Hello curly girls! Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed in the hair product aisle? Faced with a sea of choices, where does a curly girl even start? If you’re following the Curly Girl Method, you know how important it is to choose products that will nurture and strengthen your curls. But finding the right products can be a daunting task. In this post, I’ll share 7 simple tips to help find the right curly hair products for you.
Read on for my top tips on how to find the right curly hair products for you.
1. Try drugstore products first.
If you’re new to the Curly Girl Method, you may think, “The more expensive, the better the product must be!” However, this isn’t always true.
Some products – no matter how wonderful they are – are just not going to be the right fit for your hair.
That’s why I recommend trying inexpensive, drugstore products first. You may be pleasantly surprised at the results! And, if the product doesn’t work for you, you can always pass it on to a curly friend or toss it without regretting how much you paid for it.
2. Know your porosity and curl type.
Porosity means how well your curls absorb water and products. Here’s a quick guide to the 3 main porosity types.
- Low porosity: The hair cuticle (outer layer) is well hydrated and tight, so it’s slow to absorb moisture
- Medium porosity: The hair cuticle is somewhat looser, which means that it absorbs moisture more quickly.
- High porosity: Due to extreme damage from coloring or heat styling, the hair cuticle is raised with many gaps. It absorbs moisture quickly but also loses moisture very easily.
To determine your porosity, you can take a small amount of a water-based styling product and gently rub it into a small section of dry hair.
- If the product doesn’t absorb easily and sits on top of your curls, then you have low porosity hair.
- If it absorbs well with light finger strokes, you have medium porosity hair.
- But, if the product absorbs immediately with almost no effort, you have high porosity hair.
To learn more details about hair porosity and discover another test for hair porosity, read this post.
In addition, you should also determine your curl type. Celebrity hairstylist Andre Walker developed a system of hair types ranging from 2A (very straight hair) to 4C (tight, superfine coily hair).
Read this post to discover your curl type:
How to Find Out Your Curl Type
3. Mix a drop of each product together to test their potential.
Many curly girls use a combination of a leave-in conditioner or curl enhancing product + a gel or mousse. This is called a “cocktail” of styling products. Some cocktails work very well, which others just flop because the products don’t mix well together. Obviously, water-based products will likely work better together than mixing a rich oil or butter-based product with a water-based product.
To “test out” a combination of leave-in and gel, mix a drop of each in your hand. If they mix well, they have a good chance of working well together.
4. Read the ingredient lists.
To protect your curls from damaging ingredients, always read the ingredient list first. Here are some of the most common ingredients you want to avoid.
- Sulfates
- Silicones (especially Dimethicone)
- Drying alcohols – ethanol, denatured alcohol, propanol, witch hazel, etc.
- Mineral oil
- Paraffin
- Petroleum/Petrolatum
- Beeswax or any other wax
If you’re shopping online, feel free to copy the ingredient list of a product you’re considering and paste it into the website Is It CG?. This website will analyze the ingredients and tell you if it’s okay for the Curly Girl Method or not.
5. Only try one new product at a time.
If you try 3 new products at once, and your curls turn out to look terrible, how do you know which product is the culprit? It’s almost impossible to tell!
That’s why I recommend trying only ONE new product at a time. I know, it’s fun to try alllll the new products at once.
Just be patient, and try one new product at a time. Then you can tell how it affects your hair.
Also, you should try pairing a new product with a few different cocktails. You never know when you’ll hit upon a combination that your curls love!
Which brings me to my next point…
6. Track your results.
One of the things I really struggled with when I started doing the Curly Girl Method was figuring out what products my hair liked. I would try different combinations of styling products and pray for the best. But, a week or two later, I didn’t always remember what I had used to get those amazing results.
I’ve put together a free Hair Journal and Product Diary to help you do what I didn’t do: track your progress. If you will take 2 minutes to write down the details of each washday, you’ll have a huge head start on getting those gorgeous curls.
In the Hair Journal, you’ll write down the details of each washday- and what your results were.
In the Product Diary, you’ll write down the products you’ve tried- and how your hair responded. The pages are sized for 8.5” x 11” paper so you can print them off and put them in a binder.
Tracking your progress will be a huge help because you’ll get to know which products and combinations your hair likes best!
Find a curly girl to follow!
Find someone who has your curl type AND porosity type and ask them for recommendations. This might be a blogger, an Instagrammer, or a curly girl friend.
Trust me – most curly girls LOVE to share their favorite tips + recommendations. Just ask, and you might discover a new bestie!
Let’s Chat:
When you’re looking to find the right curly hair products, start by determining your curl type and porosity type. Try drugstore products, and test styling products by mixing a drop of each together first. Read the ingredient lists to make sure it’s Curly Girl approved. Only try one new product at a time, and always track your results. And don’t forget to ask other curlies for their tips and advice!
Now it’s your turn…share your favorite tips for finding the right CG products in the comment section!
