holes. It's very difficult to get them out. That means that not only are the sulfates stripping your hair of nearly all of its natural oil that it so desperately needs (since it doesn't get as much from the scalp as it should), but the sulfate molecules are actually getting into your hair strands and causing long-term damage.
The overall result of using sulfate-based shampoos to clean curly hair is that your hair looks dull and dry because it is completely starved for oil and moisture, while those with straight-hair can use sulfates and still look well moisturized because they have a moisture head start and the sulfates have a harder time penetrating the hair shaft.
How can we fix this problem?
HOW CAN YOU GET YOUR HAIR CLEAN WITHOUT DESTROYING IT WITH SULFATES?
There's really good news for curlies. We can simply not shampoo our hair. We still wash it and it still gets clean. It doesn't smell and your scalp won't be oily.
How?
By replacing your harsh sulfate-based shampoo with a gentle conditioner wash, or a co-wash as the ladies and gents of naturallycurly.com call it.
HOW DOES CONDITIONER GET YOUR HAIR CLEAN?
Conditioners contain surfactants, just like shampoo. The difference is that the surfactants in conditioners are not anywhere near as harsh and drying on your hair as sulfate surfactants are. These gentle "secondary surfactants" will lift off dirt, oil, and grime from your hair and scalp and leave them perfectly clean with the use of manual friction. Scrub your scalp and hair with conditioner, and it will get clean.
SO IF GENTLE SURFACTANTS CLEAN YOUR HAIR, WHY DO SHAMPOOS USE SULFATES IN THE FIRST PLACE?
As I've said, sulfates are very harsh surfactants that are used because they are grease cutters. The reason that shampoo companies put sulfates in their shampoos instead of using more gentle cleansers is that most hair products that you use to condition and style your hair contain molecules called silicones.
Silicones are all around you. They are in cookware, doctor's offices, lubricants, electronics, insulation, and strangely enough, hair care products. One of the most intrinsic properties of silicones is that they are not water soluble. That means that if you put silicones (there is a wide variety of different types) in water, they will not dissolve.
Silicones are used in hair products because they coat the cuticle of the hair, making the layers that compose the cuticle lay flat against the hair shaft. This means that silicones can be effective quick fixes for frizz and flyaways.
WHY ARE SILICONES BAD?
Solving frizz seems like a good thing, right? So why are silicones bad?
They do not dissolve in water. Therefore, just stepping in your shower will not get rid of them. You need to use a sulfate to remove them completely. It's an endless cycle of damage. You wash with sulfates, use silicone to calm the cuticle because the sulfates are wreaking havoc, then you need to wash with sulfates to get rid of the silicone.
If you simply try to cut out sulfates without cutting silicones, you can do some damage to your hair. The silicones, which have sealed your cuticle shut, will literally suffocate your hair shaft and could result in build up (greasy gunk) and even such extremes as hair loss if you continue to fail to remove the silicone.
ELIMINATE SILICONES SO YOU CAN ELIMINATE SULFATES
Fortunately, there are lots of products for conditioning and styling curly hair that are sulfate free and silicone free.
This is the basis of the CG method. Get rid of sulfates and silicones, moisturize your curls, and see results.
THERE IS NO WAY I CAN WASH MY HAIR WITH CONDITIONER! IT'S TO GREASY!
Odds are, you're wrong. There are relatively few people who truly have naturally oily scalps to the point where their hair is truly greasy without frequent sulfate cleansing.
The reason that many curly haired people believe that they must wash their hair with shampoo everyday is that their scalps are crying out for help. Your scalp knows that it needs to produce oil to keep the hair healthy. The problem for most curlies is that the scalp is producing too much oil.
Why are your glands making too much oil? Once again, the answer lies in sulfates. When your hair is completely stripped of its natural oils by sulfates each and every day, your scalp goes into hyperactive mode. Your cells flip on a switch that says, "Help! The hair has no oil!" and your glands dutifully respond, producing gobs of oil to compensate. Your glands don't realize that all of the extra oil they put so much effort into making is just going to be stripped again anyway the next time you shampoo.
