Thanks Dulci for this Book Review:
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Curly Girl Book Review:
"Curly Girl: more than just hair ... it's an attitude: a celebration of curls: how to cut them, care for them, love them, and set them free."
By Lorraine Massey with Deborah Chiel
First Printing January 2002, ISBN 0-7611-2300-8, 148 pages.
I paid $9.95 at my local Books-a-Million.
Find it online here:
http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/compare/isbn/0761123008
This is a very interesting book; this lady really knows the trials and tribulations of growing up with curly hair. I mean, she really gets it, she grew up like I did when long, straight hair was the ideal. She claims that 65% of women have curly or wavy hair, and she wants to teach these women to love their hair and learn to work it instead of against it.
And while this book is not specifically aimed at longhair care, there is much in here for longhairs to consider.
Included are washing and styling routines for different types of curls; how to choose products; home recipes; African American hair routines [including a well illustrated way to "straw set"]; how to Cut curly hair [this chapter alone is worth the price of the book]; how to color gently and sensibly; caring for curly kids; some great easy updo's; and more.
She explains that curly hair is much drier and more porous than straight hairs. An interesting fact is that the average curly head has 100,000 hairs as opposed to 120,000 on straight heads. Because there is less hair, there are fewer follicles and fewer sebaceous glands to produce oil.
Her system for typing curls differs from Andre's System (Types 2, 3 and 4) [see Andre's system here:
http://www.bbahneycomm.com/longhairlovers/hairtype.html. She described curls as Corkscrew, Botticelli, and Wavy, and includes care routines for each. She also addresses the "Spring Factor," or the tightness of your curls. [This is why I measure my hair soaking wet, I am interested in how long it is rather than how long it looks that day LOL. ] How to check? Pull a strand of dry curls down to its full length. Mark the spot with your finger and let go. Measure the distance from your finger to where your curl naturally ends and you have your Spring Factor:
9- to 12-inch spring = Corkscrew curls
5- to 8-inch spring = Botticelli curls
2- to 4-inch spring = Wavy curls
If your hair is shorter than say shoulder-length, your spring factor would be about half of the figures above.
Ms Massey's hair care routines will not sound so revolutionary to many on this board, but I can see that these instructions would be very surprising to the general population. She says Wavys will have to cut back on how often they shampoo, but she recommends that most curly girls throw out the blow dryer and all their shampoo, and follow a conditioner-only wash routine.
I have been following her routine for Corkscrew and Botticelli curls for 4 days now, so I will briefly outline that one.
WASHING
Stand in the shower "as if you're standing under a waterfall." Resist the urge to scrub your head and disarrange your hair's basic shape. Take a half teaspoon of your conditioner (she does not like 'cones for curly hair) and start rubbing gently at your temples, go under your hair to the top of your head and finish up at the nape. She reassures the reader that the combination of friction, water and conditioner will remove everything that needs to be removed without stressing your scalp or hair.
Take another quarter-sized blob of conditioner and smooth it over the outer layers, the "canopy" of your hair. Take another small blob and gently work it under your hair at the nape. Work another small blob through the hair at each side of your head. Fingercomb through your hair from underneath, and don't worry about losing too much hair, 100 hairs a day is normal. The idea is to distribute the conditioner through the curls so they don't fuse with each other.
She says at this point, your hair should feel almost like "wet seaweed," and eventually you will instinctively know whether or not to rinse the conditioner out. If you do rinse, let the shower spray fall over your head for just a few seconds to evenly distribute the conditioner without removing all of it.
She also included a recipe for a weekly scalp exfoliation scrub, which I tried and liked very much.
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons conditioner.
Wet your hair, make the paste, apply to scalp and massage in a circular motion starting at nape and moving upward. Rinse thoroughly, then continue with the conditioning step.
DRYING and STYLING
Bend forward, cup your hair loosely in a towel and scrunch upward. Continue all around your head, remembering to treat your hair like a fine sweater.
Take a tablespoon of clear styling gel, rub into your palms, bend over and let your curls fall free. Starting at the ends, scrunch the gel in towards the scalp, using an "accordion" technique. Start scrunching at your nape, work around your head and do the canopy last.
