My Curly Hair Journey

In 2021, I am taking steps to restore my natural curl.

As a kid, I had wild curly hair. Looking back at it now I think it was gorgeous! Unfortunately, though that wasn’t always the case. Because of that, I have spent the guts of 16 years brushing, dyeing, straightening, curling and overall not looking after my hair.  Which of course has destroyed the natural curl. To the point that it was almost straight with a slight wave.

As I go through my journey I am going to document what I have been doing and the progress I have made. If you have any tips you would like to share with me please do!

The January Low-down

Products

Shampoo and Conditioner

I have been washing my hair with Innersence Hydrating Cream Hairbath and Hydrating Cream Conditioner. These are taking me a while to get used too for sure! The hair bath doesn’t foam up like your typical store-bought shampoo and the conditioner doesn’t feel as sleek as your typical store-bought conditioner. For the first few washes, I definitely didn’t get the sense of having given my hair a good wash due to the lack of suds but I just had to trust the process.

It has been a long process. For the first 2/3 weeks, even straight away after washing my hair, I would have a residue on my roots. I am not sure what caused this but I think it was my hair and scalp getting used to the new products. According to the Innersense website, it will take a while for your hair to go through it’s ‘natural detox process’ and may still be ‘stripping away your old products that have possibly coated your hair’. This is definitely what it felt like. It never felt like my hair wasn’t clean or was greasy. It did just feel like a build-up of product. As time goes on I am noticing it less and less and by a weird coincidence, I don’t have this problem at all today.

Styling gel

I have been styling my hair with the Boucleme Super Hold Style. All I can say is that is seems to be doing its job. I haven’t tried any other products to compare too so for the moment I am happy with this.

Method

Wash Routine

In terms of how I have been washing and styling my hair. The first thing I wanted to do was to have fewer wash days. I normally wash my hair every single day. So for the month of January, I made myself only wash my hair every 3 days. I am happy with this for now. I will definitely try to get it up to 4 eventually but this is working for me at the moment.

Shampooing

When shampooing, I drench my hair. Make sure it is totally saturated and then I dispense a small about of the hair bath into the palm of my hands. I rub my hands together until a foam has formed and then I gently massage this into my scalp and roots. If the build-up is particularly bad I will section off my hair to make sure I am cleaning every inch of my root. Then I wash out letting it run through the lengths of my hair.

Conditioning

When conditioning, again I make sure my hair is saturated. Then I rake the conditioner through the length of my hair. I don’t put any in the root. At this point, I try to leave my hair for a minute or two to soak in the conditioner. Then I will use my fingers to rake through my hair and detangle it as much as possible. I keep my hairbrush in the shower and if I am having a particularly knotty day I will use the brush to detangle but this is the ONLY time I brush my hair. While it’s wet with conditioner in it. When I am happy the tangles are out I flip my hair upside down and ‘squish to condish’.

Getting out of the shower

Before I turn the shower off I give it one last dose of water. All the while keeping my head upsidedown. I turn the shower off and ‘squish’ my hair to let the clumps form. I make sure to not squeeze my hair as I don’t want to lose all the moisture. Then I wrap my hair in a microfibre towel.

Styling

When I am ready to style my hair I will take it out of the towel (still staying upside down) and I’ll add a heat protector. A heat protector is probably something I need to invest in. I am just using the one what came with my diffuser at the moment. Then I will put a small amount of the gel into the palm of my hand, rub them together and use the ‘squish’ method to help the curl clumps form and get them coated in the gel.

Diffusing/plopping/airdrying

First I tried plopping my hair. I didn’t like this. I have lots of thick hair and it took FOREVER for my hair to dry. It also made my scalp really flaky which we certainly don’t want.

So next I tried airdrying – again not great for super thick hair as it did take hours to dry. Even when it was dry it still looked wet? It was weird.

In the end, I bought a diffuser. The first day using it I loved the results but the next day it was a total frizz ball – I hadn’t learned the pixie technique yet (Thanks Dervla!). So I am using the pixie technique with the diffuser now and I am seeing much better results. I don’t find there is much of a cast by the time I am finished but I scrunch out whatever there is with a little bit of argon oil.

Accessories

I am making sure to only sleep on a satin pillowcase and definitely notice the difference when I don’t. The back of my head becomes completely matted if I use a cotton pillowcase.

Things I think I need to get/try

• Decent heat protector
• Root Clips
• Root massager
• Better quality satin/silk pillowcase

My thoughts

It’s a process but I am in it for the long haul. Already I can see a MASSIVE improvement. I can’t wait to see what it will look like in 3/6 months time.

So there you have it. The January Curly low down. If you have any tips or tricks please do share. I am eager to learn more and take advice wherever I can get it.

Speaking of advice, a big shoutout goes to @laurahairspace who has been holding my hand through the whole process. She’s fab and is a wealth of knowledge. Check out her page if you haven’t already.

Also thanks again to Dervla for introducing me to @hanzcurls. I am loving her content.

Until March,
Ciara x