Yesterday myself and 13 other curly mama's and papa's, spent the afternoon at the Afro Hair Salon on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Emy, the stylist put on a curly haircare and styling session for interested families. It was a fun event and I think everyone took away some key curly hair tips.
Here is a summary of some of my notes from the session. Some of these tips apply more to 4+ hair types- which I've indicated. She also had some great ideas for styling short hair and encouraging curly hair to grow more.
Washing Curly Hair:
1) for 4+ curly hair types, also condition first, then shampoo, and then condition again.
2) Shampoo should always be conditioning shampoo, conditioner should always be detangling conditioner
3) for 4+ curly hair types, section hair off into small squares and really ensure the conditioner and shampoo is worked into each section. Otherwise the curls stick together and you don't actually shampoo the hair to the depth required.
4) When deep conditioning, leave the conditioner on overnight with a sleep cap then lightly rinse out in the morning
5) Shampoo once every 1-2 weeks, but not needed more often than this
Combing Curly Hair:
1) Always comb from the bottom up
2) Before combing, moisturize the hair with a spray bottle. The spray should have 2/3 water with the remaining 1/3 containing hair oil (can use olive) and conditioner
3) Comb using a tangle teaser
Cutting Curly Hair:
1) Curly hair should be cut every 4-6 weeks, maximum 8 weeks. Otherwise the damaged ends continue to work their way up the hair and lead to more breakage. This was a big "oops" for me. As a curly mama, I never cut my hair. Maybe once a year if I get up the courage. And curlygirl has never had a haircut.... we shall be making a salon appointment in the near future.
Sleeping:
1) I know I've discussed sleep caps before, but she really emphasized the importance of these. Again, here is where we buy our sleep caps and they are great, durable and support a good cause: http://africasleeps.com/
Styling Curly Hair:
1) Rotate your parts. If you continually part in the same places the hair will break off along the part lines and create little bald spots
2) Emy uses a blow dryer with comb on the end to straighten really curly hair before styling. Personally I'm terrified of using hot air to dry curls so I don't think I'll be using this method, but when she demonstrated it on some of the kids you could see it really made a difference for the styling of their hair.
3) Don't try to cornrow with hair too wet- this is something I can really see I'm doing wrong. Right now I'm styling curlygirls hair when it's wet, and ensuring I have my spray bottle prepared if it gets too dry, but Emy suggested that dryer hair would help the braids hold. She also used a locking putty on the semi-dry hair to help the braids stay in place. I'm going to try this this week.
Overall I think we all learned we were doing some things really well and that we could improve on some things as well.
One of my key take home messages was to choose a hair line and stick to it. It's easier than having multitudes of products. As it stands, my favourite hair product line is the Taliah Waajid curly hair line. Love the scents and performance of most everything I've tried.
Wanted to also say a big thank you to Nandi Kids for sponsoring our event! They were generous enough to send samples of products to our curly mama's and papa's to try. It's fantastic we have such a great community of curly families across Canada!
Here is a summary of some of my notes from the session. Some of these tips apply more to 4+ hair types- which I've indicated. She also had some great ideas for styling short hair and encouraging curly hair to grow more.
Washing Curly Hair:
1) for 4+ curly hair types, also condition first, then shampoo, and then condition again.
2) Shampoo should always be conditioning shampoo, conditioner should always be detangling conditioner
3) for 4+ curly hair types, section hair off into small squares and really ensure the conditioner and shampoo is worked into each section. Otherwise the curls stick together and you don't actually shampoo the hair to the depth required.
4) When deep conditioning, leave the conditioner on overnight with a sleep cap then lightly rinse out in the morning
5) Shampoo once every 1-2 weeks, but not needed more often than this
Combing Curly Hair:
1) Always comb from the bottom up
2) Before combing, moisturize the hair with a spray bottle. The spray should have 2/3 water with the remaining 1/3 containing hair oil (can use olive) and conditioner
3) Comb using a tangle teaser
Cutting Curly Hair:
1) Curly hair should be cut every 4-6 weeks, maximum 8 weeks. Otherwise the damaged ends continue to work their way up the hair and lead to more breakage. This was a big "oops" for me. As a curly mama, I never cut my hair. Maybe once a year if I get up the courage. And curlygirl has never had a haircut.... we shall be making a salon appointment in the near future.
Sleeping:
1) I know I've discussed sleep caps before, but she really emphasized the importance of these. Again, here is where we buy our sleep caps and they are great, durable and support a good cause: http://africasleeps.com/
Styling Curly Hair:
1) Rotate your parts. If you continually part in the same places the hair will break off along the part lines and create little bald spots
2) Emy uses a blow dryer with comb on the end to straighten really curly hair before styling. Personally I'm terrified of using hot air to dry curls so I don't think I'll be using this method, but when she demonstrated it on some of the kids you could see it really made a difference for the styling of their hair.
3) Don't try to cornrow with hair too wet- this is something I can really see I'm doing wrong. Right now I'm styling curlygirls hair when it's wet, and ensuring I have my spray bottle prepared if it gets too dry, but Emy suggested that dryer hair would help the braids hold. She also used a locking putty on the semi-dry hair to help the braids stay in place. I'm going to try this this week.
Overall I think we all learned we were doing some things really well and that we could improve on some things as well.
One of my key take home messages was to choose a hair line and stick to it. It's easier than having multitudes of products. As it stands, my favourite hair product line is the Taliah Waajid curly hair line. Love the scents and performance of most everything I've tried.
Wanted to also say a big thank you to Nandi Kids for sponsoring our event! They were generous enough to send samples of products to our curly mama's and papa's to try. It's fantastic we have such a great community of curly families across Canada!