Go to the mirror and start shaping your curls. Push them up, squeeze and scrunch them into shape. Twist them around your finger and clip. If you like the way your hair looks now, you will like the way it looks when your hair is dry. Take another little blob of gel, rub your hands together and gently graze the canopy to minimize frizz.
She also gives a technique to add some height at the crown, involving those small metal rectangular clips, which worked very well for me.
She prefers air-drying, but recommends using a travel blow dryer [it's weaker] and diffuser if you don't have the time.
Now is the hard part, leave your hair alone! Do not touch it for an hour or it will frizz!
When it is dry, fluff and shake your hair from underneath. Don't touch the canopy!
Also included is a routine to freshen your curls if you don't feel like showering or going through the whole routine every morning.
SOME COMMENTS
While I have followed this routine for only four days, I got some impressive results. My scalp is very sensitive, but I have not had any "itchies." This may be because I have washed every morning for the past 4 days [I normally wash about 2x a week]. My hair seems "fluzzier" than normal, but she explains that it will take 2-3 weeks for the hair to get used to this routine. I used GM 60 second conditioner, and aloe vera gel for the scrunching [I know nothing about gels, can anyone recommend a good non-sticky one?]
My hair fell in long ringlets and waves. I pulled the sides back and up with small combs, and while this looked kinda like Paula Jones' hair before her makeover , I could see myself wearing it like this to the once-a-year company dress-up dinner. Another trick I liked was to take a one-inch section from behind each ear, bring it back behind my head and tie in a granny knot! I was surprised that this stayed all day, it controlled my hair and kept it from falling forward in the way all the time [I'm not used to wearing my hair down at all], and the knot was easily undone that night!
VARIATION FOR WAVYs
This sounds alot like Martine's CWC. Wavys may choose to use shampoo, but only once a week. Wet your hair as above. Applying conditioner from mid-shaft to the ends. If you are using shampoo, put half teaspoon (no more) onto fingertips and apply to scalp and roots only, starting at forehead, rinse thoroughly. Add another half teaspoon of conditioner, work into hair with fingers and rinse quickly.
Blot and scrunch as above. Scrunch gel as above. She includes a few more styling tips if you want to encourage more waves or more curls.
HOW TO CUT CURLY HAIR
This chapter was the reason I bought the book. For years now, I have described to stylists how I got my hair cut 20 years ago in Memphis, TN, and they thought I was crazy. Ms. Massey described the technique exactly as I experienced it.
First the customer is seated in the chair with dry hair. The stylist examines the hair carefully, paying attention to every curl; the condition of the canopy, what the hair underneath the canopy is doing, if the left side is curlier than the right etc. Next, the hair is thoroughly wetted, washed with conditioner, scrunched and dried under a heat lamp. Only then are the scissors brought out!
Each curl is "read" separately. Some need only a little trim at the ends to reduce frizz. Curls fall into a natural "S" shape, and "S" shapes are simply "C" shapes reversed and sitting on top of each other. She cuts the curl at the beginning of each "C." Some curls are have a thick and heavy top layer, which weighs down the curl underneath. In this case, she will divide the curl in half, and trim the inner curl shorter in order to support the outer curl and add volume. This leaves the hair with more natural looking ends than what we are used to seeing on straight hairs.
She says in general, it's better for her client to leave the salon upset because her hair is too long rather than too short [!!!]
Ok, I am going to end this now, I have written more than I meant. It is a very interesting book for Curlies and I recommend it highly!
[ps, Ouidad is releasing a book on Curly Hair Care in June 2002, some online bookstores are taking pre-orders now...]
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Oops! Important omission:
I neglected to add an important point in the Curly Girl washing routine..
The author explains that curly hair is much more porous that straight hair, and that the detergents in shampoo are very damaging and hard to completely remove. This is the reason she recommends washing curly hair only with a non-silicone conditioner.
She says while weaning yourself off of shampoo, you may want to wash your scalp with small amounts of conditioner twice a week . Afterwards, you will find you need to wash your scalp with conditioner only once every 7 to 10 days . On non-wash days, simply apply conditioner as described on and under the hair and rinse briefly.
The author claims that the combination of running water and the friction from your fingers is enough to clean your scalp on most days...
The way I wrote it sounded like she meant for Curlies to wash their scalp every day with conditioner, sorry!