It’s been forever since I’ve posted about my hair. A lot has changed since I’ve last posted. Let me dive right in…
It’s been about three months since I started CG and I really
couldn’t be happier with my hair. As
long as I keep my moisture and protein in balance, and avoid those cheap-o products
(VO5, Suave, etc.) my hair is really happy.
If you’ve read my other CG posts, you’re probably wondering about that,
since I was previously using VO5 as a co-wash and loving it. I’ll get into that later.
Currently, I’m using Yes To Carrots
Conditioner (I will be returning to One-C when this bottle is empty), Kinky Curly
Curling Custard as my gel, and, as usual, I have my Lily Of The Valley Aloe Gel
as a sort of leave-in. Let me just say
that I love Kinky Curly Curling Custard!
I was a little daunted by the price at first (a product in this price range
is usually a spurge), but I’m realizing the product (from here on out, KCCC) is
worth every penny. I paid about $17 for
8 oz. That seems like a lot, considering
I was previously using LA Looks Sports Gel (LALSG), which runs about $3 for 20
oz. That’s a big difference in price,
but there’s also a big difference in quality.
KCCC is nothing but natural, nurturing ingredients, whereas
LALSG is pretty much all chemicals. My
hair feels so soft and smooth since I started using KCCC, it’s
unbelievable. It definitely took me a
while to find my balance with KCCC, so if you try it, be patient and experiment.
The product itself is really, really
thick. A little definitely goes a long
way with this stuff. I had quite a few
bad hair days when I was first experimenting.
At first I used way too much and ended up looking oily and wet, and my
curls were really clumpy. I don’t really
like thick clumps in my hair, so this was not good times. Then I tried it mixed with LA Looks Sports Gel
(LALSG), and that was better, but a still a little too crunchy. {One thing I’ve noticed with crunch is that
there is a fine line between happy-crunch, which can be scrunched out, and
over-crunch which just ends up stringy and straggly and your hair is fucked
because no amount of scrunching will undo the stringy remains of over-crunch.} Gradually I reduced the amount of KCCC I was
using, and began using it with aloe gel.
Wetting my hair with aloe as the
last step seems to help the KCCC distribute.
Usually a few hard scrunches will distribute the product pretty well. This is by no means a miracle styling
combination, but for now until I discover something better, this gives me consistently
decent hair days. I, personally, would
rather have consistently tolerable hair days, rather than a few awesome hair
days mixed with unpredictably bad ones.
Most products give me the latter result, so I’m happy to have something
that I can slap in and go and not really worry too much that my hair is going
to flip out at some point and turn into a fluff ball. KCCC also smells like vanilla frosting, which
I love! I had read that it smells that
way, and I was skeptical because I don’t usually care for sweet, candy-like
fragrances, but I really like this!
When I first started doing CG and frequenting the NaturallyCurly forums, I couldn’t believe the number of people I saw raving on and on
about such inexpensive brands as VO5 and LA Looks. I knew these to be cheap products made with
cheap ingredients which, when I tried them in the past, made my hair thin and
brittle. I figured hundreds of curlies
couldn’t be wrong, so I gave them a go with CG.
They worked for a little while, but eventually the low quality
ingredients caught up with me and my hair became thin and brittle. It was taking longer to catch up with me than
I had expected, so I wasn’t sure at the time if it was the conditioner causing
my hair to be this way. I experimented
with protein since I read that protein deficiency shows similar symptoms. That didn’t work, so I began experimenting
with my co-wash, which was VO5 Extra Body at the time. I switched to Suave Naturals Tropical Coconut
for a while, but my hair reacted even worse to this. I decided to try a natural co-wash so I
purchased Aubrey Organics GPB Conditioner from Amazon. When it arrived it was a little thicker than
I had anticipated, so I ended up using the GPB as my rinse-out conditioner, and
the Deva Curl One Conditioner (from here on out “One-C”) as my co-wash since it
was, at that time, the thinnest conditioner I had on hand. This happened to be a rather serendipitous
change of plans, because I realized that my hair loves One-C as a co-wash! Since I realized that, I’ve started using
One-C as my primary conditioner for both co-wash and rinse-out, and
occasionally add some protein-rich conditioner into the mix when my hair starts
to show signs of crispiness. I do the
co-wash and rinse-out all as one step, though.
