I've had a hair revelation this month, my thin yet poofy sometimes curly, sometimes wavy, and sometimes acts as if it has no backbone hair!

I thought i'm going to delve out of my comfort zone and head out to get my hair cut my a proper curly haired hair dresser. I am not a hair dresser, please forgive if some of terminally is not right.

As it was such an insight for myself I thought i'd share the knowledge I have learned.

Curly Facts & Handy Info

Frizz is a curl that is just lacking moisture. The biggest revelation to me in this whole process was understanding my hair.

Curly hair needs to be watered a lot, due to way the hair itself is structured. Soaking your hair for a good 3 minutes before using Lo/No Poo to wash your hair.

Conditioner contains Silicone

Shampoo contains Sulphates

If a conditioner says it is Sulphate Free it may not be suitable because it could contain silicone's and visa versa. This is a problem because you need the nasty sulphates to clean away the silicone. Therefore it is imperative to not just take take a glance read the label!

Plant based conditioners are best.

No Poo vs Lo Poo

No Poo is using no shampoo at all

Lo Poo is using a sulphate free shampoo

Be Patient

As your hair gets used to self regulating again without all the nasty stuff, it will go limp, it will get greasy just be patient some peoples takes weeks!

The CG Rules & Steps

#1 No Sulphates

Sulphates are not good for curly hair as it causes it to dry out. A lot of shampoo contains sulphates.

#2 No Silicone

Silicones are used to make hair feel sleek and soft but all it does it coat your hair in plastic.

#3 Do A Final Wash

Because your hair will have been coated with sulphates and silicone's you need to cleanse your hair of these first. Ironically as I mentioned above you need to use a sulphate shampoo like baby shampoo to rid the hair of the silicone's. Once you have done this you are ready to start curly curl.

4 New Hair Washing Hair

When washing hair soak it until you can feel the weight of the water in your hair. Then use a sulphate free deep conditioner or light conditioner depending if your hair is too fine. You massage the conditioner into your scalp, your fingers and the conditioner are now doing the job of the nasty sulphates so scrub your scalp to ensure it has a good clean. Work down into the lengths of hair and rake through.

Work out knots by rubbing fingers over hair in small sections, if you feel a knot add more water until it slides out.

Once untangled, rinse the conditioner out.

#5 Apply Gel To Soaking Wet Hair

Once rinsed, apply a liberal about of gel and rake through your sopping wet hair hair. The Gel helps lock in the moisture into the curl.

Set curls by squeezing curls to head, it should squelch.

Using a Silicone free gel which drys in a cast, but fear not the hair doesn't stay in a stiff gelled position. Once the gel is completely dry, either by the options below or using a diffuser.

A DIY version is Flax Seed Gel - Its Vegan Too

#6 Plopping, Pinappling, Silk Scarfs and a Towel Ban

Due to curly hair texture mentioned above, the material used in towels causes friction and therefore frizz. So instead of using a towel use a cotton tshirt to absorb the water by gently placing your curls in a t-shirt and squeeze the curls to your head.

Plopping is where you wrap a t-shirt around your head and tie the sleeves to dry your hair.

Pineappling is where you use a silk scarf to keep your curls safe when sleeping. You can leave your hair wet in a plop/pinapple to dry also.

Diffuser - Place curl into the differ and raise to top of head and hold. Do not wiggle the dryer, do not run fingers through the hair

Handy video on how to plop I found on youtube.

#7 Break The Gel Cast & Scrunge

Once your hair is completely dry, scurnch your curls by placing curl in your hand and bring to head and the cast will break and you will be left with hopefully more defined curls.

#8 No Combs/Brushes

Touching curly hair makes it frizzy because curly hair is naturally a rougher texture than straight it rubs and causes frizz.

Next Day Hair

Wake Up, lightly dampen hair with water and a bit of conditioner and apply some more gel and off you go.

When it times to wash again can be every other day, every day, or whatever suits you, just wash with either just silicone free conditioner or a lo poo shampoo followed by conditioner.

Phew I think that's everything, search online for CG method, CG Safe Products there is an abundance of information.