Any 1c hair people tried curly girl method?

[Vanilla]

Any 1c people tried the curly girl method with good results? I've tried only 1 component of the curly girl method, CO washing, and it didn't work very well for me. I haven't tried plopping, applying product and only combing once.

If you've tried it, did it work well to tame your hair?

[epigrrl]

I've tried it in the past, for about two weeks---CO, plopping, finger combing. Didn't do anything for me except make my hair look stringy :/

[BeckyAH]

I'm not a 1c (obviously), but my thoughts as someone who uses the curly girl method sometimes are that it wouldn't be a great idea.

Here's why:

The point of curly girl is to : Encourage hair to 'clump' (only combing once), removing the effects of gravity (plopping) so it doesn't lie down, and to ultra-moisturize (CO) to reduce frizz.

Now, CO works for lots of people, obviously and helps reduce frizz and good things.

But in straighter hair, I can't see much benefit in encouraging it to not lie down/spring up, much less in forming clumps. Using things like gel and scrunching I can definitely see helping that wave if you want to encourage it, but the rest... maybe okay, but I'd expect stringy, bent more than waved, hair.

[HarpAndLyre]

I have tried CO off and on for a year now and it never seems to work for me either. I really like the idea of it, and love the "squishy" slimy all over feel I get with it, but my hair just always feels so dull and stringy the next day. I've been looking for a more natural route anyway, and don't like how many bottles I go through of conditioner (I've got 3 or 4 in the shower right now!). I'm getting ready to order some Chagrin Valley Shampoo bars, and I'll see how that works out. Ever since I found out about all the stuff they put in products, I just can't seem to reconcile it in my mind and really just want "naked" hair :D

[Vanilla]

I've tried it in the past, for about two weeks---CO, plopping, finger combing. Didn't do anything for me except make my hair look stringy :/

Ah yes the stringiness, I am super familiar with that! CO makes my hair so limp, flat and stringy. Bummer that the other things didn't work out for you either.

[chrissy-b]

CO didn't work for me long-term either. That method was good for updos, but for the most part, my hair was just to limp.

I've had good luck with shampoo bars. They actually give me waves to where I'm almost a full 1c.

[Justy]

I've had good luck with shampoo bars. They actually give me waves to where I'm almost a full 1c.
I've been CO for a while & was wondering about shampoo bars for more waves. Which bars work best for you?

[auburntressed]

Well... never say never, I guess. But given how badly my hair hates every kind of conditioner I have ever put in it, I think it really highly unlikely I would ever try CO or any other part of the curly girl method. It sounds like it would end in disaster for my hair.

[Katze]

I wonder if I am understanding curly girl correctly? More moisture, no brushing, CO and WO and leave-ins?


I'm not a 1c (obviously), but my thoughts as someone who uses the curly girl method sometimes are that it wouldn't be a great idea.

Here's why:

The point of curly girl is to : Encourage hair to 'clump' (only combing once), removing the effects of gravity (plopping) so it doesn't lie down, and to ultra-moisturize (CO) to reduce frizz.

Now, CO works for lots of people, obviously and helps reduce frizz and good things.

But in straighter hair, I can't see much benefit in encouraging it to not lie down/spring up, much less in forming clumps. Using things like gel and scrunching I can definitely see helping that wave if you want to encourage it, but the rest... maybe okay, but I'd expect stringy, bent more than waved, hair.

Encouraging moisture is a good thing for my hair. CO and WO both work well at times, less well at other times. Leave-in works well for me.

I do brush my hair now for just the reason you mention, Becky. For a long time I tried to encourage clumps in order to encourage waves, but am realizing that since my hair gets stringy easily, clumps are not right. Scrunching and plopping IS good for my hair, though, and what Spidermom calls 'skipping curls.'

[oktobergoud]

We seem to be hair twins :D Except that my hair is chin length (small detail ;))

I have only tried co-washing and my hair likes that! I just like the feeling of washed hair better. I can only co-wash between normal washes, just to stretch it a bit longer.

I'm not sure about all the other things (haven't tried plopping since my hair is way too short) but when I use a special leave-in for curly hair (R&B from Lush, which is actually really heavy for my fine hair :P) my hair seems moisturized but also a lot more straight! Which I actually want on my length right now, because otherwise I get these weird wings and stuff.

My hair is definitely more wavy (and frizzy) if I don't comb it!

[inertia]

I've tried plopping and avoiding combing. It was a ridiculous amount of discomfort and the results weren't worth it at all. Sitting around waiting for my hair to dry for hours, not being able to touch it or really move around for fear of disturbing the waves… I don't have the patience for this. And it wasn't even that wavy in the end. The locks fell apart and out and turned into frizzy straight if I so much as looked at them funny.

