Wavy Hair Basics Archives - Page 3 of 10

Easiest Curly Girl Method Routine For Beginners With Wavy Hair

August 29, 2021 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

When you are first looking to start the curly girl method, it’s easy to get overwhelmed! I am over 3 years in now, and I still feel overwhelmed watching some people’s haircare routines. I don’t want to use 5+ products, I don’t want to be doing my hair for 2 hours on wash day, I don’t want to rotate through different products each wash day, etc.

I’m not happy with how my hair looks if I just wash, condition and air dry, though. I really enjoy using techniques that embrace my waves well, but the amount of time and money that I’m willing to invest is not endless.

I often see people say that they’re interested in trying the curly girl method or some other form of naturally wavy hair care, but they feel overwhelmed or like it’s too much work. I thought I’d share a recommended easy curly girl method beginners routine for wavy hair.

The goal with this is to provide enough products and routine to help you embrace your wavy hair, without it being overwhelming or time-consuming. I think this would an ideal curly girl method beginners routine, but it also could work for people who have some experience but are just looking for a lower maintenance routine.

Can The Curly Girl Method Be Low Maintenance?

Alternatives To The Curly Girl Method

August 7, 2021 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

What Is The Curly Girl Method

Given that you found this post, you probably think you know what the curly girl method is. I thought I knew what the curly girl method was for over 2 years. When I read the Curly Girl Handbook, I was surprised that I was wrong on several details!

Various sources online and across social media use the phrase “curly girl method” to describe things that are different from the true curly girl method. Anyway…just to be clear, the true curly girl method is:

Using a botanical conditioner or suds-free cleanser to wash your scalp.
Using a botanical and silicone-free conditioner to condition your hair.
Using a gel but no other stylers. It says gels should be free of parabens and phthalates.
Avoiding sulfates, silicones, drying alcohols, brushes or combs.
There is a BIG focus on plant-based products.
Using a t-shirt or paper towel to dry your hair, no traditional bath towels. It does not reference ‘plopping’ or wrapping your hair with a t-shirt.
It is strongly against using curling irons, flat irons or blow dryers with heat. It even says that a single use can harm your hair. It does mention diffusing without heat, though.

I personally am not sure that anyone I follow on social media truly follows the curly girl method. I never really hear discussion at all about botanical requirements, for example. Most people who say they follow the curly girl method are referring to how they avoid sulfate and silicones.

It’s very common for people to break some curly girl method rules such as using a bomb or brush in the shower to detangle, clarifying their hair with a sulfate, or using a sudsing shampoo aka “low poo”.

Alternatives To The Curly Girl Method

Dry Curl Cut Advice For Wavy Hair

July 6, 2021 by Emily Evert 5 Comments

My last post was sharing my devacut experience on wavy hair. It wasn’t a great experience. Which makes it a little bit weird to now move on to sharing advice about dry curl cuts. However, I think I did learn quite a bit from the experience that may help others.

I also know there are some basic questions about devacuts or other types of dry curly cuts that I know the answers to. My other post was long enough so, I thought I’d do a second post to answer some dry curl cut questions.

Is a wet cut or dry cut better for wavy hair?

Whether a dry curl cut or a traditional wet hair cut is best for your wavy hair will depend on your exact hair type, as well as your styling preferences and your budget.

Wet hair cuts are best if you have a limited budget, if you ever wear your hair straight, and maybe if you have a delicate wave pattern. Meaning, if you need to use a product with hold, such as gel, to maintain your waves.

Dry curl cuts may be better for your wavy hair if you always wear your hair wavy and want to balance out an uneven curl pattern.

This was after styling my own hair after returning from getting a professional wet cut. It was uneven once styled, even though it was even when wet. This is due to my uneven curl pattern.

Getting A DevaCut On Wavy Hair [My Experience]

July 4, 2021 by Emily Evert 13 Comments

There are affiliate links in this post.

I started the curly girl method over 3 years ago now. A couple months after starting, I got a regular, wet haircut. Prior to embracing my waves, my hair was dow to my natural waist. I had grown it as long as possible to help weigh it down. I knew that when my hair was longer, it was less poofy.

After I started embracing my waves, that length was just way too much work, though. So I wanted a decent amount of length cut off. I just went to an affordable salon in my area called Cost Cutters. The cut looked poofy when I was leaving the salon, which worried me a bit.

However, after I washed it and styled it myself (with gel) the poof went away. After this cut, I began to notice how uneven my curl pattern was. Getting the excess length off my hair allowed the hair to the right side of my head to curl up tighter, but the left side didn’t see much change. This left me with visibly curlier hair on my left side.

The left is before the wet cut, the center is after, ad the right is after I washed and styled my new cut myself.

For 3 years after that wet cut, I occasionally cut my own hair using a dry curl cut technique. The first time I cut my hair dry, I thought I was likely to ruin my hair. I had tried cutting my own hair as a teenager when I wore my hair straight, and it was always a disaster. So, I was impressed to find that I could dry-cut my own waves without ruining my hair. Plus, it was free!

So, I stuck with that for 3 years. I cut my own hair 3 times. The collage below shows before and afters of each of those 3 cuts. The “afters” are not immediately after I cut my hair, but were after I washed and re-styled my hair. When I first cut my own hair, it looks pretty straight and poofy until I re-style it again.

Also – sorry for over-exposing my face in these photos and in many others here on my blog. I know the pale-as-a-vampire look isn’t particularly appealing, but if I don’t increase the exposure of my photos, you can’t really see the texture of my hair because it’s so dark!

Anyway. I was pretty happy with the results I got from cutting my own hair each time. But, I also kept seeing experiences of wavy/curly haired people online, talking about professional dry curl cuts. Most of the ones I saw were DevaCuts.

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