It’s been a journey learning how to do my mostly naturally wavy hair. I’ve shared the products I use for my curly girl method hair. I still use all of these, except I’ve switched out my Leave-In Conditioner and Gel. but I’ve never shared the exact steps before. So that’s brought me to this place.

It’s taken me a couple of years to really perfect this step-by-step process, and the products that work for my hair. Hopefully you find something that helps you too, if you’re taming your naturally wavy hair looking for a curl defined look!

On wash days, in the shower…

-1- I shampoo using my curl safe shampoo, and then condition immediately. During this conditioning treatment, I use a Wet Brush to brush through my hair. Immediately rinse out conditioner.

-2- I immediately condition again, glazing the conditioner over the hair (not raking it in, so as to not break up curl clumps). Flip my head upside down, and then squish in the conditioner to encourage curls.

I leave the conditioner on for the rest of the shower to let it really soak in, and do anything else I need to in the shower. Shave, wash my face, etc. Then at the very end of the shower, flip my head over again and rinse out the conditioner. Scrunch the water out of the curl clumps. Not raking! (Again, you don’t want to break up your curl clumps and raking through them with your fingers or a brush is what creates that really stringy curl look.)

Out of the shower now after I dry off,

-3- Flip head over and scrunch out excess water. It’s still going to be pretty wet, and that’s ok! It’s better to do this with your hair too wet than too dry.

-4- With head upside down, I apply each of the following products in this order, using a glaze over the hair technique and then scrunching it in:

• Leave-in conditioner
• Curl Cream (as of the day I’m writing this, I don’t see my curl cream being sold anymore! I wonder if it’s been discontinued.)
• Curl Enhancer
• Gel – about a quarter size amount

-5- Plop hair in an old t-shirt or t-shirt turban for 20 minutes or so while I get ready.

-6- Now it’s time for the drying part. You can absolutely let it air dry, but it won’t give you the same volume at the roots or as defined of curls. If you want super defined curls, and volume, you really need to diffuse it. Pop the diffuser onto the hair dryer, put in your AirPods and turn on a podcast, flip your head over, and start difffusing your hair.

If you’re here, and you’re wondering what the technique is for diffusing curly hair, I take a clump of hair, lower it into the diffuser all the way up to my roots, and turn it on low and hot. And then I sit there until that clump dries. Turn off the hair dryer, remove from clump. Take the next clump, and go again.

You get volume at your roots, by flipping your hair from one side to the other as you dry, so that there is lift being dried into your hair.

-7- One you’re mostly dry, don’t touch it and let it finish completely drying. Your hair is going to feel hard because of your gel cast over your hair. Let it dry completely. Mine looks like this completely dry before the last step…

-8- The very last step, and this is the best part. Scrunch out the crunch. Scrunch up the curl clumps, breaking up the gel cast. Flip head upside down and side to site, again to encourage body.

Go enjoy your day!