Here is a little advice when thinking about products and all things curly
To co wash or not to co wash that is the question.?
When looking at shampoo and co wash cleansers you need to realise that they both have different functions. A shampoo removes build up and oils and leaves your curls feeling squeaky clean. A shampoo is for the roots of your curls and curls like mine need shampooing as my hair gets oily and dirt seems to stick to it very easily, so inner to use a shampoo, I also want o thev’ve volume in y curls as my hair is fine and flat otherwise. A co wash is the opposite to a shampoo it leaves things behind and makes course hair softer my keeping it moisturised. A co wash does not clean the curls in the same way and should not be thought of in my opinion as the sae thing as a shampoo.
How often should I wash my curls?
When it comes to how often you should wash your curls, this is really up to you, my fine waves need washing daily, but your courser curls might only need washing once a week, it really comes down to hygiene and if your curls are dirty or lacking in moisture after a few days.
Protein: Protein is the strength of your hair and it helps your curls to be more buoyant. It’s is important not to use protein too often as it can make your hair brittle and break . You can get a good protein treatment by organic colour systems called power build . You can leave it on for 15 mins after washing and before conditioner. It must never be left in the hair. It is great on coloured hair too !
Moisture : We need moisture in our curls as it stops the hair front breaking and keeps the curls defined. If we let curls dry out too much they can look fluffy and frizzy . We need the moisture or the water to be locked in with the product , this will give us longer wash days .
Which hairdryer should I use?
This is easy for me , if you are only drying your curls with a diffuser for a few minutes at a time you dont need to spend too much money on it. If you tend to dry your curls quite a lot you may need to spend more to stop your curls from going fluffy . I prefer the dyson hairdryer as it doesn’t blow your curls around , and gives heat not air. Just diffusers are good as they are light and easy to take ways with you , I wouldn’t take my dyson away I care I lost it . The Bellisima diffuser is a good purchase as its only about £40 you can take it on holiday as it light and really easy to use. The shark hairdryer with diffuser is ok too as long as you use it on a low speed otherwise it blows the hair around to much.
Silk bonnet?
A silk or satin bonnet suits some curlies but it’s not for me , With Caucasian hair we don’t need to stop our curls from breaking quite so much when we sleep on them as courser Afro texture although some curlies still like them and feel they find some benefits from using them.
Personally for me, rather than using a satin or silk bonnet to sleep over night to protect my curls I think that I would use a hair net on wavy curls s the bonnet is heavy and slips off too easily. The old fashioned hair nets are light weight and elastic so will hold the curls quite well without pulling your curls down. This is also my preference rather than putting my curly waves into a pineapple as the pineapple will also pull my curls out too much and disturb what is left of them in the morning.
What to do when refreshing curls
refreshing your curls is so personal it’s difficult to give advise for the best way to bring back your curls after sleeping. It depends how much the curl has disappeared into duff or frizz . If you can’t recognise the curls you need to reset the whole lot and start again if you can see s remnant of a curl you could try stroking neat gel over the surface of the curls.
How to sleep overnight?
I tend to just sleep and leave my curls to sort themselves out as I wash my curls all the time. Some put their curls in a loose pineapple on top their head. But for me it pulls my wave curls out too much . The latest thing Im advising us to use a simple hair net the kind your grand mother used to use as it’s light and elastic and you can pile your curls on top your head. Some curlies put a little curl cream meat on their curls to sleep to keep their curls moisturised. I dint think there is a best way to preserve the curls unless you sleep sat up all night I think most of us has to take pot luck and hope for the best in the morning.
Curly tips, if you want to use clips to give you a bit of more volume make sure the curls are at least 50% dry before you put them in otherwise your hair will take all day to dry and maybe use a diffuser a little first just to get a little bit of volume in the roots. You can either use You can either use small metal clips for clips that you would use to put all of them with they work quite well to give their roots little bit of volume. Or you could use two metal pics cost over each other that but obviously you won’t be able to put your head upside down if you do that.
Should we use oils?
in my opinion oils on there own are tricky as they can coat the curls and stop the moisture from getting in,
How often should I wash my curls?
I think this question depends on your lifestyle, hygiene and your curl pattern . If you are somebody that exercises regularly then you would want to wash your curls more often if you sweat. If you have thicker curls that don’t get dirty at the roots but dry out and get frizzy as the days go on you might want to wash properly once a week and co wash half way through the week to re moistures the curls and keep the curls defined and stop them from breaking. If you have very fine Caucasian wane curls like me I find it easier to wash daily and spend less time redoing day two hair and wash and start again.