I Tried The Curly Girl Method For 30 Days (Wavy Hair Transformation)

This is my mom, and this is my dad. They both have curly hair. So when they had me surprise surprise, I also had pretty curly hair. When I was little, my mom said she used to curl my hair with a pencil, and I had these really pretty little ringlets until I became a teenager and discovered the street news throughout my teen years. I alternated between wearing it curly with lots of scrunching gel and burning the crap out of it to plaster it. To my face. It was a look when I hit my 20s and started doing YouTube. I got really insecure with ever wearing my natural hair. I felt like, in order to look put together and polished, I had to use heat on my hair. It had been years since I let my hair go fully curly and I had just kind of convinced myself that my hair had changed and it was just naturally straight now. Until one day last week, I decided to give it a shot and followed some curly and wavy hair tutorials on YouTube, and I was shocked that my hair was naturally still pretty wavy. When I didn't try to fight it, it's definitely damaged and has a long way to go till I get my curls totally back, but I want to give it a shot. So I am gon na try the curly girl method for 30 days document it with you guys and we'll see. What happens here is our starting point. It feels pretty dry and stringy. It'S also very, very thick, so volume is not gon na be a problem, but it does get really frizzy and I struggle with trying to hydrate it enough and also getting the waves to like fully form. So I'm gon na follow the curly girl method, as detailed on the reddit page are slash curly hair. They have a whole like outline on the curly girl method and they say that it is a gentle moisturizing haircare method to bring out the best in your curls or waves, so the basic rules are number one, no sulfates or silicones, which means no traditional shampoos. Yeah for 30 days, I am saying bye to this, and only washing my hair with conditioner and curly girl approved cleansing products. Number two heavily conditioned your hair and only detangle it in the shower, while your hair is wet so goodbye to my normal hair, brush number three style with gel mousse or hair cream and do not use heat, definitely no straightener, no curling iron and ideally, no blow-dryer. But if I don't have time for my hair to air dry, I can use it with a diffuser on low. There are so many other suggestions and products and techniques that will experiment with in the weeks to come, and also so many variations of the curly girl method. But this is where we're gon na start. Also, I know that reviving your curls or waves is a process that can take years, but it seems like the general consensus is that you'll start to see significant change after a few weeks. So I figured 30 days is a good place to start for the purposes of this video, so yeah. Let'S try this one of the most important things that they really stress about, starting the curly girl method is to do a reset, wash there's likely a buildup of wax and silicones on my head from all of my old products. So, to start off, we are gon na be washing with a clarifying shampoo that does have sulfates in it. To give my hair a clean slate for this journey. I just got out of the shower from my recent wash. I I'm not gon na lie. I'M really gon na miss this like fully clean, fresh feeling. There is nothing on my scalp or my hair, like no residue, I got this like scalp exfoliator, and this was amazing, like it really got in deep on my scalp and just got everything off. So I'm not only gon na keep using this with. My co washes also pretty much all the products that I'm showing our recommendations from three other youtubers Jocelyn Davis, India, bastion and means by Mel they've. Really inspired me wanting to go on this curly hair journey and gave lots of great product recommendations, so i detangled my hair with this wide toothed comb in the shower, and then I put in this diva curl leave-in decadence, leave-in conditioner, as I like, scrunched it in In the shower, when it was soaking wet and then I just put on the wave maker, touchable texture whip, and now I am going to plop for a little while. So I have this microfiber hair towel. Regular towels, just like terry cloth. Towels like this are so bad for curly hair and cause a ton of frizz, so it's recommended to they're use a microfiber towel or just an old t-shirt. Okay, so here's my hair after it dried. So it's a little bit poofy, it's actually not too frizzy. You can see some of the frizz on this side. The top curls are a little lackluster, but when I lift up this layer, the under curls are actually kind of pretty so I'll, give a little turn a little side action from the back from the other side. This is my hair. After the reset wash and the first styling, so today is my eighth day on the curly girl method. I have it popped up right now, actually in a t-shirt today, for the first time, up until now, I've been using a microfiber towel. I'Ve heard that a t-shirt and a microfiber towel kind of work just the same, but I hadn't tried a t-shirt yet and my towel was downstairs and I didn't feel like going to get it so we're trying a t-shirt today. So this week was pretty good. I was relatively happy with the way that my hair looked, but I'm definitely still getting the hang of