AHHHH! I love the summer. Moisture and humidity are now my friends. Since humidity will only increase if global warming really is upon us, straight jackets are not going to stand a chance. You’ll be blow-fried one minute and poof the next! I am just a hairdresser. I do not claim to know everything. But of this I’m sure. What your hair does naturally is as beautiful as it gets. It needs to be understood, nurtured and loved.
Lorraine: Puffy hair is caused by several things. 1. You still shampoo. 2. You touch it too much during the drying process. 3. You’re not leaving enough gel in your hair. Shampoos with sodium laurel sulfate (SLS.”> can also lead to chemical breaks, which prevents the hair from growing in a healthy way. SLS. is inorganic. It does not deserve to be in the company of your organic, priceless hair fiber. Cleanse the hair daily with DevaCurl No-Poo. Try this post-cleansing trick: Apply No-Poo to dry hair a few minutes before showering (this is especially good for thick, dense hair”>. This allows the hair to receive more moisture. Then wet the hair and work in a bit more No-Poo, rinse and add as much One Condition as you like. Comb through with your fingers, rinse a little out and leave the rest in. Until your hair is longer, don’t bend forward to scrunch but instead stay upright and squeeze out the excess water with paper towels or an old t-shirt. Add a palmful of Arc AnGel to your hands and distribute evenly, scrunching it into your hair. Put clips in at the crown and front of the hair and DO NOT DISTURB! Q: I used to have a head full of tight, defined curls. In the past year or so, I’ve noticed a significant change. No matter what products I use or how I scrunch or diffuse or twist, my hair will not curl like it used to. It’s now a full wave instead of a curl. As much as I hated and prayed that my curls would disappear when I was a young girl, I now miss them. Could this be a sign that I’ve done too much to my hair over the years with blow-drying, coloring, and over styling? Or is it more likely that I have just outgrown my curls because my hair has changed its texture over the years? Is there a way to get my waves back to curls again.
Lorraine: It could be that your hair is too long, you’re brushing it, you’re shampooing it, you’re coloring it or your hormones are changing. There are many variables.
Q: About three months ago, I got one of the worst haircuts of my life. The guy who cut it had straight hair, and he did everything you say not to do in your book: he layered it like a straight cut, texturized/thinned it, cut it wet, etc. Shortly after the cut, I discovered your book, and have been poo-less ever since. This seems to work well for me in terms of the health of my hair, except when I accidentally use too much product. Finding the right balance has been difficult. I have Botticelli curls, so the cut lopped off any ringlets and left me with a wavy, chin-length mess. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ll have to let it grow out for a while until it can look halfway decent. But in the meantime, it looks pretty horrid. My boss, who has stick-straight hair (and lots of ideas about what hair should look like”>, actually came out and said she hates my hair, and wishes that I would comb it. She thinks it looks dirty and messy, and is embarrassed to take me with her traveling. To me, it looks and feels clean, but the cut leaves it slightly disheveled. I’ve been doing as much as I can to make it look decent without spending hours on it or just wearing a bag over my head.My question is this: What do I do in the meantime with such a bad cut? I’ve been doing as much as I can from your book, but it’s still pretty bad. I can’t use gel right now because it weighs down my hair too much, making it look dirty.
Lorraine: Just be patient, my sweet Morning Glory. Your boss is going to eat those words. Use Low-Poo at the scalp — as much as you would if you were applying a face cream. Rinse well. Skip the conditioner unless you need it at the very ends. After rinsing, and while you’re still in the shower, squeeze in B’Leave In. Get out of the shower and bend forward. Squeeze upright with your paper towel to remove the excess water weight. While you’re in the same position, apply a palm full of Arc Angell and evenly distribute it throughout the hair, squeezing it into the hair shaft. Use clips at the root to release the hair of water/gel weight, or put in a thin headband. Don’t touch it during the drying process.
Q: I have very thick, very coarse. dry hair (auburn with some gray”> with Botticelli curls that are prone to frizz. A year and a half ago, my sister-in-law gave me your “Curly Girl” book. I immediately started the curly girl method with no shampoo, leaving most or all of the conditioner in my hair. The result has been beautiful, shiny curls. I live in Colorado where the humidity is extremely low. Our first trip to a more humid climate was scheduled for this past December. I was looking forward to it, secretly hoping that now my hair would just curl tighter with the added humidity. Much to my dismay, all of my wonderful curl disappeared and was replaced by an enormous head full of frizz! Once back home, the shiny curls came back. We will travel to two humid climates this summer. What can I do to keep my curls and avoid the frizz?
Lorraine: Curly girls are natural weather barometers. Frizz factors reside in different climates on different days. My rule of thumb is to always use more rather than less. So what if you use too much One Condition on a certain day? So what if you use too much Angell? For Curly Girls, that can never hurt.
Q: I have had a wild curly mop of brown hair since I was little. I have always been the different one. All my friends have stick-straight hair. It’s hard to be 16 and fit in when you have what looks like a lion’s mane of curly hair. When I was younger, I would braid it up, twist it into a bun and yes, I hate to admit it, straighten it. Last year I put a lot of product in it to weigh it down and take the frizz out. In the beginning of February, a lady with curly hair came up to me and asked if my hair was natural. Then she recommended that I read your book “Curly Girl”. I read it in a day and loved every chapter. That very day I decided never to shampoo my hair with suds like “dishwashing detergent” again. It has been two months since I last washed my hair with shampoo, and it feels great. The frizz is gone, its soft, and radiant.I only have one problem with it. The upper half is healthy and loving the moisture, but it seems like the bottom two inches are still in distress from the previous mistreatment. The hair isn’t brittle or split, but it doesn’t have that healthy soft feel. I really hate to cut it off because I am trying to grow it out (Like Emmy Rossums in the Phantom of The Opera…I just loved that movie with a curly-haired heroine!”>. I have tried leaving conditioner on the ends after I get our of the shower. Do you have any ideas about how I could get the lower ends to look healthy?
Lorraine: It sounds like you’re on the right track. Are you using DevaCare One Condition? You must try this because it has the most intense hydrating factors you could ask for in a conditioner. Not all conditioners are created equal. Until you get the One Condition, use olive oil, shea butter or jojoba oil. Keep it in overnight and rinse out the next day. Then apply more conditioner after the first rinse and leave that one in.
