How to Get Started With the Curly Girl Method

Perhaps you saw a study last week showing that the average American has 96 bad hair days a year. If you’re a curly girl, you may feel like you’ve had a lot more than that! (And particularly if you live in Florida like I do, where you’re lucky to get 30 days of cool air and low humidity in a single year!)

More Than A Bad Hair Day

Sadly, there seems to be some kind of stigma about curly hair–just the natural hair that grows out of your head–being somehow unprofessional or unattractive. At one company I no longer work for, I was actually sent home and told not to return unless my hair was straight, so to keep the job, I drove to my parents’ house every night to have my mother straighten it. At another place, my employer told me I should straighten my hair because “it doesn’t hurt to put a little bit of effort into your appearance”.

Lots of girls with curly hair have also been bullied relentlessly for it–especially if you grew up in the ’90s, when pin-straight hair was all the rage. My mom and I had no idea what to do with my curls, which led to a lot of tears and heartache until I finally discovered flat irons. When I was in the 10th grade and The Princess Diaries came to theatres, people couldn’t stop telling me how much I reminded them of Princess Mia because of the poofy, triangular bird’s nest on my head.

Yup, I sure did have Princess Mia hair! But that’s no reason to despair. As I’ve been learning, there are more ways to take care of your curls and have great hair days than just ironing them out. And that brings me to the Curly Girl Method.

Chances are, you’ve heard at least a whisper about the Curly Girl Method by now. But what is it exactly? There’s a ton of information out there, making getting started with the system overwhelming, to say the least. When I was first trying to figure it all out, it made me want to tear my hair out!

But if information overload is getting to you, don’t worry, I’ll break it all down for you. I’ll even throw in some specific product recommendations to get started with! Read on for a condensed version of my three years’ worth of research so you can skip the confusion and get started easily.

The Curly Girl Method

The CGM was created by a stylist named Lorraine Massey who spent years studying the effects of different ingredients on all types of curls. Massey wrote a book explaining what ingredients to avoid in your hair products and why, and other tips for how exactly to manage various types of curls. The main idea is to avoid sulfates because they are damaging to your curls (and really to hair in general), and to avoid silicones because, although they make your hair look pretty and sleek, they build up after a while and can only be removed with sulfates (or harsh detergents like what’s found in regular shampoo).

Finding Your Curl Type

The book goes into more detail about how to have amazing-looking curls without silicones, what type of products you can use instead, what to put on your hair and when, etc. She has it broken down into sections depending on your curl type. (This is the most valid quiz I’ve found online for determining which curl type you have.) It can be a lot of trial and error finding what works for your hair, but one thing that makes it easier is that (at least for now), there are only a handful of brands that are truly CG-friendly across the line. That’s right–you don’t need to go searching all over for the right conditioner to pair with the right leave-in to pair with the right gel–it’s really as simple as picking one line and sticking with it until you start seeing the results.

The Right Stuff

Here’s the complete list of CG-friendly product lines:

• Raw Curls – Raw Hair Organics makes other products, too, but for your hair, it’s the Raw Curls line you want.
• Jessicurl – With the exceptions of their Oil Blend For Softer Hair and Stimulating Scalp Massage Oil.
• Curly World – By one of the creators of the original DevaCurl line.
• MopTop
• Boucleme – Easier to get if you live outside the US.

Note: My source for this list is my favorite CGM Facebook group, Curly Girls! – Support Group for Curly/Wavy/Natural Healthy Hair. The list may evolve over time–for example, DevaCurl is no longer 100% CG-friendly. Sometimes products that were previously CG-friendly change their formula and aren’t anymore. And some products within a line are CG-friendly while others are not.

Also note: Although they are also technically CG-friendly, I have not included DevaCurl or Innersense here, as I’ve seen reports against both claiming that they cause hair loss. (DevaCurl actually has pending class action lawsuits against them over it.) But I’m only repeating what I’ve heard/read and have not used these or experienced it for myself, so please use your own judgement here.

Routines may vary a bit depending on hair type. The book goes into all of that.

Start With a Clean Slate

It’s a good idea, if you can find one, to start with a fresh cut from a curl specialist who is trained to work with curls and can remove a lot of the damage from your hair while also teaching you lots of tips and tricks. This is mine.

Also, before you even begin, you must clarify. This means using a certain shampoo called a clarifier (I like this one) that will remove all the build-up from your hair caused by the non-CG products you’ve been using until now. Because (and this is really important), you can’t mix CG-friendly products with non-CG-friendly products and expect your hair to improve. Since the whole point is to get away from the ingredients that damage your hair and cause buildup, this would be like buying sugar-free products to go sugar-free but then simultaneously eating other products that contain sugar. It’s all or nothing with the Curly Girl Method.

My Routine + Products

I use all Raw Curls on my head. This is my personal favorite brand, and also the first one I tried, so I haven’t needed to experiment with any others! Using a true CG-friendly brand started making my hair healthier immediately, and it has never looked or felt this good! I apply everything in a specific way for my curl type, too, which the book also goes into.

If you’re a wavy girl like me and decide to try it out and buy a copy of the book, make sure it’s the most up-to-date version I linked above, as there’s an extra section in there all about wavies.

Before-and-After

I also documented my CGM journey in pictures so you can see the difference it’s made on what an average day looks like for me now compared to before I started! There’s about 18 months’ difference between these photos, and you can see how much more hydrated and healthy it looks now!

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It took many years, but as you can probably tell from the way I shamelessly flaunted them throughout this post, I finally learned to love my curls! Now that you know how to care for your curls without damaging your hair, you, too, will be able to feel like a princess!

Did I leave anything out? Feel free to send me your questions or your CGM tips!

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