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Monday, January 7, 2013

Experiment: Wash and go with aspects of the Tightly Curly Method

I have been reasonably satisfied with my regimen, products and my hair ever since I've been natural.  However, I am still seeking to improve the maintenance and longevity of my wash and gos, hence, this 'Experiment' series. These are the 2 areas in my hair care right now that I am experimenting with.

1.  I have not found an effective moisturizing nighttime regimen for my length hair(mainly to elongate my curls and to deal with morning smooshed hair without frizzing it out).
2.  I want my wash and go curls to be more defined and last longer than they do .  Currently I can go about 2 days(maybe 3) before the definition leaves and I'm looking at a more textured, frizzy 'fro.

In an effort to address item #1 I tried aspects of the LOC method by re-moisturizing with conditioner and water and sealing with a butter.  This same idea is spoken about in the Tightly Curly Method.  I went back to reading Tightly Curly website.  I have visited Teri's website many, many times in looking up ingredients in the ingredients dictionary to find out if they were "good or bad" for afro-textured natural hair.  Before doing my big chop I researched this method and the Curly Girl and went with Curly Girl.  I followed Curly Girl to the letter and as time went on and I became more confident in taking care of my natural hair I began to branch out in my thinking and began to try twistouts, raw shea butter, making my own hair concoctions, etc.  Also, in the last 8 months of being natural I have purposely avoided silicones b/c I read they were "bad" for our hair but Teri has a totally different message on silicones.  I decided that I can no longer just sit on the sidelines and waffle back and forth about silicones.  I need to just jump in the water and try them out for myself and see if they work for me or not.  So much of our natural hair journey is seeing what works for our individual hair, therefore I've decided to give certain aspects of the Tightly Curly Method a try.  What part works for me I will use  it, whatever parts don't work for me I won't use. Isn't it wonderful to be defined by our own individuality?

I purchased Tresemme Flawless Curls Curl Hydration based on some recommendations in Teri's book.    




Tresemme Naturals Nourishing Moisture is one of my holy grail products so I decided to try another Tresemme product and chose the Flawless Curls.  This is a thick conditioner, thicker than my Tresemme Naturals.  Teri talks about thicker conditioners and silicones being weighty on the hair and how some people feel that is not a desirable quality.  But for afro-textured hair it is something desirable to have b/c the weight of the conditioner will help to 'calm' and somewhat elongate the curls. This conditioner(Flawless Curls) contains 3 silicones(Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethicone, Cyclohexasiloxane), 2 of which evaporate once the hair dries(Cyclo...xanes) so they don't trend toward build-up on the hair.  Since the first five ingredients make up the bulk of any product a look at the first five ingredients shows there is only 1 silicone that occurs with any substantial quantity in this product.  The first five ingredients are:
Water (Aqua), Stearyl Alcohol, Cyclopentasiloxane, Cetyl Alcohol, Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine

I shampooed my hair since I had major buildup from my shea butter mix.  I used the Flawless Curls to detangle my hair.  I also spritzed my hair with my aloe vera spritz.  Mixed with water it gave nice slip.  I then rinsed a majority of it out b/c I put A LOT of it in my hair.  It was just way to much.  I think I rinsed out too much b/c there were parts of my hair that felt 'bare'.    I then tshirt-dried my hair and took sections of my hair and smoothed a little extra conditioner in each section.  Using Teri's method you would smooth in conditioner and then define each curl.  I started out doing that but I have just way too much hair.  My strands are fine to normal but I have a LOT of them.  So I smoothed and raked the conditioner in each section with my fingers until my hair got smooth and I could feel the curls clump together.  My hair/curls clumped 'firmly'.  It gave a stronger hold than my Tresemme Naturals.  Even though my curls were 'firmly' formed/clumped my hair didn't seem to shrink up as much as it usually does.  Either that or my hair is longer than the last time I did a wash and go. :-)

My hair air dried all day and night.  When I went to bed I wrapped an oblong satin scarf around my hair/head.  The top back of my head was still damp at bedtime.  When I woke up my curls were, of course, smooshed to my head.  My hair had a very firm crunch to it; firmer than with my Tresemme Naturals conditioner  I spritzed my hair with my water/aloe vera spritz/condish spritz and my curls began to softened and pop out.  I shook my hair and my curls became looser and full.  I LOVED it!!!!!!!!  As I went about my day my hair fully dried and dried to a firm crunch again.  I thought it would have stayed soft since I spritzed it AND slept on it but it didn't.  I THINK I like the firm crunch b/c my curls have a firm hold.  I can rub my hand over my curls and as they move they don't become unfurled.  They don't become frizzy or lose the curl.  The ends of my hair are not frizzy.  My roots are soft and the ends of my hair are firmly crunchy.  I don't want to say my hair is hard.  It's not hard just very firm and crunchy..LOL!!!  As I keep playing with my curls I'm finding a few curls that have lost the crunch and are soft but yet are not frizzy.  I'm thinking that if this turns out to be a keeper and I use it again I might mix this conditioner with jojoba or coconut oil to 'soften' up the effect of this 'firm' crunch.

Anyway,  I'm not going to have to do anything to my hair tonight. I'm not going to band or braid or twist or do anything to my hair tonight.  To be honest, I don't want to manipulate it too much in this "firmly crunchy" state.   I'll wake in the morning and spritz it again, shake and go.  I'll see how long my curls last.  I want to stay as low manipulation as possible.   























http://www.naturallycurly.com/curlreading/silicones-no-poo/curlchemist-cyclomethicones-a-different-category-of-silicones

 


4 comments:

  1. Honestly i think you need to see more people who did the Tc method LOL LOL your result is so amazing, my hair would have been so frizzy the morning using the products you used but your hair turned out amazing :D
    by the way, is it my eyes or is our hair pattern extremely similar? LOL

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  2. Ooh another TCer! :-) A Yter (@AuCurlsNaturelle) told me about your blog & I had to check it out. There aren't a lot of naturals who do TC, & the CG method usually gets the most representation on YT. I've done both, & I love different aspects of each one.
    The hair looks great, btdubs! TRESemme Flawless Curls was one of my favorites :-)

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  3. AuCurls, thank u!!! Re: our curl pattern: I think that MUST have been why I fell SOOOO in love with your curls when I first saw them!! My heart was truly stirred!! It must be the curl-kindred-spirit we have..LOL!!! I think so too. I must have seen myself (and what my hair could be) when I saw your vids. So yes, your curls are my curl love...I absolutely love them!! So if u know anyone else doing TC let me know about them (or vice versa). Thanks for telling Kimberlee about my blog. I have a blog post in draft mode called Curl Love and I was going to highlight your blog in a dedicated post...:-) Anyway, I am one who loves to learn and eager to learn so keep the vids and blog posts and emails and comments coming! I appreciate ya!

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  4. Kimberlee, thanks so much for stopping by and commenting! I'm excited to meet another TCer also. You mentioned you have done both. (So have I at this point.) Which method do u prefer or the one that you find you use the most? How do you feel about silicones? Do you have issue with build up? I'm wondering can I achieve these results without silicones? I guess that's another experiment, huh? I also do not want to have to wash my hair everytime I use a silicone. I like to just rinse and then sometimes I cowash but the shampoo thing I'm not trying to do much...although I'm finding I have to use a mild, all natural shampoo(SheaMoisture) to get my shea butter build up off my hair...and what does "btdubs" mean? I appreciate you also!

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