HOW DO YOU START CG?
Before you do anything else, you must do one last wash with a sulfate-based shampoo to completely cleanse your hair of any silicones. If you skip this step, you'll end up with gunky buildup. This step is critical.
After you've washed your hair with a sulfate shampoo for the last time, it's time to do your first cowash. This can be done in the same shower that you do your last sulfate wash in, or you can wait. If you wait however, just remember that you can't put any silicones into your hair.
HOW CAN YOU TELL IF A PRODUCT IS CG FRIENDLY?
You read the ingredients label of course! Silicones are very easy to spot with practice. A silicone ingredient with end with -cone, -conol, or -xane. Examples include: dimethicone, dimethiconol, amodimethicone, cyclomethicone, cyclopentasiloxane, and trimethicone. None of these are water soluble, so you cannot use them with the CG method.
Make sure you don't confuse silicones with preservatives, which frequently end in -one (rather than -cone). Methylchloroisothiazolinone, while a mouthful, is a water soluble preservative, and is perfectly CG friendly.
Another little complexity about silicones is that scientists can modify their structure to make them water soluble. These cones are CG friendly, but some people choose to avoid them for the sake of being totally silicone free. They can be removed with cowashing, however. If a silicone ingredient (-cone, -conol, or -xane) is prefaced with PEG or PPG, it is water soluble. So PEG-12 Dimethicone is water soluble, and CG friendly.
Sum up: CG products will be silicone free conditioners, stylers, creams, gels, pomades, sprays, etc. The way to spot a cone is to look for -cone, -conol, or -xane. If there isnt a PEG- or PPG- in front of that cone, it isn't water soluble, and therefore isn't CG friendly.
I DID MY LAST SULFATE SHAMPOO AND I'M READY TO COWASH. NOW WHAT?
Pick a light, silicone free conditioner. The most popular and readily available conditioners to cowash are the Suave Naturals conditioners (many like Suave Naturals Coconut) and the VO5 conditioners (these are lighter than the Suave line). There are plenty of other options, but these are good starter cowashes because they are cheap and easy to obtain.
Here's how to cowash. Take a quarter sized puddle of the conditioner and use the pads of your fingertips (not your nails) and scrub your scalp just as you would have done with shampoo. If you need more conditioner, use it. The amount each person will need will vary. If your hair feels dry, use more. If your hair soaks it all up, use more. Don't be afraid of it. I use 2-4 puddles per wash. The key is to really scrub. Scrub until your arms are tired. Scrub all over your entire scalp. Enjoy the massage!
After you've scrubbed your whole scalp with conditioner, take another small puddle and scrub the length like you would with shampoo.
When you rinse it out, keep scrubbing. Scrubbing while rinsing ensures that all the grime and oil is being lifted and carried away.
Now you've cowashed and your hair is clean but moisturized!
AFTER COWASHING, NOW WHAT?
After cowashing, you'll want to use a thicker, richer conditioner to moisturize your hair. The key to success of the CG routine is moisture. This conditioner can be either entirely or partially rinsed out (if you partially rinse out, the remainder functions as a leave in).
There are lots and lots of conditioners that are CG friendly. You just have to know where to look. Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition is a popular drugstore rinse out that is easy to find. More and more stores have organic sections now which carry lines like Giovanni, which makes a few CG conditioners. Organic stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's also carry several CG conditioners. Sally's Beauty and ULTA carry some. Then, there is the wide world of conditioners available online. Check out the product review section of the CurlTalk forum for lots of ideas. Also, most of the users list their favorite products in their signatures, so find a member with hair like yours, and see what they are using!
PUT DOWN THAT BRUSH AND STEP AWAY FROM THE TERRY CLOTH!
Terrycloth and many kinds of brushes are bad for your hair. Many CG curlies on their fingers to comb out their hair, or only use a wide toothed comb when the hair is wet and coated with conditioner. Never ever ever ever EVER comb curly hair dry! This is begging for damage and breakage! Bristle brushes and brushes with little balls on the end of the spokes break up your curl pattern and cause frizz. Wide toother combs are more natural and gentle, mimicking your fingers width.
