Curly Girl Update

If you've been following along you know all about how I gave up on regular shampoo, started (pretty much) washing my hair with conditioner, and cut sulphates (regular shampoo) and silicones (in most conditioner and styling products) out of my life. If you need a recap of my last updates, click here.

Basically, silicones (anything ending in cone, conal, or xane, in a product) are plastic. They smother your hair, although its plastic so it makes it feel soft) Not actually moisturizing. You can't get the plastic out of your hair without sulphates. Sulphates are really harsh and drying. It's a vicious cycle.BUT Conditioner can wash/clean your hair if there are no silicones in it.

Curly hair is already more dry in general, so this is why the whole "no silicones no sulphates" is called the Curly Girl Method. There is a book. And a website. (If you're interested) Low sulphate is becoming more popular in general though, because it's better for your hair. (but beware cutting out/reducing sulphates and still using yucky silicones in your other products. You'll look like a greaseball)

Aaaanywho.

I use:
Conditioner wash: Suave Mango Mandarin
For Clarifying every so often: L'oreal EverSleek? Low sulphate shampoo
Conditioner condition: Tresseme NATURALS
Gel: LA Looks Sport (blue stuff) Mega huge bottle, mega cheap.
Hairspray (first time using it was in these photos): From the L'oreal "Ever" line, it's alcohol free.

Anyways, my hair has been driving me nuts lately! (lately, who am I kidding? my whole adult life, really) My theory is though, that the dry winter air is sucking the moisture back out of my hair and it's getting a bit more blah and not getting a nice defined held curl. So recently I straightened it again, just to show it who's boss. When I went back to letting it do it's thing, it actually looked pretty darn good. Then it kinda got droopy again, so I straightened it again. Sigh.

I swear, I just can't figure it out. Anyways, here are some photos for ya. I started this last May Here is my scraggly before:

 

And now (8 months in)

 I guess to the untrained eye, it doesn't seem all THAT different, just longer, but I can tell. My hair looks and feels less fried and more moisturized. The curls (though still wild) are much more consistent than before and have gotten WAY tighter. For months I was convinced my hair was not growing at all, but it's just because in the beginning the curls were tightening up faster than my hair was growing. I also notice how springy my curls have gotten because now when I wear it straight, it is significantly longer by several inches.

So fellow curly haired ladies, how do you do your hair?  Do you scrunch it? Or try not to anger the beast?