Healthy Curls - Starter Guide
New to your Healthy Curl Journey? Feeling confused or overwhelmed? This guide is for you!
First let me stress, everything in this guide is just that…a guide! There are no absolute rules when it comes to looking after your hair because your hair belongs to no-one but you. However the information in this guide should help you get started on your own healthy curl journey.
YOU WILL NEED
Shampoo and/or Cowash
Conditioner
Styling Product (e.g. Gel, Mousse, Cream - you don't necessarily need all of these, one or two could be plenty)
A t-shirt or microfibre towel
OPTIONAL EXTRAS
Hairdryer with diffuser
Wide tooth comb or curly hair brush
Deep conditioner /Mask
Scalp Brush
Additional products like leave-in conditioner, hairspray, dry shampoo, scalp oil
INGREDIENT CHECKING
I personally avoid sulphates and silicones and high levels of drying alcohols in my hair products but not everyone with healthy curls does. This is a totally personal choice. However it can be good to start out avoiding them. Once your hair is healthier you could reincorporate products with these ingredients if you want to and see how your hair reacts. It’s up to you!
Sulphates/Sulfates are strong surfactants which can be harsh on curly hair. Look for the words Sulphate or Sulfate. Some people choose to use these periodically to clarify, others never use sulphates (I don't use them).
Silicones are in many haircare products but can easily build up on the hair and diminish definition if not properly removed. Silicones usually end in -cone -conol -xane.
PEG or PPG modified silicones are water soluble so much less likely to build up.
Drying Alcohols often have propyl, prop, eth or denatured in the name. Not all alcohols are drying!!! If a google search tells you an alcohol is a fatty alcohol then it can actually be moisturising.
Mineral Oil, Wax, Parrafinium Liquidium & Petrolatum are further ingredients you may want to avoid due to their lack of water solubility and likelihood to cause build up, however if you decide to use these you can remove them easily from the hair with a low-poo or an ACV rinse (apple cider vinegar heavily diluted in water).
WHAT TO DO IF…
You use a sulphate - Deep condition to counteract potential drying
You use a non-water soluble silicone - for a single use a low-poo should remove it, if you have been using the silicone repeatedly you may need a sulphate shampoo
STEP 1 - WASHING
Many people choose to do one last shampoo using a sulphate shampoo (which doesn't contain silicone) to rid the hair of any build up and create a clean slate. This is known as a Final Wash. If you do this (I did) you might already own a shampoo which is suitable.
Cowashing is literally washing your hair with conditioner instead of shampoo BUT you can't simply rub some conditioner into your scalp and call it a day. To cowash properly you must scrub your scalp very thoroughly for at least 5 minutes and then rinse thoroughly. Because conditioner and cowash don't contain strong cleansing ingredients, the SCRUBBING is what will MANUALLY clean dirt and oil from your scalp.
Not cowashing properly can result in dirty, limp hair and scalp and in some extreme cases even hair loss.
You can cowash with a conditioner or you can choose a branded Cowash. Sometimes branded Cowashes contain very gentle cleansers to help clean your scalp and hair. Cowashing can be wonderful for many people's hair and scalp BUT it does not work for everyone!
If you decide cowashing is not for you, you can use a sulphate-free shampoo which is more gentle than a regular shampoo but has stronger cleansing ingredients than a Cowash. Sulphate free shampoo is often referred to as Low-Poo.
STEP 2 - CONDITIONING
Even if you cowash your hair, you will need to do a separate conditioning step. After thoroughly rinsing out your cleanser (cowash or low-poo), add your conditioner to your hair. Rake it through with your fingers to distribute and detangle. Finger detangling is the gentlest form of detangling, however some prefer to use a detangling brush. Still others prefer to dry detangle before washing. To make sure your hair gets thoroughly conditioned try a technique called Squish to Condish or STC, which involves squishing conditioner and water into your hair in a scrunching motion (see video below).
