Wavy Hair Care

Curly Hair Product Swap – Exchange Haircare Products

September 4, 2020 by Emily Evert 1 Comment

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Curly Hair Product Swap

At some point on your wavy hair journey, it’s likely that you’ll end up with some products you purchased, that you don’t want to finish off. Figuring out your wavy hair means finding the products that work well for you. That can take some trial and error.

At different times, I’ve had wavy hair products that were too heavy for my hair, too light for my hair, or that just didn’t seem to give me the results I wanted. It’s a bummer to spend money on hair products that you don’t want to use up. If you like to try a lot of products, it can add up to a lot of money, too!

A great way to recoup some of the cost is to use a Curly Hair Product Swap.

Curly Girl Product Swaps

There are several places online where you can exchange curly hair products with others. Most of these use the percentage of product left in the container to help determine the price.

For example, if a retail value of a product is $20 and about 80% is left, the remaining product has a value of about $16. Meaning you’d look to trade someone for about $16 worth of other products.

Reddit’s Hair Care Exchange forum. This is for any/all hair care products.

Curly Girls – Product Swap (US) is a Facebook group for swapping curly girl approved products only.

Curly Hair product swap Facebook group. This group allows any products for wavy/curly/coily hair to be swapped. They just ask that you identify any non-CGM approved products.

Hair Product buy-sell-trade (by wavy method intl) is a group that branched off from a really popular Faecbook group for chatting about wavy hair, but they made this secondary group so people could buy or sell. It is not exclusive to wavy hair or the CGM. This one is specifically international making it great for people looking to buy, sell or trade outside of the US.

Selling used curly hair products

How To Sleep On Wavy Hair

August 30, 2020 by Emily Evert 20 Comments

There is an affiliate link in this post. All opinions are my own.

How to sleep on wavy hair over night without ruining it or getting frizz — How To Sleep On Wavy Hair

To sleep on wavy hair without ruining it, put your hair up in a very high and loose bun using a scrunchie. Your hair bun should rest on top of your head, not behind it. Sleeping on a silk or satin pillowcase or wearing a satin bonnet will help reduce breakage.

If you have wavy or curly hair, then you know that sleeping with your hair down can have you waking up looking a bit like medusa. Or maybe you look like you walked through a hurricane. When I sleep with my waves down, the back often gets flattened, too.

Sleeping your hair in a “pineapple”, or loose ponytail or bun on top of your head at night, will keep your head from smashing your waves while you sleep. Use a scrunchie loosely instead of a traditional pony tail holder, and you won’t get indents in your hair.

The material of the scrunchie you use to pineapple with matters! Try to find one that is really smooth, satin or silk are great options. They will introduce less frizz vs scrunchies that are more textured. My top choice is silk or satin scrunchies, then ‘regular’ scrunchies, and I avoid scrunchies that are velvet, terrycloth, etc at all costs.

Another key aspect to sleeping on wavy hair without ruining it, is making sure your hair has good hold. If you wash your hair and don’t use a styling product with hold, your hair will fall flat pretty easily. If you use a product like gel or mousse that has hold, that will help protect your hair pattern while you’re sleeping. Using a product with harder hold may result in hair that is harder to ruin.

What about long, short or thick hair?

Air Dry VS Diffuse Wavy Hair – Best Way To Dry Wavy Hair

August 23, 2020 by Emily Evert 16 Comments

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Air Dry VS Diffuse Wavy Hair

Both of these photos were with no product like gel or mousse. Each way was done just two days apart, my hair was not cut in between. I don’t consider either of these good results, my hair doesn’t do well without gel or mousse. Still, my hair has more volume and a tighter curl pattern when I diffuse.

**Update, November 2020. I wanted to update this post to try to give some comparison of air drying or diffusing with mousse. See the graphic below. I used the same products as I had used before, but to try out air drying with a fan to speed it up. I also did a lot of microplopping to try to encourage volume and waves despite air drying. This broke my clumps up into smaller pieces than I would usually have.

As a result, I don’t think the clump size shown in the photos below are ‘fair’ comparison. Still, this gives you an idea of the volume difference an the difference in the tightness of my waves. Diffusing helps a lot with volume, and it helps a lot with keeping my waves tighter. Air drying lets my waves loosen up quite a bit before they dry.

Air drying is on the left, diffusing is the photo on the right. In both I used NYM curl talk shampoo and conditioner, and suave captivating curls mousse.

Is Air Drying Or Diffusing Better For Wavy Hair?

Diffusing wavy hair may help your hair to dry in a tighter hair pattern, and with more volume, but will likely introduce some frizz. If you want tighter waves, diffusing is best. If you prefer elongated waves or are worried about damage, air drying is best.

So – should you air drying or diffuse? It totally depends on what your hair goals and hair concerns are! Keep reading to learn more details about the pros and cons of air drying or diffusing wavy hair.

Is Your Hair Straight Or Wavy? Signs Of Naturally Wavy Hair

August 22, 2020 by Emily Evert 61 Comments

Wavy Hair Before And After Curly Girl Method

This is my wavy hair before and after the curly girl method. Before starting the curly girl method on the left in both photos, and 2 years into the curly girl method on the right in both photos.

The curly girl method isn’t magic or anything. In my experience, it certainly has helped to make my hair healthier. It feels softer, stronger, and looks shinier than it used to. My hair became wavier.

All of these photos were after starting the curly girl method. From the very beginning on the left, working up to the current day on the right.

I realized my hair was wavy when I was 26. How can you live 26 years without realizing your hair texture? Well, I was brushing my hair as soon as I got out of the shower, and letting it air dry. I also kept my hair very long from the time I was in my late teens.

As a preteen and teenager, I straightened my hair daily. I remember people asking me “why do you straighten your hair when it’s already straight?” and my answer was “it makes it less poofy!” or “it makes it sleeker.” I never really understood why using a flat iron on my hair made it sleeker, or less poofy.

Now I realize that the poof was brushed-out waves, and straightening my hair removed that remaining bit of wave, which is why it became sleeker once fully straight. This was a sign that my hair was actually wavy.

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