it. I'Ve done surprisingly well with the rules, especially the no shampoo. It didn't really bother me at all. Until day six my hair started to feel really oily in the back. So for the last two days I just weren't up in a bun and then today my hair had so many knots in it. Oh my gosh, it was essentially just one big knot since I really had just kept it up in this bun for like 48 hours, so today was the first day that I really washed it since the first reset wash and I used the diva curl lowpoo. This is curly girl, approved shampoo, it's 100 %, sulfate paraben and silicone free, and it's supposed to be a very gentle cleanser with just a mild lather, and then I used the Oribe moisture and control deep treatment masque. This is the deep conditioner that I have been using on the mid sands of my hair just about every day, it's pretty expensive and I think I need to start using it more sparingly. But for now I use this and then i detangled with the wide toothed comb and it took a long time to detangle, because I was very careful to not just be ripping and pulling on. The hair took me about 10 to 15 minutes. Until my hair was like fully detangled, then I lightly rinse that out and decided to do a protein treatment. Today, I've been reading a lot of posts on the curly girl reddit about how to get a proper moisture and protein balance, and you really want to make sure that you don't have too much of one because it messes up like your curl balance. So, based on this photo that I saw on the curly girl ready, I was like I think my hair looks like the before and I think I might need more protein in my hairs. I bought this curly girl method approved hair treatment mask it. Is the shea moisture, hydrate and repair protein power treatment? So I put this in for 15 minutes. We moved to the bath and I sat in the bath for 15 minutes while the soaked in, but I rinsed it out added in my diva curl leave-in dècadence conditioner kind of scrunched that in while my hair was still super wet. Then I put in the wave maker gon na, take my hair, oh and we'll see how it looks when it dries now that the protein treatment has been done. Here is my hair. I feel like it looks pretty similar to normal, maybe a little bit more spring in the curl, so hopefully that protein treatment did how I feel, like the pieces, definitely clumped more together to form curls but uh yeah going into week. Two, I'm still not like fully fully sold on the curly girl, nothing, I don't think I'm quite as confident as I am when it's flat ironed and smooth and shiny and washed every couple of days, but we're only a weekend, so we've still got time to grow. It'S now day 15, so I'm officially halfway through this month on the curly girl method and one thing I'm starting to get really frustrated with is frizz. I feel like doing this curly girl method. My hair is way more frizzy than it usually is, even though I'm taking way more steps to prevent frizz than I normally would there's just so many pieces of hair that are not like conforming to the curl. Even though today I used gel and the wave maker like curl mousse and my plan, is that once my hair is dry later today, I'm gon na do the scrunch out the crunch method, where my hair is probably gon na, be pretty crunchy when it dries, because I did pack on quite a bit of gel and then I'll scrunch out that crunchiness and in theory reveal a nice beautiful little wave without the frizz. I'M definitely becoming more confident in my hair, though I think it took me like a solid two weeks to get totally used to wearing my hair, naturally wavy again. Hopefully I can find a way to combat this frizz issue. I do feel like my hair is getting a lot more healthy. The waves form a lot more naturally. Now I don't have as many pieces that don't want to form that wave that are like straightening out at the bottom, so I'll check in with you guys later today when it's dry okay end of the day, and I do actually really like the way the waves Formed, I don't really think that's the issue anymore. The issue is more the frizz, and this isn't even that bad. I feel like days before this. It'S been a lot worse. I think, over the next few days, I'm gon na do a little more research on some techniques to get rid of that, or maybe some additional products. I need to add to my routine because I feel like we're making good progress. That'S just the one thing that I haven't been able to crack the code on yet okay. So up until this point, I have been using the scrunching technique to apply my products. However, yesterday I tried the raking technique, so you take the product and you let comb it through with your hands, while your hair soaking wet, I feel like it, was so much less frizzy. