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So far, I’ve talked all about my top curly hair tips and mistakes to avoid. But what about my actual curly hair routine?
That’s what I’ll go over into today’s post.
There are two things I want to mention beforehand:
First of all, I have 2c-3a type of curls. What works for me will most likely work best for similar curl patterns.
If you have more wavy or much curlier hair than I do, I encourage you to find at least one YouTuber or blogger out there with a similar pattern.
That way, you also know what exactly to expect your hair to look like.
Number 2: This is, by far, not my ultimate curly hair routine. Even though I have been tweaking it for more than three years now, there is still a lot to improve. In fact, I believe I will never entirely stop working on it.
But for now, this is my current curly hair routine:
Wash day
On washdays, every third-fourth day, I step into the shower with unbrushed and product free hair.
Firstly, I use a non-toxic shampoo that soothes and hydrates the scalp. For years now, I have been struggling with an itchy scalp and product build-up.
I am still experimenting with finding the right shampoo that is not too full of chemicals, yet strong enough to really get rid of that build-up.
To help with that, I use a cheap scalp massager from Amazon to truly massage in the product without having to put all too much pressure on my fingers.
After rinsing out the shampoo and wringing out my hair, I apply sulfate-, alcohol- and paraben-free conditioner that has coldly pressed avocado oil in it and brush my hair.
Doing it this way has a few advantages. Firstly, the brush quickly distributes the conditioner throughout my hair. Secondly, the brushing gives the product some time to get absorbed by the hair without me getting impatient. And lastly, I can smoothly get rid of any knots.
After rinsing everything out, I brush one last time through my hair. While doing so, I am trying to pull the hair away from the scalp.
Afterward, I bend forwards and let my hair hang upside down. Then I lift my head up slightly, before letting my curls drop down a couple times.
It’s not as violent as head banging just quickly but gently shaking my head downwards.
This causes the strands to separate into thinner strands naturally instead of having to use a Denman brush, for example.
Also, it gets the curls away from my scalp.
Following that, I get out of the shower without flipping the hair back.
Still, slightly bend forward, I dry-crunch the curls with a microfiber towel.
Not too long though! Since I found it creates frizz if I crunch for too long.
Now that the hair isn’t dripping wet anymore, I flip it back and go about getting on clothes and putting some moisturizer on my face and sometimes body lotion on my legs and arms.
When that is done, I crunch some moisturizing coconut cream from the tips up into my hair.
I follow it up by a lightweight gel or mousse that I crunch up to the roots.
After that, I let my hair hang upside down again and diffuse around the roots without touching the hair yet.
I’ve recently opted to do that with warm air since it is only the medium setting on my blow dryer, and it doesn’t touch the hair directly, so it keeps from overheating.
Once I feel that the head area is mostly dry, I continue with cold air.
The duration of the next step depends on how dry I want to diffuse my hair. Because frankly, I am quite lazy in that aspect.
I prefer not wasting over 30 minutes, blow-drying my hair. Instead, I opt for letting most of it air dry so that I can continue my studies for uni in the meantime.
I continue diffusing by putting the diffusor into my hair, above the tips, and then cupping everything upwards towards my scalp.
That way, the tips won’t be dried first so that they don’t get overly dry. In the end, I cup my hair from the tips upwards with the diffusor to finish off.
If you let your curls air dry, try to wear a smooth top, so that your hair won’t get caught and stretched out while it is still damp.
Sleeping with my curls
I sleep with my curls in a sort of pineapple-bun.
It would be a pineapple hairstyle if my hair wasn’t so long. That’s why I pull it halfway through the hair tie a second time.
My hair tie is actually a pretty tight one because otherwise, the whole bun falls apart while I toss and turn in my sleep.
I am not entirely happy with this sleeping hairstyle since I do feel like it stretches out the curls, especially the upper half, more than it needs to.
So I am still searching for an alternative. But for now, it does work well enough.
Refreshing
So far, I haven’t been big on the whole refreshing front. So I am still very much an amateur in this.
If I do refresh, I like to get my hands wet and scrunch my hair upwards a few times to get it slightly damp.
Then I use a moisturizing product and scrunch it in.
Deep-conditioning
I used to deep condition once a week and to leave the product in my hair for three hours before washing it.
I’m afraid I used to over-condition that way. So now, I only leave the product in for half an hour.
I hope my curly hair routine gave you so the inspiration for your own.
The most important thing is to keep experimenting.
And don’t get frustrated when it doesn’t work out the way you imagined. Trust me, I have had plenty of disappointing curly hair results, too.
If that happens, I try to make the best out of it and wear a bun or a ponytail until the next washing day.
Keep your hair curly.
Sophie
