My wonderful cousin, Sheri, introduced me to this book because she saw my angst on my blog about my curly-ness, plus her daughter is a Curly Girl and the two of them have been absorbing and practicing the Curly Girl method. Sheri even cuts her daughter’s hair. (I was excited to see that there are salons around who specialize in this method!) (Thank you, cuz!)
There are several different types of curls identified in this book, and I definitely fall into “The Cherub Curly Girl” category:
- Had curly hair from birth
- Baby fine curl spirals that resemble the hair of a young child
- Curls that seem as delicate as gold leaf because they easily disperse with wind, moving around while sleeping, or too much touching
- Curls that are weightless to the touch and have a translucency to them like a halo
- A variety of curl lengths on your head
- Curls that take a long time to grow and never seem to grow past a certain point (I’m assured they will with proper care)
- Curls that have a shorter life span because they are so fragile they break easy
Yep. That’s me all right.
I’m still learning and practicing, but I’m starting to see improvement and I’m (so far) happy with the new products I bought (travel size so I could give them a solid try before making an investment). It’s the “DevaCurl” line, and the No. 1 thing I’ve had to unlearn is not using shampoo. (I know, huh?) Just about all shampoos have sulfates and curly hair just doesn’t tolerate it — main source of frizz and dryness. So I’m using “No-Poo.” Heh. It’s still a cleanser, but no harsh ingredients and it doesn’t suds up, which takes some getting used to. (It’s the sulfates and chemical additives that create the suds that we all expect). Then non-silicone conditioner, which I use relatively lightly because of my fine hair. Thicker-haired curly girls actually don’t even rinse out the conditioner! I do, but not entirely). I’ve always scrubbed my hair dry with a towel and I don’t anymore – just gently squeeze and scrunch, leaving my hair still quite wet. Then I follow up with a gel and continue to squeeze, scrunch, and shake my head to set the curls. Today I also wrapped a few of the gel-covered curls around my finger to help define them.
Then the other thing I’ve had to unlearn:
Let it air dry and don’t touch it.
(Yikes! That’s hard! But there are methods to “freshen” it as the day goes on that really seem to help, including a spritz of lavender water).
Once my hair has grown some, I can use a hair dryer with a diffuser. Right now it’s awkward to use the diffuser. Plus, my hair dries pretty quickly at this length so it’s just not necessary.
My hair on top tends to flatten (typical of Cherubs), so I need to pick me up some small clips to place up there just up from my scalp to help lift that hair while it’s drying. I can see myself taking them out in the parking lot once I’ve arrived at work after my godawful commute. I hope that works well because that’s the part that bugs me the most—flat head.
Cleaned some more windows today and wow! What a difference! And it was pretty last night.
This Sunday is winding down here at Harstine (John’s napping) and as usual I’m feeling damned heavy-hearted. Man. I just hate going home and having to face five days of work hell.
For John, it will be his final week of work hell.
