Curly Hair Revelation

OK, all you curly-heads out there. I have some potentially life-changing information for you.

Everyone has a certain trademark to the way they look - facial hair, lipstick choice, eye color, hair color, etc. Something they feel sets them apart and looks attractive. Well, I've always thought that my trademark has been my curly hair.

Over the last few years, I've been having a lot of issues with styling it and trying to make it look as bouncy and shiny as I want it to. I blamed it on the weather, the water, my hair dryer, my haircut, my styling products, etc. And, I kept trying all sorts of things and products to improve the situation. One frustration is that the only products that seemed to work for me were Aveda, which is REALLY EXPENSIVE.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon a blog about curly hair that described the Curly Girl method for hair. You can visit the blog here, and even though it's long I encourage you to take the time to read it. It's made a huge difference for me.

Basically, it addresses a couple issues unique to curly hair. First, shampoo is very harsh and drying for curly hair. (Up until now, I was only shampooing my hair about once a week.) But, you need shampoo to remove the silicones in most styling products.

Solution: Use a mild conditioner instead of shampoo. Conditioners still contain ingredients that will clean your hair but aren't as harsh. And, avoid silicones! They coat your hair and weigh it down. (The link provides more details on how to find styling products that follow these guidelines.)

This solves so many problems for me! I don't need to worry about only washing my hair once a week. And, now I understand why Aveda products worked for me - they don't have silicones!

Now that I know the secret formula, I can hunt for cheaper products that don't contain silicones.

Here's what I use now:

• To clean my hair: Suave Naturals Coconut Conditioner
• To condition my hair: L'oreal Vive Pro Nutri Gloss
• To style my hair: Herbal Essence Totally Twisted Mousse and Gel (Bonus: They smell like lavendar!)
• To keep my hair in place: Aveda Hairspray (I still haven't found anything cheaper that I like as well as this)

So, now I'm saving money and my hair looks better (and still smells good). WooHoo!

Again, I encourage you to read the full article at The College Curly. Plus, she talks about a styling method called "plopping," which I definitely need to learn more about.