Terry cloth causes frizz in curly hair because it takes off so much of that moisture you're working so hard to put into your hair! Instead, simply squeeze out extra with your hands. Better yet, many products are much more effective when applied to soaking wet hair, so don't get rid of the extra water! You'll get less frizz if you use things like old t-shirts or microfiber towels on your hair rather than terry cloth because they are absorbent but not super absorbent.
STYLING CG CURLS
Now your hair is conditioned, wet, gently combed with hands or a wide toothed comb, and ready to be styled! I couldn't list all of the CG products on here if I tried, and as the population is starting to demand more natural products, more lines are popping up here and there offering you CG alternatives. There are products of every type for every price range. Do some research on naturallycurly.com, talk to members, ask questions, and read ingredients labels to find fabulous silicone free products! Experimentation is the name of the game. Everyone's hair is different. Something that gives one curly bouncy, glossy curls, could cause obscene dryness and breakage in another curly. When you are starting CG, I recommend keeping it simple. A leave in and a clear gel should do it for the first month or so. More on this later!
METHOD MADNESS!
There are lots of methods for styling your hair. Some of these include scrunching in products, raking in products, plopping, diffusing, etc etc.
It's easy to forget that the way you apply products is often just as important as what products you are using. My general rule of thumb for product application:
-Rake in leave ins to pull the hair away from your scalp and create some body and get curls going. Raking means you coat your hands with the product, and simply pull your fingers through your hair
-Rake and then scrunch in curl cremes. I like this because raking a bit of curl creme through first gets every strand with curl creme. Then by finishing with scrunching in curl creme, you really get your curl pattern going
-Scrunch in gel. Gel sets your curls, creating a cast of product that will hold the curl form while it dries. When it dries, the results gel crunch is "scrunched out" by using the same scrunching motion using to apply gel, but with your bare hands. This video is very instructive on scrunching in product.
Most curlies apply product to soaking wet hair. This helps with maintaining moisture and getting good curl formation and clumping.
Plopping is a method of encouraging curl formation after you've applied product. Here is the original video on plopping (at this site, it is called plunking), and here is my own video on how I do the same technique with a long sleeved t-shirt. Plopping works really well for some, but not everyone. Just something else to try :)
Air drying is the gentlest way to style your hair. If you must dry using heat, always use a diffuser. There are many kinds, including flat pancake diffusers, hot socks, bowl and finger diffusers, hard hat dryers. The bowl and finger model is the most popular. I use this kind with much success.
One thing is certain about any styling routine. DO NOT touch while drying! This causes frizz because you are disrupting the casts that the products have created. If you touch, the cast is broken, and your hair is free to frizz. Only scrunch out the crunch with completely dry hair.
CG is all about finding a routine that works for you. Checking out signatures on CurlTalk is a great way to get routine ideas. It's overwhelming at first, but there are lots of veteran posters who want to help you!
CLARIFYING
Sometimes no matter how careful we are with avoiding silicones, our hair will get build up and need to be clarified. This could happen because of a product we are using, which might have an ingredient our hair doesn't like. For example, many avoid castor oil because it builds up. Some people have build up issues with polyquats. When buildup happens, we don't have to run back to the sulfates. There are options like low poos (sulfate-free shampoos), shampoo bars, vinegar rinses, baking soda scrubs, and brown sugar scrubs to get rid of buildup.
TRANSITION PERIOD
There will likely be a time period in which your hair looks worse right after switching to CG. This is caused by your scalp not adjusting to the lack of sulfates as fast as you are changing what you are doing to your hair. Try to keep the routine very simple at first. A cowash, rinse out, leave in, and clear gel is all you need. The Herbal Essences line of gels (Totally Twisted, Body Envy, and Set Me Up) are CG friendly. The transition period can last anywhere from a couple of days to up to 6 weeks (this is rare). Don't give up hope. Your scalp will settle down, and you will see the results you want.
