Some great products to consider when caring for curly hair;

Alcove Curl Activator 250 mL | Alcove Curl Shampoo 300 mL | Alcove Curl Conditioner 300 mL | Calura Care Curl Balm 250 mL | BaBylissPRO Argan Curl Cream 300 mL | Loma Curvy Creme 250 mL | Alcove Beach Waves 300 mL | Vitale Defining Curl Wax 228 g | BaBylissPRO Argan Oil Treatment 250 mL

Curly Hair Care

Have you been gifted with natural curls, but struggle caring for them? Are you considering going natural, but worried about the transition?

We’ve got some advice for you!

Starting at the basics, a big thing when caring for your curl, is understanding your curl, and the type of curl you have. When trying to determine the type of curl you have, they are broken down into 2 classifications. The first is type, there are 4 types of hair, type 1 straight, type 2 wavy, type 3 curly, and type 4 coily. The second is based on the diameter of your curl, A is a wider curl, often recognized as a wave, B is a medium curl, and C is the smallest tightest curl. With these two classifications they create essentially a code for your curl, and there are 9 different types. They are;

• 2A – Fine hair, with very light waves, often the hair looks like it has more of a tousled texture.
• 2B – Hair is flat at the scalp area, S curls form from mids to ends.
• 2C – Waves are thick, S curls begin right at the root, and continue down the hair.
• 3A – Large loose curls, the curls are about size of your finger in diameter.
• 3B – Bouncy ringlet curls, the curls are about the size of a marker in diameter.
• 3C – Tight corkscrew curls, the curls are the size of a pencil in diameter. 
• 4A – Sense stringy S pattern coils.
• 4B – Dense packed curls, the hair strands bend almost to form a letter Z.
• 4C – Fragile tight coiled strands, the hair strands bend almost to form a letter Z, but it is not distinguishable.

Once you have determined your curl type, you can determine how to care for it. We are going to run through some basics for caring for all curls. Whether you have short curly hair, or long curly hair, we care for all curls!

Washing your Curls

Washing your curls can be a task! However, if you are using the right products and methods your curls will thank you! Having curly hair you should really only wash your hair with shampoo two times a week, 3 max. The shampoo should always be sulfate free, you do not want to strip any precious oils from your curls, with that being said it is in good practice to use a good clarifying shampoo once a month, just to remove the build up of product on your hair. In between Shampooing, you can definitely dampen your hair and condition, to refresh your curls, if you do need to clean your hair, try grabbing a cleansing conditioner, or a co-wash to carry you through.

Brushing your curls

We all love how our curls look when were fresh out of the shower, so pretty, so defined, then we brush it and look like a lion, on a hot day! Well there are ways to avoid that, the best method for brushing curly hair is while you are in the shower, with the conditioner in your hair. Grab a good wide tooth comb, (if not already this should be your best friend!) start from the ends of your hair and slowly start working towards the scalp. You don’t want to brush your hair while it is wet, ever! This will stretch your curls, and worse your cuticle making frizzy curls. If your hair is tangled and dry, spray a leave-in conditioner into your hair and slowly comb through it with that trusty wide tooth comb, sometimes for dry brushing your fingers are best. Be-careful how much you handle your curls, the more you handle, or brush them the frizzier they become.

Conditioning your curls

Conditioners and masks, these are two essential items, like your wide tooth comb! Curls love to be conditioned, they need a lot of protein, a lot of substance to remain healthy. A hair mask is a gift you should give to your curls minimum once a week. Your conditioner is equally as important, based on your curl type you should have a very nourishing conditioner, without salts, or parabans.

Drying & Styling your curls

After nicely washing, conditioning and combing your hair you may be thinking its time to toss it up in a towel and wait the next eternity for it to dry. No, just no, towels are the devil made of terry cloth when you have curly hair. An old classic trick, has since made a come back, with name called “Plopping”. Plopping is a method of partially drying your hair with an old t-shirt in place of a towel. When you use an old t-shirt, and lightly wrap your hair, your not scattering the cuticle to cause flyaway and frizzy curls, your also not polling the hair too tight to stretch your curls.

Some of you may have been doing this method for ever, and some of you may have recently started ploppling. I’m not to sure of who coined the term plopping, but is unique, I personally have tried my first plop today, I co-washed, masked my hair, and then put it into a plop. I always have personally used a t-shirt, but the method of how you wrap the t-shirt when your plopping is much more effective and comfortable, I could wear this for hours. But I’m not going to, about an hour after wearing it, I grabbed my trusty diffuser, on low heat, low power to dry my hair, and close my cuticle reducing frizz, to fully dry my curls. A few quick things, I love it, maybe don’t leave it for an hour. My dried very strange, and in certain directions that I cant change without re-wetting it. I did hear of some girls clipping the roots, for volume, I never normally have an issue with volume, but I will definitely clip my roots next time, for hope of better control of them. My curl is somewhere between 2C and 3A, depending on the health of my hair, this plopping method, defiantly brought out the 3A, which I adore. The steps I followed are:

1. Wash or dampen hair (Ensure it is tangle free)
2. Add you leave-ins and styling products
3. Flip all your hair into the shirt – pull the bottom of the shirt to the nape of your neck – pull the sleeves to the back and use it to tie a bow.
4. Plop for 10-20 minutes.
5. Diffuse or air dry.

I will post an update next time I plop, on how it turns out with root clipping.

Finally, a very important thing to remember for your curls is bedtime, when it is time to go to bed, spray a light amount of dry shampoo at your roots, if necessary, remember too much can dry your curls. Simply grab a large scrunchie, and pull all the hair to the top of your head and loosely wrap it with a scrunchies. This is known as the pineapple, it is very effective! Do not worry, the scrunchie should not leave a dent in your hair, and your curls will hold their form over night!