What is the Curly Girl method?
The Curly Girl Method originated from Lorraine Massey’s trending book, ‘Curly Girl: The Handbook’, a best-selling book that includes top tips on products, styling and how to look after curly hair. With 92.3k followers on Instagram and 2 trending books about the hair, her method is definitely going to be useful to know about for your curly-haired clients.
The successful hair regime instructs followers to stop using damaging products, like heated styling tools and shampoos, on the hair and scalp by using leave-in conditioners, lo-poo’s (sulphate & silicone free shampoo) and gels. It is a much healthier way of treating the hair and can be adapted to suit all hair types.
How does the Curly Girl Method work?
The Curly Girl method, also known as the ‘no poo’ method, has been very effective for many clients as it allows the hair to retain all of its natural oils. Constantly using heat or damaging shampoos on the hair can strip out the natural oils, leaving hair dry, brittle and damaged.
This method influences curly girlies to start using sulfate-free shampoos, moisturisers styling gels and gentle cleansing ingredients, doing this will add more moisture to the hair, allowing it to look curlier, healthier and bouncier. Whether your client has straight hair, curly hair or wavy hair, you can adapt this method to suit your client and to improve the condition of their hair.
Curly Girl Step-By-Step Guide:
Cleansing, Conditioning and Styling are the 3 most important steps within the regime and are all dependent on your client's natural curl pattern.
1. Cleanse
Cut out shampoo and cleanse the hair and scalp with a gentle conditioner like the Osmo Deep Moisture Conditioner, using your fingers to massage it into the scalp.
Cleansing Wavy hair - wash the hair with a gentle conditioner and then rinse, after you’ve done this, shampoo the hair, preferably with a sulfate-free shampoo and rinse again.
Cleansing curly hair - use only conditioner and rinse.
Cleansing coily hair - because of how tight the curls are, instead of using shampoo or conditioner all you need to do is wet the hair.
2. Conditioning
You will need to section the hair and cover it with conditioner.
Conditioning wavy hair - use a gentle conditioner like Fanola Wonder Curl Washing Conditioner
Conditioning curly hair - separate the hair and smooth it until it's all covered, then rinse out, but you don’t need to fully rinse it all out, it's good for the hair if you leave a layer on.
Conditioning coily hair - add a gentle conditioner and wrap the hair up in a towel, quickly blow dry with a hairdryer cool setting and rinse.
3. Styling the hair
Scrunching the hair to style it is less damaging than using heated styling tools and harsh products on the hair.
Styling wavy hair - rub an oil like Fanola Fantouch Curl Defining Cream in between your palms and scrunch or twist the hair, this allows the curls to remain in the hair, without the use of heat.
Styling curly hair - to add volume to curly hair just flip the hair forwards and scrunch upwards using the Fanola Fantouch Curl Passion Curl Mousse
Styling coily hair - try and avoid using heat. If you need to brush through the hair then a wide-tooth comb is recommended, this detangles the hair and prevents any further breakage. To define the coily hair curls brush the hair in individual sections in a curling motion with the Denman D3 brush. Using a gel like the L’Oreal Tecni Art Fix Max Gel, apply to the hair, lightly scrunching from the ends upwards. All you need to do now is allow the hair to dry.
How can this benefit you and your clients?
As the curly hair trend grows it's important that you, as a hairdresser, keep up to date with the newest methods and techniques to cater for these clients and their hair types. It assures your clients that you understand and want the best for their hair as well as ensures they keep coming back to you.
