Wavy Hair Care

Wavy Hair Gel Questions & Answers

July 5, 2022 by Emily Evert Leave a Comment

I have a few blog posts about gel already, but I noticed that there were several questions I get related ot gel that I hadn’t answered yet, So, I thought I’d compile a blog post that is sort of Q and A style with gel being the core topic. So, here we go. If you want to see my other blog posts on gel, here are those:

What is a gel cast, why you want one, and how to create one

How to know if you’re getting a gel cast and reasons why you may not get one

Do I really have to use gel?

15 hair gels tested on my wavy hair (over 3 days each, with pics!)

Should I use gel or mousse?

How much gel to use on wavy hair?

This is going to vary a lot from person to person. Hair density can vary really dramatically, with some people having 1 hair per hair follicle, and others having up to 6 hairs per hair follicle. Meaning, some people can literally have 6x as much hair on their head as other people!

When you keep that information in mind, it can really help to explain why some people need to use way more gel than other people. Hair length can also make a big difference, of course.

Unfortunately, this variation in amount and length of hair means it’s not really possible to give a general rule of thumb such as a quarter sized amount or a golfbal sized amount and have that work for everyone.

I have very dense hair and I cover my palms with gel 3 to 4 times depending on the specific gel I’m using.

If you’re new and looking with how much to try to begin, here’s a rule of thumb I’ve heard. Gather your hair as if you’re going to put it into a ponytail, but then use your thumb and pointer finger to circle the ponytail instead of actually putting it in a hairtie. Hold your fingers in that same as you remove your hand from your hair. Use that size/shape as an estimate for how much gel to use in each 1/4 section of your hair.

To give an example, if you measure your ponytail and it’s about as big as a quarter, you’d use a quarter-sized amount of gel in four sections of your hair (Front left, right left, left back, right back). This would just be a starting point, and you’d analyze your results and then use more or less next time depending on how it went.

Ultimately, finding out how much gel you should use will require some experimentation. We all use too much, and we all use not enough, at some point! It’s part of the journey.

Hair follicle count information source: MindBodyGreen.com.

How to emulsify gel?

My Experience Seeing A “Wavy Specialist Vs A Curly Specialist

June 28, 2022 by Emily Evert 4 Comments

My curl specialist experience last year

If you’ve been following me for a while you may recall my 2021 haircut. I saw a Deva certified stylist with over 20 years of experience and it didn’t go well. In part, I didn’t communicate as well as I should have. In part…the stylist just didn’t seem to understand my hair type. The collage below shows my before (first row), my “just got home from the salon” (second row) and my first attempt to style it myself (third row).

If you’d like to read more about my experience last year, see my blog post Getting A DevaCut On Wavy Hair [My Experience].

After that experience last year, I initially thought I’d go back to cutting my own hair again. After a while though I started daydreaming about trying a dry curl cut again. For a while I was thinking I’d try out a Ouidad cut or rezo cut rather than another Devacut. Then I found Locks By Alaina out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She’s a Deva certified stylist which wasn’t what I thought I was looking for but…

Alaina has wavy hair herself, and her Instagram is full of clients who also have wavy hair. I was pretty immediately interested, but what really hooked me was when she posted something about how wavy hair often needs strong hold. If there’s one piece of information that people seem to get wrong about wavy hair most often, it’s the idea that wavy hair doesn’t need gel or doesn’t do well work hard hold.

If you go to the hair section of most any store and look for products that say ‘wavy’ you’ll mostly find texturizing sprays or other very light hold products…so it even seems to be a prevalent idea in product marketing. Anyway…I knew she would understand my hair type, so I was pretty much sold. Let me be clear that she doesn’t advertise herself as a wavy specialist.

I just framed this post that way on my own, because I could see that she has more experience and knowledge with wavy hair than the other stylist I went to…and I think probably more than your average Devacurl specialist, but I am guessing.

Locks By Alaina Review

I was really happy with my experience seeing “Locks By Alaina”…for a whole bunch of reasons.

How To Do The Curly Girl Method When You Shower At Night

June 15, 2022 by Emily Evert 3 Comments

I’ve had people ask me if they have to shower in the morning if they want to follow the curly girl method or otherwise embrace their natural waves or curls. Nope! You can shower at night. It does take some additional planning, though.

I have always preferred to shower at night (I am not a fan of waking up earlier to shower and do my hair!) so I can share how I make it work! Well, this is what I do on ‘regular’ wash days anyway. Sometimes when I’m doing blog posts for this blog I will do my hair differently for the sake of a blog post.

How To Wash Your Hair At Night On The Curly Girl Method

How To Make The Curly Girl Method Transition Phase Easier

June 3, 2022 by Emily Evert 1 Comment

I recently did a blog post about the curly girl method transition phase where I explained what it was, and answered some other related questions. A common question that I didn’t answer in that post is basically ‘how can I survive the transition phase?”. I thought that question was big enough to warrant its own post.

How To Make The Curly Girl Transition Phase More Tolerable

1. Wash your hair when you need to!

This is the biggest one, in my opinion. What makes the transition phase so challenging for many people is they decide they absolutely can’t wash their hair more than once every three days or four days or whatever timeframe. I do believe that it’s good to work on getting your hair used to being washed less frequently because daily shampooing can be drying. I don’t believe that the only way to “train” your hair to produce less oils is to go from daily washing to once-a-week washing.

Prior to trying the curly girl method I had been a daily washer, so I started by just moving to every other day at first. That was tolerable, 3+ days would not have been tolerable for me. I would have been insecure about how my hair looked, and felt. It wasn’t worth it to me!

Plus, if I just really messed up a wash day? I’d sometimes get right back in the shower and rewash just an hour after I washed the first time. I wasn’t willing to hate my hair the entire time between wash days, and one “extra” shampoo experience isn’t going to leave your hair super dry or otherwise cause major problems. If you’re itching to wash your hair – just wash it, you’ll be happier and your hair will be okay.

2. Set realistic goals.

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