I wanted to break the damaging cycle of blow drying and straightening my hair anytime I wanted to actually style it, and start to embrace my curly hair. My hair is a lot healthier by breaking that damaging styling cycle that a lot of people with curly hair get stuck in.
Curly Girl 101! 5 Quick Tips for Styling Curly Hair to get out of the Hair Damaging Styling Cycle
I've always wanted thin, straight hair because I've always had this thick, heavy hair that takes a very long time to dry. People always tell me it looks so beautiful, and I do enjoy my hair now, but there have been many times where I have wished for a super thin short hairstyle that's easy. I think for so many women they have found it difficult to handle wavy or curly hair. I was there too. If you don't know how to take care of curly hair, you will often find that your hair gets super frizzy and puffy and it's just hard. But if you take care of your hair the right way, if you minimize the number of heat products that you're using on your hair, if you change your products so that they have less silicones and sulfates, you'll find that your hair will change. Iit can take a little bit of time. My hair did not look like this when I first started, it is a process. But once you get through it, you're going to spend a lot less time on your hair and your hair is going to be a lot healthier, it's gonna look a lot more natural, and you're going to be relieved when you fully embrace this curly hair styling.
My first tip for you is that you need to just embrace the curly girl style and know that you're going to find different things that are going to work for you that might not work for somebody else. And if it doesn't work, throw it up in a ponytail or wear a hat, you're going to be fine. But don't go back to straightening your hair because that's going to continue to damage your hair and make it harder to embrace this curly hair lifestyle.
Tip number two is that there are some amazing toxin-free products on the marketplace. for curly hair. My very favorite is Innersense. They have a great website where they will answer your questions and help you find the right products for you. I know that if you have thicker, heavier, kinkier curls, a heavier product might work better for you than someone that has a little less hair and has a bigger wave using a lighter product probably would work better for that hairstyle. They are super helpful and I love their ingredients. They have no fragrance in them which is hard to find in hair products.. It's always amazing to find a product that actually walks the talk when it comes to toxin-free and it happens to be awesome for curly hair.
Tip number three is to not touch your hair. That might be hard for some of you. It is a very hard habit to break. But it’s the number one way to prevent frizz for curly hair is to touch it when you're styling it and when it's very very wet, let it air dry and don't touch it. Every time you touch your hair, you're going to increase the frizz. If you've ever been around me or maybe somebody else you know that has curly hair, especially if they have kinky curly hair, people think it's beautiful and they want to touch it and they'll reach out and you might find a curly friend that is dodging your hands because they know that touching their hair is going to increase the frizz.
Tip number four is to apply your products to soaking wet hair. This is the best way to create the curl without the crunch. Who grew up in the 80s and 90s and remembers mousse and that crunchy feeling in your hair? Well if you do the right curly girl method, you are going to put the products in when it's super super wet and it helps encourage that curl but also removes that risk of getting the crunchy hair feeling that we don’t want to remember from our childhood.
Finally tip number five is to put away your heat styling instruments. I do sometimes use a curling iron to add a couple of curls here or there to enhance my curl or to kind of match my natural curl. That's a great thing to do if you're finding that one area isn't curly enough, or you're going to a special event, and you just want to enhance your curl a little bit. But for the most part, put it away, don't use it all the time because you want your hair to be as healthy as possible. When it is healthy, it's going to not have as much frizz, it's not going to have as much damage, it's going to really look a lot better, and the curl pattern is going to come out better.
My actual hair routine
There are some videos in my Facebook group Toxin-Free Talk about my hair routine if you’d like to watch, or you can DM me, and I will send you a link to the videos.
Currently I am washing with a bar shampoo. And again, just trying to minimize the number of plastics that I consume, so I am doing my best to try a shampoo that's a bar. I actually really like it. It's from a local store in Gig Harbor. I also have a conditioner that I have been trying, that's a bar. It's much better than I thought it would be. I thought that there's no way I could ever use a bar conditioner because I really need something that is a bit heavier and more conditioning for my hair. I wasn't sure that was possible with a bar. And I do like this bar. I am finding that I need a little bit more of a heavier conditioner. It's on my to do list to go and grab another Innersense product, a heavier conditioner for me to use once every couple of weeks. Sort of like a hair mask just to really get my hair as healthy as possible. Get it nice and soft and conditioned and not dry. Because right now it's feeling a little bit dry at the end of the summer. So that's my washing and conditioning routine.
I will say that I always leave some conditioner in my hair. I comb it with a wide tooth comb with the conditioner in it in the shower. I never use a brush because again, it creates frizz, it separates the curls and makes my hair super poofy. So I only get the tangles out and comb my hair in any sort of way when it is soaking wet with conditioner. And I don't wash out my conditioner. Sometimes I will do a very slight rinse and get a little bit of that conditioner out. But I want that conditioner to stay in there because again, it's going to impact the frizz and really just keep those nutrients in my hair and keep it from being dry.
So when it's soaking wet, I have my styling products in my shower.
First I use a Curl Cream and I rub it in my hands and I sort of like put my fingers in a prayer fashion and I kind of wipe the product down the sides of my hair. The reason why I don't comb it through is because I don't want to create a bunch of individual curl sections by combing it through. I do that on all areas of my hair.
Then I go in with the Innersense gel, which I love, and I do the same thing, so I'm kind of coating the hair with two flat palms together to get that product on the hair.
Now I scrunch it. And because the hair is so wet, it is making it so that the product is coding all the different areas of the hair. You can hear the water squishing through the hair product and through the hair.
Next I plop my hair. You can just use a t- shirt or I have this sort of hair wrap that I got at Target. I think it's a Con Air brand and it is made of t-shirt material. And I wrap up my hair, because again, it's still really, really wet. I wrap it up so that it's not dripping all over my body. And then I dry my body off and get dressed and do my makeup and that sort of thing.
When I'm ready, I pull off the hair wrap and I let my hair air dry. Air drying is really the best for me, I find that I get the best curl with the least amount of frizz. I do have a really good diffuser that I do use sometimes. And I try not to use high heat because the heat is going to damage the hair. When it's completely dry, I will flip my head over and shake out the roots a bit for some lift, and then I'll flip my hair over and maybe touch it just the tiniest bit to get it to part the way I want to. But that is it and then I don't touch it ever.
So that is how I do my hair, the products that I love, and if you are curly haired like me, give me a shoutout on Instagram, take a screenshot of this podcast, share it and let me know what you do, what tips you have found are the best for managing your curly hair.
If you have questions, I would love to answer them. The best way to do that is to DM me on Instagram @themeganmikkelsen.. You can also email me at megan@detox.design. And you can find all of my favorite toxin free products, the ones that I use in my home with my own family, the products that I have tried and found that they work and I've researched the ingredients and the companies to find the products and the companies that are doing the right thing. And products are going to have the least toxic impact on your body and your family and everything in your household. You can find those online my store at bit.ly/shoptft.
Get my full hair routine here and watch videos in my Facebook group Toxin-Free Talk!