You can either leave this conditioner in your hair or rinse it out and apply a leave-in conditioner.
STEP 3 - STYLING
There are many different ways to style your curls and apply your styling products.
Different styling techniques work differently for different people. And styling techniques can work differently for you at various stages of your healthy curl journey. For example, towards the beginning of my healthy hair journey I absolutely could not rake products through my hair or I would end up with hardly any curls. Now that my hair is healthy I can rake products through with decent results. Be gentle with your hair, take your time and don’t rough dry it with a towel.
Often a combination of styling techniques can work well e.g. raking and then scrunching. Have a watch of this helpful demo of a variety of techniques for adding your styling products from the amazing @welshiecurlgirl (tap her name to go to her IG, she is a recommended follow!)
Another aspect of styling which is different for everyone, is how wet the hair is when adding styling products.
Many people get the best results adding their products to dripping wet hair. Others get optimum results adding products to damp hair. Still others find their very own sweet spot somewhere between the two.
Regular towels can cause frizz so opt for a
t-shirt, t-shirt towel or microfibre towel.
Rough drying can break up curls so two better ways to use them are Plopping and Micro-plopping.
These techniques are primarily to help the curls form and remove some water from the hair but not to dry the hair completely. You will still need to either air dry or diffuse afterwards. You can choose whether to plop/micro-plop either before or after applying styling products but you don't have to plop or microplop at all if you don't want to.
STEP 4 - DRYING
To dry your hair you can either Air Dry or Diffuse. Or perhaps a combination of both. There are different diffusing techniques including:
Pixie diffusing - Keep the dryer switched off while you cup a section of hair in the diffuser bowl. Switch on the dryer while holding it still for some time. Switch off dryer before repositioning etc etc.
Hover diffusing - Direct the diffuser at the hair without actually cupping the hair in the diffuser bowl.
This video shows how I sometimes diffuse using my Dyson Supersonic and Gama Italia Super Diffuser - you don’t need two diffusers.
Once your hair is completely dry you may have a scrunchy cast on your curls. Scrunch your hair to get rid of this and reveal soft, bouncy curls. This is known as Scrunch Out The Crunch or SOTC
To achieve healthy curls it is best not to use any high heat or heat tools such as curling irons or straighteners. Medium heat is ok when using a diffuser and shouldn’t damage your hair.
STEP 5 - MAINTAINING YOUR CURLS PAST WASHDAY
Once washday is over you probably want to keep those washday results for more than a day! Protecting your curls while you sleep is really important. There are many different ways to do this including:
Silk/satin pillowcase
Buff (see video below)
Bonnet
Pineapple
In the morning don't panic if your hair looks a bit crazy. Fluff it out by sliding your hands in at the roots and gently shaking and then let it settle for a while before deciding what, if anything, needs to be done to it.
You can refresh your curls between washes to smooth frizz and reawaken curls. Some refresh techniques include:
Dampen hair with a spray bottle or wet hands and apply a little extra product
Steam refresh
Resoak your hair and add products
Dry refresh - adding small amounts of product with no water
As with most aspects of looking after curly hair, there is no 'one size fits all' for refreshing. Try lots of different techniques and see what works best for you.
In conclusion here are a few things to remember:
Keep it simple! You don’t need every product out there and you can achieve healthy curls on a budget
Don’t expect your hair to morph into someone else’s hair. We all have curl crushes but no matter how well we look after our hair a 2b wave isn’t likely to turn into a 4c coil!
Different techniques and products work for different people, so trial and error and patience are the best ways to figure out what works for you
Take progress photos, even of the not so great washdays. It’s so important to have pictures to look back on and see how far you have come. You can even keep notes with those photos on what you did that washday which is useful for checking back later
Ask questions! If you are stuck then there is a whole big community of curly people on social media who are willing to help, including me
Be patient!! You didn’t damage your hair overnight, and you won’t fix it overnight either. But it will get better with time, patience and care.
Lots of curly fairy dust…