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but I want to try that technique again. Today, another thing, I think, really helped is I used this gel after I use the wave maker and I've done that a few days, and I think it's helped because the gel kind of creates a cast. You know so that, while the hair is drying, it doesn't frizz as much and the one that I did notice yesterday about the raking method is that my hair definitely had significantly less waves, significantly less curl. If that's what it takes to get rid of the frizz. I will sacrifice some of the wave and some of the curls. I know the hairs still wet right now, but usually at this point in my routine, with the scrunching there's a lot of hair, just kind of like misplaced off the top. So I've got it tied up in a t-shirt and we'll see how it looks later in the day. Okay, today is the first day that I can honestly say. I love my hair. I feel fully confident in it and it feels like me, like I don't know so I had my hair like down normally for most of the day and then I was filming a main Channel video where I was like changing in and out of clothes a lot, But I just pinned these two pieces back to kind of keep it more controlled and even with all that, like changing and shirts coming off and on my hair, it's not very frizzy at all. So I'm gon na just quickly talk through the products that I have tried so far what I've been loving but I haven't been loving, so I have emptied two products. I emptied the Oribe, moisture and control deep treatment mask and the diva curl leave-in decadence conditioner this one I actually just repurchased. I'Ve got a brand new bottle. I really like this product - it's not too heavy on my hair, but it makes it feel very soft and helps control that frizz right when I get out of the shower this product I liked, but I'm not repurchasing just because it's so expensive, so I switched over To these not your mother's Tahitian, gardenia flower and mango butter conditioner. This is specifically for curls. It says it restores balance to enhance and define curls. I have now used this. I think three or four times, and I do really like it. It'S also much cheaper and it's totally curly girl approved. It has no sulfates, no silicones, no parabens, all that stuff I'm supposed to avoid, and also on the reddit page for like Holy Grail products that are approved for the curly girl method. They list the shampoo that goes with this conditioner, I think day after tomorrow, I'm gon na wash. So I will use this instead of the diva curl lowpoo have really been liking. I'M honestly shocked that the lack of real shampoo and really washing my hair has not bothered me at all. My hair has not felt early or dirty. I haven't felt like I needed to use a more traditional shampoo, since I'm pretty much doing like a full reset. Almost every day, by getting my hair fully wet and taking a shower, even though I'm not washing my hair, just using this at my roots and conditioning, is honestly enough anyways back to products, I showed you guys that I got this Shea Moisture repair protein mat. I do feel like this helps my hair a lot in clumping together more. I haven't used this again yet, but I plan on using this like about once a week and then for styling products. I'Ve continued to use the diva curl wave maker, and I really like this. It helps my hair to clump together a little bit more and it controls the waves without making them look, sticky or greasy or heavy. And then recently I started using the diva curl light. Defining gel, so this is a soft hold, no crunch styler. I actually didn't even have to do that. Like scrunch out the crunch thing, I just left my hair the way it was, and it doesn't look crunchy at all and actually used quite a bit of fish. This morning, and I think it does help to prevent frizz a lot, because it's creating more of that like cast in the hair and also one thing that I have been loving for my hair up day is my not doing my hair hair days. Are these little flexi rods that I bought on Amazon when I'm wearing my hair up, I like to leave like the couple front pieces down just take off these clips real quick on second day here. These waves get really limp. So, just taking four of these, I do two on each side rolling it up like this, and I literally just leave these in. I do two on each side per like maybe five minutes I just take them out and they get these really nice little more form to curls that later, throughout the day, turn into more waves, and I just feel like it helps frame my face so much more. I feel so much more confident wearing my hair out. I also just bought this olaplex bonding oil. This I look through the label and it doesn't have any parabens or sulfates or silicones listed, but this I found online was really highly rated for reducing frizz and flyaways. So I think I will give this a try, maybe later this week and we'll see what we can do. Okay, so I took a shower today. I will put the routines that I did on the screen right here and my hair has just been air drying for the past like 4-5 hours, but Skyler and I are about to film a new episode of our podcast Sierra unfiltered. If you want to check it out, I figure it's a good time to try. I blow dryers Stephen got me the dyson blow dryer for Christmas and it came with the diffuser attachment, so I'm going to put it on the lowest heat setting. That was only like four minutes of blow-drying and granted. My hair was relatively dry already, but that was really quick and I feel, like the end product looks pretty good. We'Ve got a little bit of frizz going on down here in the bottom, but none around the top, and that's my main thing that I don't like. I do want to try the old flex number seven bonding oil that I bought, because it says it can be used on damp or dry hair. This is my hair for the day. What is this front piece? Do ya, okay, day 20 and I'm filming a main Channel video that is already up now, where I try to follow like Beauty standards from the 1950s and