We were on vacation with Nathan’s family in August of 2019. I was sitting at our beach condo while Harrison was napping that afternoon, scrolling Instagram, and noticed one of my friends talking about switching to the Curly Girl Method. Before I knew it, I was a deep down the rabbit hole of Curly Girl Method research on the ‘gram. I had for well over a decade switched between straightening my hair and letting it naturally be wavy, but this Curly Girl Method of hair sounded intriguing. So that very afternoon, I added loads of different hair products to my Amazon cart, and after coming home from vacation, switched to using the Curly Girl Method on my wavy hair.
For the most part, I’ve loved doing my hair this way. For one, I wash my hair so much less. It saves me LOADS of time during an already busy week washing and drying my hair. Yes, I tend to dread wash day. I try to plan my wash days on days that I have the time to completely dry my hair before scrunching it out and going to sleep. But every non-wash day, it’s a quick shower with a shower cap on, and I’m done for the day.
But the Curly Girl Method (#CGM), has a LOT of rules. When I was first learning about it, and even now when I consider trying a new product, it can be super overwhelming. No drying alcohols, no sulfates, no parabens, no heat. There are a lot of people who follow the rules perfectly. While I try to stay pretty close to them, there are some that I break, and I’m sharing those with you today.
-1- The biggest curly rule I break is that I sometimes blow dry my hair straight and curl it. For at least a year when I was first doing the CGM, I didn’t dare straighten my hair. The fear of undoing all of the work to get my curls to come back and thrive was just. Too. Much. Seriously. I know this sounds crazy to non-CGM peeps, but I was scared that I would ruin all of my time and effort spent in reviving and taking care of my curly hair by using really hot heat.
While straight hair and curled using a curling iron is not my normal method of doing my hair, it’s nice to change it up some times. And for my hair, my curls haven’t suffered from the occasional blow dry.
-2- Speaking of heat….I use a curling wand on a regular basis. In the CGM, heat is bad. So bad for your curls. But you know what, most of the time I like adding a couple of curls around my face so that they’re going the right way and frame my face. I’ve been doing this for forever, and I do notice that the hair that frames my face is never as curly as the rest of my hair. I’m guessing likely because of the heat I use on it. But adding a couple of curls isn’t that big of a deal to me. I would rather that and it look the way I want now than train my hair over a year to curl.
-3- I dye my hair. My mama gave me lots of good genes from her side of the family, but she also shared the very early grey gene as well. I think my hairdresser found my first grey hair when I was like 17. I’ve been dying my hair now, though, mostly at home for at least ten years now. I recently switched to a kinder hair dye that doesn’t have alcohols in it, but until the pandemic, it was the cheap L’Oreal full alcohol, full chemicals and whatever else is in there for this hair. And again, it may be affecting my curls, but not enough that I’m willing to embrace the grey instead of dye it.
-4- I use products with drying alcohols. All of the products I use on wash day are CGM approved. I did a post about them HERE. But on my refresh days, I use both volume spray and dry shampoo that are not CGM friendly. They work for me, and I use very little of either. In fact, I don’t use any dry shampoo until at least day 3, if not day 4 after wash day. But again, I like the product and I don’t see enough of a negative effect to stop using it.
I’ve loved the curly girl method, but with a few modifications. At one point, I felt guilty by coloring outside of the CGM lines, but like everything, you have to find what works for you.