I started the curly girl method in late April after seeing it recommended over and over again as a way to fight frizzy hair. I had first googled frizzy hair and tried to find solutions a couple years prior. I kept running into the curly girl method being suggested, and I kept ignoring it because my hair was straight. At least, I had always thought of myself a having straight hair. The frizz was so bad in 2016 and 2017 that I wore my hair up in a bun probably 90% of the time. I didn’t like how my hair looked up, but I thought it looked worse when it was down. It was frizzy, poofy in random places and very tangle-prone.
Pre-curly girl method.
And some days I would have a wave or a curl or two, a you can see above. While trying to fight frizz, I tried some deep treatment and masks and would find more wave or curls coming out afterward. I started to think that maybe my hair would curl more if it was well moisturized.
My hair had always been wavy when it was wet. Here is me at about 14 years old with wavy, wet hair. My baby sister is still adorable but I can’t help but squee over toddler pictures of her. I never really thought twice about how my hair is wavy when wet, though. Maybe I didn’t notice that many other peoples hair was straight when wet? Since learning more about curly hair, I’ve learned that my hair is low porosity, meaning it holds a lot of water. If I let my hair air dry without any products in it, the ends may flip up a bit, but everything else gets weighed down from the water. Adding in style-holding products like gel or mousse, and/or drying my hair with a blow dryer and diffuser can help it keep its waves by drying before it has a chance to get weighed down.
I started the curly girl method thinking it may help me embrace and bring out my natural waves. It’s done that, but there have also been several unexpected benefits.
- More shine! I used to use argan oil in my hair and it didn’t add nearly the shine that I get from using the curly girl method. My hair is just better moisturized and it shows. The photo above is after my first time washing my hair with curly girl approved products. It doesn’t take long to see a switch!
- I can wear my hair shorter without it bothering me. When I tried wearing my hair straight, I always found that shorter haircuts were “poofier” and frizzier. I left my hair to grow really long sot hat it would weigh it down and straighten it out. I got a major haircut in June, and my hair is now shoulder-length but it is not ‘poofier’. It is curlier, but it works with my style instead of against it now. It’s funyn to me now that I didn’t realize the ‘poof’ was my hair trying to curl but being brushed-out into poof. The photo below is me after my hair cut, about 2 months into curly girl.
- Frizz is no longer the end of the world. The curly girl method helps moisturize my hair which reduces frizz, but it has not entirely gone away. When I wore my hair straight and there was frizz, it was extremely noticeable because most of the rest of my hair was sleek. When you have waves or curls, your hair is highly textured to begin with. So having some frizz stick up 1/4 of an inch isn’t going to stand up above the rest of your hair, it’s going to mostly be nestled within your curls. Also, people with curly hair almost always have drier, frizzier hair. I think our society is just more used to seeing a bit of frizz with curly hair, and we aren’t used to seeing it with straight hair, so it stands out to us more on straight hair. Both of the photos below are on days where I had more frizz than usual, but I feel like it’s better and less noticeable now vs when my hair was straight.
- More confidence. I feel like I look better now. I leave my hair down now, instead of trying to hide it in a bun all the time like I did for a year or two. When I feel better about how I look, I just feel better emotionally too. I’m happier! Doing my hair takes more time now, but I still keep up my routine regularly despite the extra effort because the extra work is worth how much better I feel.
- Imperfection isn’t the end of the world. I think starting the curly girl method has helped me to realize this. I used to want really sleek, perfectly even hair. I was never able to achieve that. Now that I wear my hair wavy or curly, there is just no way for it to be totally uniform. I have been more easily able to embrace that it isn’t supposed to be totally uniform. Natural curls vary in their tightness, size and shape. I’ve learned to embrace that it’s okay to not be perfect…at least when it comes to my hair! I’m sure that is a lesson I could stand to remember in other areas of life too.
If you’ve started the curly girl method I’d love to hear what surprised “extra” benefits you’ve found, other than just more defined curls!
Hi there! I am Emily Evert, the owner of Emily Reviews. I am 28 and live in a small town in Michigan with my boyfriend Ryan and our two pugs. I have a large family and I adore my nieces and nephews. I love reading memoirs, and learning about child development and psychology. I love watching The Game of Thrones, Teen Mom, Sister Wives and Veep. I like listening to Jason Isbell, John Prine, and other alt-country or Americana music. I created Emily Reviews as a creative outlet to share my life and the products that I love with others.
This post currently has 2 responses.
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Peggy Nunn
Your hair is so nice. I have always liked it in the pictures you have had over the years in your posts.
I too have curly hair! My hair is long an unruly most of the times. However, I learned to embrace it and when my hair refuses to be sleek and straight like the popular girls on TV; I wear my curls with a smile on my face.