so one of the things that I'm doing for that video is rolling my hair up in curlers overnight. So I did like a curly girl approved wash today with just the lowpoo and then the Tahitian gardenia conditioner that I've been using didn't put any products in my hair. Didn'T scratch didn't have any stylers and she's looking at this compared to like where my hair was before, I started this journey when I would just like. Let it dry do nothing to it. That'S some progress right there, okay! So for the next two days, I am actually gon na be taking a pause from the curly girl method. I'M not gon na count these two days, and that is because I am doing a big photo shoot that I planned like months ago, where I'm taking all of my new photos for my social media for my channel for my vlog channel, like everything and we're wanting To do a couple of different hairstyles, most of which involve heat, so I would be excited about it. Cuz, like I said that you know in my brain, I'm like. Oh that's what makes me feel most confident, but I feel like now. It actually gotten very acclimated to wearing my hair curly and also, I feel like I've, made some progress and you know bringing out my natural wave and curl pattern that I'm afraid that straightening. It is gon na set me back. But it is just one day where I'm actually gon na be using heat. I don't know I'm nervous, I feel like I'm really really starting to love. My natural hair here is my straightened hair. Well, you know straightened with a little bit of a curl, but it feels weird to see myself like this again after I've been wearing my natural hair for over a month, I'm only on like J, what is it 22 or something for the actual video, but I Had also been experimenting with wearing my hair natural for, like a week before I started filming that video, it felt a little weird this morning like doing it, I had almost forgotten the muscle memory of curling, my hair with a straightener, but I'm also excited to wash It tomorrow morning and go back to my natural hair, texture and hair, look okay. We are back on track with the curly girl method and it's the next day that was a little bit nervous that I'm using heat and not curly girl approved products. On my hair yesterday was gon na set it back a little bit and kind of disrupt the natural wave pattern, but it seems to be pretty much the same as it happened. Actually, maybe now that I'm looking at it closer, it seems like this side is a little bit straighter. But this morning I used the diva curl lowpoo and my scalp massager and really tried to make sure I was getting any residue that would have been left by the hairspray out and my hair seems to be back on track. So yay. Oh one thing that I really did notice from straightening my hair yesterday is, it seems, to have grown a lot - maybe it's just in my head, but it seemed so much longer than I remembered from the last time that I straightened, and maybe I just haven't really Been able to tell because when wearing my hair natural and has the wave to it, it tends to look shorter, but my hair seems pretty long yesterday. I was surprised hello end of my day, day 29. I just wore my hair up in a little bun today, but I'm gon na go upstairs right now and do a protein treatment. I didn't once like halfway through, I think this month and I feel like it really helps kind of reset my hair and it clumped more together and I'm noticing it start to not do that so much and then hopefully that way tomorrow, for our last day day 30, I could have a nice like perfect style, well, not perfect, because I'm definitely still in the transitioning period of taking my hair from damaged and hardly even wavy to some nice perfectly formed waves. Hopefully, eventually I will get there. I'Ve read online. I'Ve been doing a lot of reading on the curly girls subreddit throughout this month. I'Ve read that it usually takes two to three months to fully transition your hair, but hopefully tomorrow we can at least get a good after picture for our comparison from the beginning of this 30-day journey to today. Well, not today, tomorrow, you know it's funny. I think, literally today, day 30 is the day I cracked the code and figured out like my perfect routine. I'Ve been experimenting so much this month with different techniques and products and just learning to be comfortable with the way my hair looks and I'm like. Maybe halfway a quarter of the way through styling my hair today and I feel like I just I just figured it out. So, let's talk through it. So last night I washed with the diva curl lowpoo got a nice clean scalp, also used my little scalp massager to make sure it was a deep clean and there wasn't any residue on my scalp and did the shea moisture protein repair treatment. I think this is really helping with my hair, like clumping, together well and then this morning, hopped in the shower used the Tahitian, gardenia flower and mango butter conditioner from not your mother's detangled with a wide tooth comb. Now here's where it changes. Here'S where I think I cracked the code, I raked in the leave-in conditioner. So I think that helped to minimize frizz up top, which was what I had been so unhappy with and like the first half of this video. But then I scrunched in the wave maker and then just like patted on top some of the gels I wasn't great in all of the products like I have been