So I went back to blow-drying my hair straight for everyday and rag curls for variation.

[Lippytoes]

CO-washing works fabulously for me (been doing it for over a year). I scrunch my hair with a wee bit of extra conditioner after I CO, and put it up with a t-shirt in a sort of modified plop. When I (rarely) have my hair down right after a wash, I sometimes scrunch some AVG or other gel into my hair, and while it can turn out stringy, it's usually just nicely wavy. :)

I usually comb (or tangle-teeze) out the waves on the second or third day, though, since that's easier for updos. But it is possible to have nice waves by using modified curly girl methods!

[unknown]

CO was great for my coarse hair, but it made my hair ultra stringy and limp as well. I solved this by WO-washing my scalp instead of using conditioner on it.

EDIT: I'm 1a but didn't read the thread properly...

[henné]

I'm happy I found this thread.

I've been considering giving CO washing a shot, but I've also been very skeptical about how it can possibly work for me. Whenever I put even the mildest of conditioners into my hair (silicone-free and all that), my hair gets greasy and stringy much earlier than if I wash it with SLS/paraben/what-have-ya-free shampoo w/o any conditioning at the end (yes, my hair can totally get away without any conditioner). Not to mention it leaves some coating on my hair, which - while making it silky soft at first - takes several shampooings to wash out again ... and I don't like that. The idea of some chemicals just staying in my hair like that is a big turn off ...

I can see this working only for folks with very dry and coarse hair ... or very dry and previously chemically processed fine/medium hair.

Nothing for my healthy virgin hair ... :cool:

So I guess it's shampoo bars, rhassoul and indian herbs for me ... or SLS-free shampoo.

I know, a bit off topic and totally self-centered :D Sorry ...

[Nat242]

I'm a 1c/2a. I've tried - CO is a disaster with my oily scalp! I CWC. I comb prior to washing and detangle with my fingers afterwards - combing afterwards would pull most of the wave out.

I found that plopping did encourage my natural wave pattern, but I get a nicer, more consistent result through damp bunning. Damp bunning gives me some lift at the roots, too. It's also more comfortable and I can leave the house with a damp bun, but not with an old t-shirt on my head!

I have short, blunt bangs, which also made plopping a bit tricky. They wouldn't sit properly afterwards. :shrug:

ETA: For clarity: I did NOT use that method in my sig pic! In that pic I was trying to assess the true length so I had done my best to straighten it that day. ;)

[torrilin]

CO wash works fine. I don't like how much conditioner it uses tho, and a lot of the cheap CO wash conditioners have fragrances that my skin doesn't get on with. CWC with diluted shampoo takes much less conditioner (so I can use more expensive fragrance free products without running out every week), and gives results that are just as good.

Plopping does nothing for my hair except slow down drying. It's actually faster for me to air dry from dripping wet. So far, my best results for waves have been by resoaking my hair after I get out of the shower, then scrunching handfuls of leave in conditioner and gel into it. Then let it air dry. This gives me a very sleek looking wave that stays in fairly well after I've done the "scrunch out the crunch" thing.

However, it's not realistic for me to wear my hair down most times, and all this effort is invisible in an updo. So normally I CWC, and stick my hair in an updo.

[Siiri]

CO-washing worked just fine for me, but I got bored with it after two years and switched to oil shampoo. It gives me pretty much the same results, but more slip. Neither of them have made my hair any wavier.

I tried plopping once and got 2c/3a curls, but I normally wear my hair up anyway so I never bother with it, I just comb the waves out when my hair is damp.

eta: I haven't had success with scrunching, it just looks like a tangled and stringy mess.

[cremenoir]

hello! i'm a 1c/2a and i CO, finger comb, and occasionally plop. however, i find that it doesnt do much for my waves unless i blow dry my hair with a diffuser. when i do that, i'm able to get a pretty 2c/3a look. i use a low heat setting to avoid damage.

[XcaliburGirl]

As a "2", I really wanted it to work for me, but I haven't had much luck. :shrug: My hair is not dry or porous, so I think that's part of the reason. I just ended up getting frustrated with my hair.

- CO: My hair likes it, but my scalp gets itchy and build up flakes if I don't shampoo at least once a week. It's nice but it never seems to make a miraculous difference.
- Plopping: Aside from not being practical for more than 5 minutes, my hair just looked messy, especially at the top. Got some unnatural-looking clumps
- Air-drying without combing or touching: my hair frizzes MORE by not touching it
- Leave-in conditioner/Gel/layering products/etc.: Don't have the patience, makes my hair goopy or crunchy.
- Diffusing: Don't have a hair drier or the patience.

