I love the Curly Girl routine! XD I've been doing it since about... mid-September. I even got my boyfriend to start doing it, though he's juuust about as curly as I am.

It's improved the condition of my hair /dramatically/... and decreased my amount of fall-out, though that could be partially because one of the conditioners I use is designed to do just that. The increase in the strength of the strands is amazing,  too,  and they just get stronger as I continue to use products containing protein.

You gotta love being able to /pull/ on a shed strand of hair quite a bit before it finally snaps.

The no-shampoo routine explained in Curly Girl, by Lorraine Massey, has you using conditioner and friction to clean your scalp, instead of shampoo, and has you wash in a manner that doesn't disturb the natural lay of the hair. You also do not use a brush or a comb, or a ton of styling products -- if you follow the routine, all you need is gel, if that. And most silicones are not something you want to use if you're following this routine, unless they're water soluble, or maybe not even then. Since you aren't using shampoo, the non-water soluble silicones can build up.

The conditioner you use is supposed to contain protein, humectants, emollients, and... uhm... I forget the fourth thing. ^^; You cleanse by putting conditioner on your fingers, and then basically giving yourself a nice massage over your entire scalp. Then you rinse out, and condition the length of your hair. If you need to, you can either not rinse all your conditioner out, or apply more after the rinse -- Ms. Massey recommends using regular conditioner as a leave-in, since most leave-ins are not moisturizing enough.

Since I've started following this routine, the health of my hair has improved dramatically. It's not as dry, it's much stronger, and I have less fall out. (But that's partially because the conditioner I cleanse with is designed to prevent fall out...) I saw results within a week, literally. And other people started noticing within about three weeks. And I gotta admit... it's cheap!

$10 for the book, and then $5 every 6 weeks for another bottle of my regular conditioner (I go through it fast.), and I haven't used more than... half of the bottle of the conditioner I cleanse with (which was $17)... and my gel costs me $1.50, and will probably last as long as the cleansing conditioner. I like having nice looking hair, but I have better things (like books!) to spend my free money on.

I haven't totally managed to follow the whole thing yet - I'm too addicted to getting it untangled before going to bed 

But, it has now reached a point where I can comb out the tangles in a couple of minutes, rather than taking a brush to it for half an hour.

I'm still using plain old Suave naturals conditioner, too - I used to go through 2 bottles of shampoo for every bottle of conditioner, so when it went on sale, I stocked up, and now have 5 huge unopened bottles left before I can buy something else.

Whoever mentioned Suave's aloe gel - that stuff is awesome.  I also use Johnson&Johnson's kids spray-in detangler....a life saver on windy days.

The only time I comb my hair is when I'm going to wear it braided -- I get it wet, add some extra conditioner with a pinch of sweet almond oil (because I have a little lying around.), then I comb it out and braid it.

I don't comb it dry nor when I want to wear it curly, and I never brush it. To help hold my curls, I sometimes use a little gel. Weirdly enough, I've found that using one of my regular conditioners as a leave-in works just as well as gel does for me.

I just measured yesterday. It's 24.5" inches.

It's /very/ curly when it's shorter -- when it's around my shoulders, it curls up past my chin in tight ringlets. In the dry winter cold, it curls up to give me about a 4"-5" spring. (If I pull it straight, then measure the difference between where it was when it was curly vs. pulled straight, I get that.) Once it's warmer and more humid, it's more along the lines of 6"-8".

I get more curl out of my hair when I scrunch it, especially when I've gotten it soaking wet. Have you tried that?

Scrunching is grabbing handfuls of your hair at the ends -- well, more like gathering the ends in your palm. -- then pushing it all up against your scalp. I usually do this with a towel when my hair is wet, to dry it.

I've been deliberately growing my hair out for... Uhm... *thinks* Almost three years. Only really been taking good care of it for a year, so it's amazing that I don't have a ton of split ends.

Do you curly-heads find it easy to leave your hair down whenever you feel like it?

It's usually my hair that decides when it wants to be left down. Usually it's flatter when it's dirty, so that's when I leave it down. I wash it only 2-3 times a week.

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Oh, this makes me so sad.  I cannot even fathom how stunningly beautiful gray streaked, waist-length curls would be!

:::sigh:::

I just read the "Curly Girl" book and it sounds really cool!  I didn't realize I had curly hair until I stopped bleaching the heck out of it.  I've let it grow natural for a few years, and now I'm surprised that I have all these  "Botticelli curls."   Anyway, my hair gets really dry in winter and I've noticed that every time I shampoo my hair it gets frizzy for a few days.  I've just started washing my hair with just conditioner.  We'll see how it goes!   Has anyone tried the natural hair care recipes in the book?  I found some lavender water at the health food store, and spraying my hair with it has made it really shiny and non frizzy.

   i just went yesterday and picked up my copy of "Curly Girl" well..I read it cover to cover((in roughly 45 minutes))..highlighted areas pertaining to my hair type..and this morning? i did the "wash with conditioner" thing..   well..i took all the shampoo out of my bathroom..i shall keep it for when my kids run out of bubble bath but never EVER again will it go on mine or my daughters heads!
   she and i both have below waist lentgh curly hair..thing is..the weight of the hair itself has turned our more or less corkscrew curly hair into the botticelli type curls. 
   i was simply..floored..it cleaned every bit as well as my "shampoo" and left my skalp and hair soft!!!
   yepper    <---*me doin the Happy Dance*

   so..no more shampoo's for me..and actualy i am rather miffed at the hair care industry for rammin it down our throats "shampoo then condition.etc etc"   GRR!!  at least i now know how to teach my daughter how to take care of her curls..
   thanks again for the info ....

  Take Care!
     Azriel

The lemon-aid recipe sounds very interesting-I wonder if it´s for stick-straight hair too? ???

It sounds really good,I´ll give it a try over the weekend-and report the results! Thanks a lot for the info,Eowyn

Ladies, you saved the life of my hair . I used to wear my hair curly, airdried for a few month now. (After 2 years of ironing it my boyfriend finally told me that he loved my curly hair when we met) The problem was I washed it every day, because I didn't like the way they looked when I woke up. Then I had to apply a lot of products, but i liked the look. The feel was more like Ramen Noodles, specially the next day. I read your tips and got interested in the Curly Girl book. I only done the cleaning with conditioner now for 4 times, but what a difference. My hair is soft with defined curls and I don't even need to use gel. I use my conditioner as a leave in. I think it is going to save me a lot of money, because I planned on ordering the Ouidad products, which make sense to me ,too. But in this case I really think less is more and I am really convinced by the short term results.