for like the past week, then I took my blow dryer with my diffuser without popping and tilted. My head to the side like this, so my curls get their full kind of length on the top look at how freakin wavy this is. Can I call it curly? There are some curls in here, but I do think it's still more wavy. It is a little bit frizzy, I'm gon na try adding some of this olaplex in, and I will show you guys the final product. Okay. Here we are my final day, final styling on the curly girl method. So I feel like these top pieces are still especially on this side are still just not cooperating. I just think there's a lot of like deadness on the ends and they're also a lot drier than the rest of the hair, because they they do have so much more heat damage. I think, but when you look under this look at that, I did not think I would be able to get this much of the wave back. Let me give a little turn for you see I feel like in order to really love my hair right now. While I still am transitioning this, this kind of scraggly front layer I need to like do the little pull twist back and I feel like that just makes me like my hair so much more. I am so glad that I experimented with different techniques and different products, because I feel like at the end of these 30 days. I have a routine that works for me. One thing that I hadn't really talked about yet with the curly girl method is dealing with it while I'm working out - and I pretty much work out in the mornings primarily so what I had been doing is just putting my hair up in a bun going to The gym pretty early and then when I come home, showering and doing like the full reset now moving forward. You know when I started this video. I was making a commitment to 30 days and I honestly didn't know if I was gon na finish this video and go right back to you, know straightening my hair everyday or decide to commit to the curly girl method, long term, and I think, especially after today, I think I'm gon na commit to my own modified version of the curly girl method. So I think I'm actually gon na continue not really using traditional, shampoo and staying away from sulfates and silicones, and then I think I'll do a reset wash probably once a month or so, maybe even once every two months, just to make sure that I don't have Any other buildup I am gon na continue using my blow dryer with my diffuser on the lowest heat setting. I really really like that. I like what it does for the styling of my hair, and I like that. I don't have to have wet hair all day. I think I'm gon na try to wear my hair, natural and wavy most days, which is a big change for me. I mean 30 days ago I hadn't wear my hair like this in years, and now I'm saying that most days, I want to wear it like this. However, I am gon na be open to using a straightener and using heat on it. Occasionally, when I have a photo shoot or a video, where I want my hair to look a certain way or an event like I'm gon na be open to it. I'M not a hundred percent gon na swear off the straightener forever, but I am going to limit it a ton now, like I said I do have a lot of like dead pieces. On my hair. I was hesitant to get like a curly girl cut at the beginning of this video because I didn't know if long term I was gon na keep wearing my hair like this, but now that I'm pretty set on it. I booked a haircut from a curly hair specialist. What have you guys reached out to me in my email, who is a like diva curl, certified, hair stylist, and so I'm gon na be meeting up with her in a few days and getting a curly cut? Getting a diva cut and she's also gon na help me with styling my hair and giving me some tips since up until this point, I've just kind of been learning from the internet it'll be cool to get some like customized personalized advice. So let's go see that process Amy and I just talked through what we're gon na do with my hair Amy. What everything in so we're gon na just try take out a little bit of the weight right here up and through the top, and then a lot of the matching can actually happen in the shampoo bowl right here I have a lot of hair, so where's good. You got a little bit of a heavy, so those girls in spring back to life yeah, that's! The thing is, I feel, like my hair is really like way down and that's why I try not to use from any styling products, but do you think if we added like more layers and kind of loosen that up it'll naturally say not actually - and I know You put a mention that you've been putting these little front areas back because you're cute layers are right. Your your cute curls are right here, but you could also just take these guys a little shorter, so we can really show off the girls right and I'm totally fine losing a little bit of length. You can get that curl cuz. I do want to throw it out, and so, if I need it to be healthier to do that, that's fine! Oh my gosh! So what you want to do you want to take a fair-sized sector you want to between each section, okay and lots and lots of water Wow, okay, so the left side is after you applied it. The right way right that is noodled and then the what's. The right side, the right side is just like, whatever it's just there's conditioner in it, Wow there's it's it's in there. It'S just not noodle, right, okay, cool, it's incredible! Just how much smoother yeah the hair looks. I'M sure you do that. It'S for sure. Now