WAVIES AND MODIFIED CG
Wavy hair is in between curly and straight, and so while CG may work for some wavies, it sometimes does not work for others. Wavies are not as porous as curlies, and they often have more moisturized hair to start. This places them at risk for overconditioning, which is where they hair has too much moisture. It becomes impossibly soft and fluffy. Many wavies find that this can be avoided with the occasional or consistent use of a sulfate-free shampoo (low poo). There is a whole forum devoted to wavies on CurlTalk.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR HAIR TO MAXIMIZE YOUR SUCCESS!
This section is totally new to this revised edition of my guide! Our understanding of hair care changes over time, just like any other science. I felt it was time to update this guide to include new information which is now crucial, but that we didn't consider when I wrote this guide a year ago! The topics I'd like to address are: hair porosity, texture, and dewpoint. Even as someone who is new to CG, having a working knowledge of these concepts will greatly improve your success in picking products for your hair. It will also help those veterans on CurlTalk assist you if you can give them information about your hair's porosity and texture and what the dew points are where you live. These sections would not have been possible without several other curlies. I discovered none of this information! The leg work was done by wonderful curlies on CurlTalk, and I'm simply here to give you that information as best as I can.
POROSITY
Hair stylist Tiffany Anderson has a must read blog post on this topic.
Porosity is a measure of how well your hair can take in and hold onto moisture in essence. It's a measure of the state of your hairs' cuticles. The cuticle is the outermost layer of a hair strand. It's composed of "shingles" if you will, which lay on top of one another to form a protective barrier which preserves the core of the hair strand. The "shingles" function to keep moisture in and keep anything harmful out.
This cuticle is healthy. The "shingles" lay flat on one another. This strand of hair has normal porosity. The layers of the cuticle are in tact and haven't been disturbed too much. There is a little lift between the shingle layers. This means that moisture, product, color processes, etc, can get into the hair shaft, but the cuticle will help to keep it in once it gets there.
This cuticle is damaged. It is highly porous. As you can see, the shingles do not lay flat at all. Holes have been blown into the cuticle structure, lifting the shingles up and away from the core. Porous hair has often been heat damaged, or repeatedly color processed or bleached. Highly porous hair will absorb moisture very readily, but it can't hold onto it. As a result, porous hair is often dry, brittle, and fragile. Porous hair will take in product by the glob, but it will also lose it quickly. It will take color readily, but the color will fade faster. The challenge with porous hair is to get moisture in and keep it in. Your best bet with porous hair is to fill the holes left by the lifted shingles with protein. However, if you have coarse hair, you may not be able to. More on this later
This cuticle is compact. The shingles lay flat against one another, but they are too flat. There is no lift between them. This is hair with low porosity. Low porosity hair will not absorb moisture, product, or color readily. This hair has often never seen a color process, and has not been heat damaged. While this is a healthy strand of hair, it is a bit of a challenge. This kind of hair will hold moisture very well, but you've got to figure out how to get the moisture in there in the first place! Low porosity hair will often repel product, or the product will just "sit" on the hair, not soaking in.
You can check what porosity your hair has by doing a simple test. Take a strand of hair and run your fingers up the strand (thumb and index finger moving toward the scalp). If it feels smooth, you likely have normal porosity. If your fingers move very fast and the strand feels slick, dense, and hard, you have low porosity. If your fingers "catch" going up the strand, feel like they are ruffling up the hair strand, or if the hair strand breaks, your hair is overly porous (credit goes to Tiffany Anderson for this test!)
TEXTURE
Another shout out to Tiffany on this topic!
Hair texture is simply how thick your individual hair strands are in diameter. The three textures are fine, medium, and coarse.
Fine hair is very thin in diameter. It's often limp and flyaway like. It doesn't tend to hold a style well. It can seem dry when it's in fact more often over-moisturized. This hair type loves protein. Thicker products can weigh it down. Humectants are your friend in the proper dew points. Fine hair often needs a cut with more weight because it tends to lie flat.
Medium hair is considered "normal." It can support a wide range of products and processes. It can take protein and moisture, and can use heavy and light products.