Finally, I don't like having my hair in my face, so it's going to get tucked behind my ears and that ruins the wave pattern anyway.

I get the best hair if I do this, but it's not particularly wavy:
- wash with sulfate-free, silicone-free shampoo and conditioner
- towel turban for a couple of minutes
- comb
- air-dry while running my fingers through my hair often

Maybe if I bought a ton of products and layered them just right, I could get nice-looking frizz-free clumpy waves, but I don't really have the inclination to try it when my current routine gives me OK straight-ish hair.

[Jessibear2854]

I'm not a 1c (obviously), but my thoughts as someone who uses the curly girl method sometimes are that it wouldn't be a great idea.

Here's why:

The point of curly girl is to : Encourage hair to 'clump' (only combing once), removing the effects of gravity (plopping) so it doesn't lie down, and to ultra-moisturize (CO) to reduce frizz.

Now, CO works for lots of people, obviously and helps reduce frizz and good things.

But in straighter hair, I can't see much benefit in encouraging it to not lie down/spring up, much less in forming clumps. Using things like gel and scrunching I can definitely see helping that wave if you want to encourage it, but the rest... maybe okay, but I'd expect stringy, bent more than waved, hair.

I tried it and this is exactly what happened to me... stringy, greasy-looking, weirdly bent hair. CO works well but that is the only part of CG method that I kept . I was only trying it to get rid of the frizz that my hair had during and after my pregnancy and CO worked well enough on its own for that.

[hototogisu]

CO failed for me, but I plop and use a holding product when I want to encourage my waves, and I find that really works! I use a walnut sized blob of Redken Soft Spin Gel, squeeze it into dripping wet hair, then plop in a microfibre towel for maybe 10 minutes at most.

It does look super weird while it's air drying, but I find at some point I'll glance in the mirror and my hair is almost miraculously full and wavy (my hair usually dries basically straight). I find 'scrunching out the crunch' with a dab of a silicone anti frizz product is the key when hair is dry.

You really do need to use a hold product to get the waves going, and that's why I don't do it that often. I'm so used to using no product on a daily basis, the 'producty' feeling kind of drives me nuts. But I love the look when I do it.

[Xi]

I like the more defined wave of braidwaves better than my natural pattern -- I always let my hair dry in braids (unless it's late at night and I'm feeling extra lazy).

[Vanilla]

Thank you all for your responses. I got really busy today and couldn't check the thread.

I will have to try plopping and scrunching and report back on whether or not I'll get good waves.

I do bun waves ALL the time. Almost every time I dry my hair, up in a cinnabun it goes, and back down again a few times.

[sunny_rae2]

I've tried CO washing, and I really can't tell a difference between my hair with CO and normal shampoo on scalp/condish on length. Other than sometimes I didn't wash the conditioner out of my hair well enough before, and it would be greasy. It sounds great when people say that they try something new and it makes their hair more wavy or less wavy or straighter or whatever.. I've never noticed a change in my hair regarding that. Maybe I should try a shampoo bar...
(Just realized my reply might be off topic? Hopefully not too badly, sorry)
If you're looking for good waves, then I have something to recommend!!
I do this every day when my hair is slightly damp and often overnight.
Part your hair into two portions, one on each side of your head, like you're going to do two braids. Take one side and divide it into two sections, and twist them both in the same direction, away from your face. Then twist the twists in the opposite direction around each other (towards your face). Put in a hair band, and it should stay. Make sure you twist the second time in the opposite direction.
I hope those directions aren't too confusing... but this gives great waves, it really does. You should try it!

[LoveMyMutt]

I'm sort of a 1c/2a mix; I've been using CG method for about four years now. In that time, I've only shampooed once (when I accidentally used a coney styling product and needed to get rid of it).

My hair is the sort that gets curlier the longer it gets. Two years ago I had an...er...INCIDENT involving henna and had to cut my hair back to chin length; at that length I have barely any wave so I went back to wearing it straight for a while. I don't get really good waves and curly until I'm around APL which I am just short of now.

I CO wash with Suave Naturals, condition, then apply hard hold gel like Biosilk Rock Hard Gelee and plop for 15 minutes. It takes a while for it to dry but once I scrunch out the crunch I have good waves which last for a few days. They do eventually flatten and that's when I start putting my hair up until next wash.

[battles]

I'm not sure of my type, but I think 2a. I've wanted to seriously try CG because I think my hair wants to curl more. It's normally pretty frizzy and wild looking. I try to treat it like straight hair and it doesn't like that.

I've tried CO and my hair got greasy pretty quickly. I can do it for a day or two but then I have to shampoo again. Scrunching makes my hair frizzy, stringy and sad looking. Haven't tried plopping or anything else yet.