we are doing a cold rinse to finish it out, I'm ready mentally prepared, and now we are upside down. So what's the benefit of the upside down style, so I say, as I drip water all over my camera, because we have a full range of motion. Brett, especially you at home, when you're turning up right side up style. How are you get the back of your head? How you meet the size of your head? That'S true! It'S not about raking! It'S about! Chloe! It'S about gently! Applying the product it was prayer. Hands are handy now we are applying the arc angel. Is this a light, defining job or any do strongholds, defining job really yeah? Okay, because even though it's the strongest fold, it doesn't mean it's heavier, it just need to have a stronger hold okay. So why do you recommend, because I have been using the lightest hold so from my hair in particular? Why do you think the like stronger hold is better because it's gon na hold the curls in place as they drive versus the other one? It'S too late. Yours, your hairs too heavy. It'S gon na weigh it down okay and then coming at you with a microfiber towel, there's like hardly any frizz, I'm like okay, the first cut was like alright. This is what I want to happen. I wasn't really sure it actually happened. Right all right, you guys here is the official. After of my curly hair, cut my diva cut by Amy. Thank you so much okay. So it's a week later now and I feel like after getting my curly cut and fully getting used to my wavy hair routine. I am like totally on board with the curly girl method. Also, can we talk about how much curl has come back here? I'M gon na overlay the photos from day one versus day 30. Actually, before I even got the curly cut, so you guys can see that comparison like there was already such a change between those two photos and then cut to now. At like day 40-ish with the curly cut the diva cut, I think it just really emphasized the change in my hair, because now I actually have a haircut that is meant for wavy and curly hair, and I got rid of all those like dead scraggly pieces yesterday. I actually went up to LA for a photo shoot with YouTube and I decided to wear my hair natural, which I had not been planning to do before this video all overlay. A little clip that I took right after the photo shoot. They did use a curling iron on like two pieces of my hair, but other than that. This is just totally natural and I feel like this is just a huge huge shift for me personally and how I think about my hair and my appearance and like what it means to look put together. So I'm really happy with the change that I've seen in my hair and I'm definitely gon na continue wearing it natural. But one thing that I do want to address is diva curl products and kind of the scandal. Let'S say that has been going on around that. As you guys saw throughout this month in the curly girl method, I used a variety of different like brands and products, but one of the that I was using was deeper curl and this video isn't sponsored by any of those brands. This video sponsored by no one but because I'm using these products and showing them to you guys. I just feel like it's important, that I talk about this because I wouldn't want to recommend a product that could potentially damage your hair. Basically, if you aren't part of the curly community online, what's been going on is a lot of people have been talking about how they feel like diva, curl and their products have changed their formula recently and it's actually been ruining a lot of people's curls. So lots of girls saying that their hair got super dry. Some people saying that their curl pattern was like totally ruins. Some people even said that their hair fell out. I only heard about this like four or five days ago. I didn't experience really any of those things with the diva curl products, but I'm definitely going to use them with caution moving forward. I just want to add that since filming this video, I have decided to completely remove diva curl products from my routine. I did some more research and it's not looking good, so I would not recommend using any of the d4l products that I showed earlier in this video and if you want to see an updated haircare routine with the new products that I have discovered from brands. That are not currently under investigation for a lawsuit. Let me know down in the comments back to the video. So just something to be aware of, I felt like it would be irresponsible. If I didn't talk about that to you guys but, like I said, I'm still learning a lot about my hair, I'm experimenting with lots of different products and techniques, and this is by no means the end of my curly girl journey. Let me know if you have any tips for me and my wavy curly not really sure how to classify my hair still, and I don't want to offend anyone, because I know some people get really upset when people with wavy hair say they have curly hair. But the name of this thing is called the curly girl method. So that's why I've been calling it that, but then it's my hair, wavy or curly. I honestly don't know what now I'm rambling but yeah. Let me know if you have any tips for my natural hair and any other curly or wavy videos that you would want to see. So. Thank you. So much for watching be confident, be kind to your body, and I will see you guys on Friday with another new video bye. You