I just put my normal amount of conditioner in my hair (plus a pump or
two extra for the hair line), massage my scalp, finger comb, then tilt forward
and scrunch. When I’m ready to rinse, I
put my head under the water and scrunch handfuls of my roots to make sure the
conditioner rinses well from my scalp. As
soon as my scalp feels well rinsed, I stop.
At that point, whatever conditioner is still in my hair stays in my
hair.
When I get out of the shower, I scoop a little glob (quarter
size?) out with my middle and ring fingers, rub that together in my palms, and
smooth it through my hair. With my head
tilted forward, I very gently smooth the gel over my hair in sections. I start in the back at the nape, then come to
the front, then the sides, and finally rub whatever is left in my hands over
the canopy. I leave the canopy for last
because it is very easy to overdo it with KCCC and I would look like a greasy
mess if I overdid it in such a prominent area as the canopy. I do the back first because it’s the area on
my head most prone to dryness and breakage (so needs the most
nourishment). If your hair is different,
I would suggest beginning the application wherever you need the most
moisture. After all of the custard has
been applied, I scrunch everything together and finger comb a little, if
necessary. I don’t finger comb every
day, but some days it’s just necessary.
Then I get out the aloe gel. I
squirt a little blob - about a dime size blob, I’d say – into my palm and
scrunch it directly into a lock of curls.
I continue this throughout my head until my hair is nice and wet with
aloe, and all hair has had an aloe scrunch.
Then I shake my hair around and separate any curls that need separating. Basically any touching that I will need to
to…I do that now. If my ends have
started to frizz by now, I get a tiny dab of KCCC and scrunch it into the ends.
Then I scrunch with a T-shirt, and clip.
I place 3 clips down the center of my head, and 1 clip to either side (5
clips total). I just pinch a clump of
curls at the root, then loop the curl around a little and clip it all
together. Looping the hair up and
including it in the clip keeps the clip from falling parallel to the scalp,
which is something I was initially having problems with. After that, I do my makeup, then remove the
clips and blow dry. Usually that’s about
15 minutes clipped.
As long as my protein and moisture is well balanced and
adequate, this routine really works for me.
Where that is concerned, my new conditioners are a little disappointing,
but I’m starting to suspect that has more to do with protein deficiency than
any real lack on the conditioners’ part. I’m eternally on the hunt for a perfect
conditioner which doesn’t break the bank, so although I was pleased with One-C,
when it came time to re-up I tried to find something a little cheaper. This time around I decided to try Aubrey
Organics White Camellia Conditioner and Yes To Cucumber Color Care
Conditioner. There is a lot of slip in both products, for
sure, but they are just not thick enough. I want something thick like Pantene Pro-V, but
haven’t found anything in the natural, CG friendly world that fits the bill and
doesn’t cost $3 million per oz. I do
like the way the Yes to Cucumbers smells.
It’s really nice and light. The
Aubrey Organics White Camellia, however, smells disgusting. It smells very strongly of lemons, but not
refreshing lemons. It smells like awful
fake lemon fragrance. It reminds me of
mopping solution. I do not want to smell
like mopping solution while I shower.
Gross. Its conditioning
properties leave something to be desired, as well. It was very watery. I will probably finish the bottle, but not
buy again. I’m not sure if I will buy
Yes To Cucumbers again, but I don’t hate it.
Combined with a little squirt of the GVP Reconstructor, the Yes To
Carrots felt really nice and my hair turned out really smooth and bouncy. We’ll see how healthy my hair is after the
bottles of GVP Hair Reconstructor and Yes To Cucumbers are finished.
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