Wavy hair products Archives

Wavy Hair & Hair Oils

August 4, 2023 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

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Do I Have To Use Hair Oil When Following The Curly Girl Method?

Using hair oil is not required in the curly girl method. Many oils are permitted in the curly girl method though. So, they’re an option, but not a requirement.

What Is The Purpose Of Using Hair Oils?

Hair oils are used to condition/soften the hair, add shine, lock moisture in and block out humidity out, or help break a gel cast.

Hair oils have two main purposes. One is to help soften the hair and make it more manageable. Many people think of this as ‘moisturizing’ the hair, but oils don’t actually hydrate the hair. They do make it feel softer and more manageable though. This can assist with making detangling easier, and it can just make your hair physically feel better to the touch. They sometimes also produce a slightly shiny look which people like for aesthetic reasons.

The other reason for using oils is to lock moisture in, and humidity out. Many hair oils create a really fine seal over the hair, which can help keep water and conditioning ingredients inside of the hair to keep it from getting dry or feeling rough. They also can lock humidity and other things out of your hair strands. If you live in an area with really high humidity, you may notice that your hair gets really frizzy if you go outside when its humid. This is because high humidity conditions can cause your hair to try to pull in too much water from the air, which results in frizz. Using a hair oil can help stop humidity from entering your hair, and help avoid that frizz.

Important note: Using hair oils on their own will not make your hair more moisturized and in most cases, will actually dry your hair out more! It’s a common mistake for people to use hair oils on their dry hair to try to moisturize it.

A third reason within the curly girl method world in particular, is to break a gel cast.

Should You Use Hair Oils If You Have Wavy Hair?

Ouidad Review On Wavy Hair

March 18, 2023 by Emily Evert 2 Comments

Ouidad sent me products for review. All opinions are my own.

Many of you know that I typically recommend really affordable products. I think of myself as frugal, but not cheap. What I mean by that is, I like seeking out value. However, that doesn’t mean that I look for the absolute cheapest products available, necessarily. I’m often happy to pay more for one product over another in the same category, as long as I feel like the more expensive product has something unique that it offers. If two products perform the same, then I’m going to go with the cheaper option.

Ouidad is a brand that is a bit higher-end than most of what I’ve used in the past, but that is popular with many people who have wavy and c urly hair. I had purchased a Ouidad gel on my own during an Ulta hair sale where the gel was offered at 50% off. So, when Ouidad reached out to me to see if I wanted to try out some of their products, I was happy to agree. They sent me four products, so I’m going to review each of those. I’m also going to cover the gel that I had purchased from Ouidad on my own.

My wash day results when using Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Featherlight Styling Cream, Ouidad VitalCurl + Weightless Curl Defining Mousse (a lot), and Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Heat and Humidity Harder Hold Gel (a little).

Ouidad Advanced Climate Control Heat and Humidity Gel Review

Bond Builders For Damaged Wavy Hair

March 4, 2023 by Emily Evert 1 Comment

Can You Really Repair Hair Bonds Damaged by Bleaching or Dyeing?

There are several types of hair bonds that can be broken. The ones broken during the process of bleaching hair or dyeing hair are primarily disulfide bonds, which are a type of covalent bonds. Those disulfide bonds cannot be fully repaired with any technology that we currently have.

The cosmetic chemists on the Beauty Brain podcast say bond builders like Olaplex and wellaplex do more conditioning than bond rebuilding. Covalent bonds or disulfide bonds are the ones damaged when hair is dyed. “It’s literally impossible to fully restore disfulfide bonds”. Hair repair products may rebuild hydrogen bonds or electrostatic bonding.

Episode 216 on bond building explains how Olaplex has a patent that claims they rebuild disulfide bonds, but patents aren’t evidence of effective peer-reviewed science.

What percentage of hair bonds are damaged while bleaching hair?

Typically 15-25% of bonds are damaged while bleaching hair, but it can be up to 45% in cases where “severe” bleaching is being done.

This is a quote from from Chemical and Physical Behavior of Human Hair by Clarence R. Robbins.

“Robbins and Kelly [5] have shown that 15–25% of the disulfide bonds in human hair are degraded during “normal” bleaching, however, as much as 45% of the cystine bonds may be broken during severe “in practice” bleaching. This latter amount of damage may occur while frosting hair, or while bleaching hair from black or brown-black to light blond”

What Type Of Hair Bonds are Damaged by Bleaching?

Are More Expensive Wavy Hair Care Products Higher Quality?

February 11, 2023 by Emily Evert 3 Comments

Is Following The Curly Girl Method Expensive?

The curly girl method can be followed on a small budget. People often hesitate to start the curly girl method because they fear it’ll be expensive. It’s easy to get the impression that embracing your naturally wavy hair has to be expensive. A lot of content for wavy curly hair does feature high-end products. However, influencers or content creators are more apt to use expensive hair products than a non-influencer with wavy hair.

You certainly can spend a lot of money on your hair if you want to, but it’s not necessary to get good results or to follow the curly girl method.

I’ve shared content before that is specifically aimed at showcasing how affordable embracing wavy hair, even while following the curly girl method, can be. Here are some of those posts below:

Cheap wavy hair products that work well for me

Dollar tree curly girl method routine / Cheapest way to start the CGM

Once you know that you don’t have to spend a lot of money, you still may wonder if you should buy higher end products.