> Have you tried the Confident
>Coils Styling Solution?
Yes and I love it
. I tried Ouidad's Climate Control Gel a long time ago and unfortunately, I didn't get good results from it
. It wasn't enough hold and I ended up getting really fuzzy, big hair.
I use her Hair Cleansing Cream, Too Shea! Conditioner, Rockin' Ringlets, and Confident Coils. I also use the weekly deep conditioner and the Inspiraling Spray (the latter because it came with my order, but I don't use it that much, only when I need a pick-me-up later in the day, but I usually don't).
I pretty much follow her instructions--with some slight modifications--and get great results! I really had to find the right technique and products to work for me, and it looks like I've finally found the "magic formula," so I'm scared to change anything LOL.
Here's what I do:
(1) I wash my hair with the Hair Cleansing Cream every day (I know the Curly Girls book says not to shampoo, or if you do, not to do it that often, but I'm just grossed out by that LOL).
(2) Afterwards, I apply the Too Shea! Conditioner, then I rinse after a few minutes.
(3) While my hair is soaking wet, I just sort of shake my hair from side to side, and gently upside-down (gently being the key word, otherwise, I'll drip all over the floor!), then I take about a dime-size of Rockin' Ringlets (my hair is shoulder length, and if I use more, my hair gets greasy) and work that into my hair with my fingers. First I smooth it over, then I run it through my hair, so it's well-distributed. My hair's totally wet at this point, so it's very slippery. That's the texture I'm looking for.
(4) I take another dime-size squirt of Rockin' Ringlets and I scrunch it into my hair--again, gently, otherwise I get frizz.
(5) Then I take a microfiber towel (if you don't have one of these, I highly recommend it--it really does work to prevent frizz!!) and I use that to scrunch my hair. That helps to absorb all the extra water.
(6) Next I srunch in a dime-size of the Confident Coils (as with Rockin' Ringlets, when I use more than a dime-size, it turns my hair greasy).
(7) After that, I "plop" my hair, a technique I learned on naturallycurly.com. Basically what that means is that you have your microfiber towel laid out on a flat surface, and, with your head tilted over, gently "plop" your hair into the middle of the towel, fold the top of the towel over the back of your head, then twist the sides and tie them at the back. There's a video of how to do this on jessicurl.com (she calls it "plunking" instead of "plopping"). I probably described it horribly, but it's worth learning the technique because it's great at really forming those curls AND soaking up excess water so that your hair is 50% dry afterwards!
(8) I leave the towel on for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how much time I have to get ready in the morning (sometimes I take it off after 10 minutes, if I'm really in a rush), then I remove the towel and shake out my hair. 9 times out of 10, I'll walk out the door like this--my hair is 50% dry at this point and the curls are so beautifully formed that I'm scared to touch them and ruin them LOL. But occasionally I want to finish drying them so I don't walk outside with wet hair, so I diffuse it at low heat with one of those bowl diffusers. I tend to get frizz when I diffuse--not a lot, but it's not as frizz-free as when I air-dry--so I try to avoid doing this if at all possible (I probably still haven't perfected this technique, because others swear by it and get great results; also, I get more volume when I diffuse, so if only I could learn to do it without getting frizz, I'd do it more often). No matter which way I dry my hair, I just make sure not to touch it if at all possible. That's not easy for me, but I force myself to do it, otherwise, you guessed it--frizz-o-rama!
That turned out longer than I meant it to be, but I hope it helps
.
Jennifer
