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Ponymad21
February 20th, 2016, 05:24 PM
I have curly hair, any tips for caring for it and encouraging the curls to form properly?

I use WCC and LOC method at the moment

antler_tines
February 20th, 2016, 09:25 PM
A lot of people like the curly girl method http://m.wikihow.com/Follow-the-Curly-Girl-Method-for-Curly-Hair One part of the method would be "plopping". It entails using something like a tshirt to kind of pile your curls onto, allowing them to coil up and then wrapping it up to dry. That might help your natural curl pattern.

Hope that helps! I'm not fully curly, just wavy but it defiantly helps encourage my waves when I do it.

RitaCeleste
February 20th, 2016, 09:53 PM
Growing my hair out pulled a lot of curl out for me. I was wavy and still fall there. I did like 100% aloe gel on my damp hair to fight the frizzy effect. I tried the curly girl method and it worked but I was driving myself nuts playing with my wet hair. One of the things I did if I wanted a curlier day was brush my hair, wash it or co-wash it, take a towel and wrap around my hair squeeze to get the water out so it didn't drip like crazy, left it kinda wet styled it with my fingers only, put a little aloe gel in it, scrunched it from the bottom, then I defied gravity by sleeping with my hair down and tossed over my pillow. finger combed and added some get and a light scrunch in the morning. Sounds crazy but it becomes routine. Now that it has been cut to shoulder length, I wash anytime and don't need to defy gravity. I loved to brush my hair and make frizz when it was long most days, I have zero need for that now. I'm out of aloe. Scrunching too much is tiring so I skip that too mostly. Good luck.

RitaCeleste
February 20th, 2016, 10:19 PM
You'll be ever so much happier if you just want to reduce frizz and be the best example of healthy properly groomed hair of your own type. Its nutty to try to style it up to the effect of a perm. That is too much fiddling for me. Oiling helped my hair a bunch too.

PerkyCurlz
February 21st, 2016, 01:15 AM
I have curly hair, any tips for caring for it and encouraging the curls to form properly?

How long is your hair?

When my hair was super short / pixie (about 10 years ago), all I had to do was use a medium hold gel or mousse and light scrunching to keep the curls in place. No special shampoos or methods other than washing only 1-3 times per week. That worked well until my hair was about shoulder length. As my hair grew longer, I needed stronger gel to keep the curls in place, and plopping until almost dry helped keep them in shape. I also formed curls with my fingers to encourage "clumping" of curls. That worked from shoulder length to waist length. After that, my hair was too heavy and much of my curl was pulled out. Once I got to waist length, I focused on keeping the ends protected and in good shape by wearing various buns and braids. Now that my hair is short again, I'm back to using similar products to the ones I used ten years ago - gel and/or mousse plus scrunching.

I never did see much change in my curl pattern with the CG method at any length of hair.

Mzteaze
February 21st, 2016, 01:21 AM
I have curly hair, any tips for caring for it and encouraging the curls to form properly?

I use WCC and LOC method at the moment

I usually try to dry my hair with the curls as elongated as possible. This is necessary if you have a lot of shrinkage as your curls dry. The easiest way for me is to attach clips to the ends after applying any styling products then leaving clips on until hair is dry. You can air dry or use a dryer.

Also, finding a decent curl defining product for styling is VERY helpful. It will help define curls and provide a little structural support. There are a number of commercial products as well as DIY options.

lapushka
February 21st, 2016, 04:08 AM
I have curly hair, any tips for caring for it and encouraging the curls to form properly?

I use WCC and LOC method at the moment

Yes don't do WCC, unless you can't do CO-washing or go sulfate-free. WCC is kind of a last resort for wavy/curlies. I need to use it because of my SD (seborrheic dermatitis) and I need to use harsh sulfates, which is why I condition twice, that's the idea behind this "method". It is a last resort. It stands on its own fine (and I have NO issues with that at all), but that's not why it was created. Just to situate it.

Look into the CG method that was linked upthread, see if you like it. There is also a gigantic CO-washing thread on this site for you to explore.

LOC is great to do; would encourage you to keep doing it!

Ponymad21
February 21st, 2016, 12:14 PM
Thanks, I have always been hesitant about CO as I have allergies to quite a few conditioners , I have just realised that my conditioner and shampoo both encourage straightness, so this possibly isn't helping to form curls

lapushka
February 21st, 2016, 12:17 PM
And sulfate-free + double-condition? Would that work? If you don't do that already. You said you WCC, so I was imagining a sulfate shampoo. Going slightly milder (sulfate-free) might already do something in that case.

There are curlies who sulfate-wash and only condition once.

Ponymad21
February 21st, 2016, 12:32 PM
I use sulfates atm, but I am looking for sulfate free shampoo

enting
February 23rd, 2016, 03:10 AM
If there are certain areas that don't clump nicely, you can finger curl those locks while soaking wet to encourage the curl/clumping. My own curls perk up more if I detangle it in the shower with my head flipped upside down and then scrunch it. If I want to encourage more curl at the crown of my head, I need to clip my hair up loosely in some form of half-up while it dries, otherwise it all straightens out at the top. CG is definitely a good place to start.
I dilute-sulfate-wash and then vinegar rinse, for some reason vinegar gives me more slip than conditioner does. This winter I've just started playing around with pre-poo oiling, rinse-out oiling, and conditioner. I think the oils keep my hair from drying out, but I'm not sure they encourage my curl any. I think using a little bit of conditioner before and after the shampoo does help my curls perk up (cwc, with diluted shampoo) and then I use my vinegar rinse at the end to help with slip while detangling. Then there's the difficulty of not touching or leaning against my hair until it's completely dry....
Oddly, if I bun my hair in a somewhat loose topknot while it is wet and leave it overnight, when I take it down, my curls are super defined and well clumped! I still haven't quite figured out why this is, but it is fun!

KingPrawn
February 23rd, 2016, 04:56 AM
Hello curlies! I followed curly girl for a few years and did quite like what I tried. I love coconut oil to smooth things out a little. A little rub over with wet hands got my curls back into shape if they started looking a little tired. Being gentle with my hair was important. Prevent breakage wherever you can. Not touching it while it was drying also made a huge difference. I heard somewhere that scrunching can make hair a bit more frizzy. Instead I let the hair fall into my hand so the ends are in my palm, then I gently lift the hair straight up so it pushes the hair into curls and makes them a bit more defined.

I think the best thing I did was to be OK with it being imperfect. If one side was curled more than the other or I didn't have even curls, that was fine. I know this isn't what you asked, but I figured I'd throw it out there! It's so easy to want perfectly positioned hair that does exactly what it should, but that's a tricky thing to hope for with curly hair I've found!