Coarse hair has a large diameter. Coarse hair often has too much protein in it naturally, so protein should generally be avoided, though some may not hurt. Moisture, emollients, and rich products are called for. It is stronger than medium or fine hair, but its inflexibility means it often cannot hold a style well. Coarse hair tends to expand east-west, so short cuts can be problematic.
DEWPOINT
Redcelticcurls is our resident dew point expert! Her blog is a dew point must read!
The media and beauty industry would have you believe humidity is what curlies should fear more than anything. Dewpoint, a cousin of humidity if you will, is a much better indicator of how your hair will behave in given weather conditions. Dew point is very easy to find out. Just check weather.com, accuweather, or the map of the US on the right hand side of my blog to find your daily dewpoint!
Humidity is a misleading number when dealing with haircare. First of all, 100% humidity in the summer and 100% humidity in the winter are clearly going to indicate different levels of moisture. This is because those numbers represent RELATIVE humidity. Also, 100% humidity in Arizona is very different from 100% humidity in Florida, even if we're talking about the same time of year.
Dew point is the temperature at which water will condense to form dew or fog. Dew point will never be higher than the air temperature. 20 degrees and 100% humidity means the dew point should be at 20 degrees (because the air is saturated). So dew point and humidity are related, but dew point helps you gauge how much moisture is really there more accurately.
The air can hold different amounts of water depending on the air temperature. Warmer air can hold more water than colder air. This is why 100% humidity on a summer day is so different from 100% humidity on a cold day. On a summer day, when there is a lot of moisture in the air, the dew point may be 60 or 70. That means that the water will condense at 60 or 70 degrees. Think about a fog at 70 degrees. Very oppressive! Now, the opposite scenario is that on a frigid winter day, the dew point may be in the teens or lower. This means that the water is not readily coming out of the air in condensed form, so the air is dry.
Ranges, according to Redcelticcurls:
-Negative infinity through 30 degrees = low dewpoint. This is the winter. It is dry! If there is no moisture in the air, your hair cannot retain any. Your hair wants to be in equilibrium with its environment. This means that if there is no moisture in the air, and your hair has some, it will give up its moisture to the air because your hair wants to have the same moisture content as the air around it. If the air around you has 0 figurative drops of water and your hair has 10 figurative drops of water, your hair will expell moisture until the air around it has 5 drops and it has 5 drops. This is the battle of winter. You have to continually replenish moisture because your hair will be continually giving it up to the dry air in low dewpoints. Deep treatments, rich conditioners, hair butters, creamy leave in-s, and humectant-free products will help you in winter. Humectants are products which work to make that equilibrium between your hair and the environment happen faster and more efficiently. As we'll see, they are your friend in moderate dews, but your mortal enemy in low dews, because they will just be pushing that moisture out of your hair and into the air! Common humectants are glycerine, panthenol, honey, propylene glycol, and vitamin B5.
-30 through 40 = in between, awkward transition. The air is neither moist nor super dry. It's a toss up, and will require experimenting. You may be able to use humectants here, and you may not. This range will coincide with season changes
-40-60 = moist and happy! This is a favorite time for many curlies. Humectants are welcome, as they will pull moisture into your hair instead of expelling it. The air is now comfortably moist, so the air now has the 10 figurative drops, and your hair has 0 (well hopefully you've been taking better care of it than that so it isn't that dry, but this is for illustrative purposes). Humectants will pull moisture into your hair to balance it out. Don't ignore your moisture treatments, but you can now use lighter products.
-60 and up = muggy and 80s hair revival. Some curlies will outright skip rinse out conditioners in these conditions. Humectants become somewhat dangerous here, because they'll pull too much water into your hair, making it swell and poof. Here, you will want to use antihumectants. These ingredients are water repellents. Castor oil, beeswax, coconut oil, palm oil, olive oil, and shea butter are antihumectants. The caveat with these ingredients is that because they are water repellents, they may build up on your with the CG routine. This is because in order to be water repellent, they must be at least partially insoluble in water. A hard hold gel will be your friend in these muggy conditions if you aren't willing to try antihumectants.
There you have it! My updated, revised, and HTML-cleaned up version of my guide to going CG. Happy curls everyone!
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