I’ve been doing the Curly Girl method for several months now. I think I started in February. Or maybe January. It never occurred to me to mark the date and count the weeks as I see other bloggers and vloggers have done.
My inspiration was my old jar of Kinky Curly Curling Custard. I was cleaning out my bathroom cupboard when I cam across the jar. Ah, KCCC. The queen of all gels. How come I don’t use this more often? I did a wash-n-go and my hair looked great.
My second inspiration occurred after I went to a natural hair meet up in Denver. Someone mentioned some local You Tubers doing videos on natural hair. One of them was Mahogany Curls who lives in Colorado Springs. I looked up her channel and learned she was a dedicated Curly Girl. She has been natural for less time than me and had grown her hair from a TWA to shoulder length, gorgeous curls, doing nothing but the Curly Girl method.
Why had I been sleeping on the CGM? I read Lorraine Massey’s first edition of the book not long after it first came out. Ms. Massey got me started on my penchant for natural, organic products without sulfates and silicones. The section in the book on black hair was not as relevant to me as it is in the second edition, the Curly Girl Handbook. Back then I just didn’t think the method would work for kinky hair. But I liked the idea of “botanical” shampoos and conditioners. I have almost always used them since I went perm-free some seven or eight years ago.
What I like about the CGM is the emphasis on moisture. Water is the moisturizer. Since starting it, I co-wash my hair three or four times a week. My hair loves it. I’ve never had such great curl definition. I feel like I’m getting fewer broken and split ends. My hair is color treated and will continue to be color treated for years to come, until I’m ready to finally accept the gray hairs. I ain’t ready yet. So I get the roots treated every six to eight weeks. I know this dries out my hair. But wetting it more often and leaving conditioner in it seems to help.
I’ve stopped using oils to seal in moisture because I’m of the theory that that oil also locks out any additional moisture. I’ve sealed religiously for years and I just don’t think it did much of anything. Now all those oils I have I combine in a mix to put on my skin after a shower. My skin is very happy.
I put gel or holding creams to help hold the curls after I do my hair. I’m wetting it and styling it more often, but the whole process is now down to about 30 minutes, rather than the once a week, three-hour production.
I’m loving it. I’ll do another post at some point about how I modified the CGM to fit my hair and my lifestyle.
