My curly haired sister’s

Hello my beautiful readers!! Today I will be revealing what I do to maintain my curls and what I do so my curls look great every time I do a wash and go. Below you will see some pictures of my curls. Now keep in mind this is what works for me and my hair I can’t guarantee it will work on your hair but it’s definitely worth a shot. Since I started doing this to my hair my curls have never looked better.

I’ve never felt so confident with my curls as I do now. In a society that sometimes frowns upon beautiful natural hair. Take the vow to stand out and wear your natural hair (snaps fingers) OWN IT GIRL! You were fearfully and wonderfully made. In the eyes of the creator you have always been beautiful.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:14

The best of both worlds. haha. ❤

Now let’s get down do it. First thing you need to know to resurrect your curls and bring them back to life is…. drum roll please…..

SAY NO TO HEAT DAMAGE!!

1. In order to obtain great healthy curls we must make one sacrifice. SAY NO TO HEAT! I went through a restoration period for my hair because it had so much heat damage that my hair was no longer curly 😦 I had to cut the dead hair off and start from scratch. I said goodbye to the heat for a good 2-3 months straight. After that point only intermittently for special occasions did I blow dry my hair and flat iron it. Even at that I  only use the 1875 watt Infiniti pro conair blow dryer with the Remington 2 inch flat iron. For the flat iron I do not exceed 370 degrees. (should probably go even lower but my hair is VERY curly so I don’t think I can go lower but feel free to try!) OK where were we? Oh yea, no heat! I can’t stress this enough. If you want nice, moist and healthy curls you will have to give up the heat. Try to not use heat as much as possible. Only if you absolutely HAVE to blow dry it. Specially when you are first trying to resurrect your curls.

2. When I first started my curly hair journey my hair was very dry and damaged. I was lacking fullness and elasticity to my curls. They were very dull. YUCK! Nothing worse than dry dull curls. Can a sistah get an amen? So, I would do weekly to bi-weekly protein masks/ deep condition my hair. I first would do the mayonnaise, egg and coconut oil hair masks. 1 egg per treatment, and just a bit of the coconut oil. The bulk of this mask is the mayonnaise.  I would put a cap on and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. I would also apply heat to the cap with my blow dryer at a good distance. It is stinky and messy put you do really notice a difference in your hair 🙂 When your hair is brittle and dull this will help a lot. It will give you shinier, softer, and smoother hair = awesome curls. I then decided to move on to Dr. Miracles “feel it” formula deep conditioner to repair damaged hair. You can leave this on your hair for 5 minutes after you shampoo and condition then rinse well. This also worked great and my hair felt smooth and my curls gained a lot of elasticity on this product. It also smells really good! An alternative for those that don’t want their hair to smell like eggs and mayonnaise. haha. Oh the things we do for beauty ladies.  I will attach a picture below:

Now to detangle your hair: (this is done prior to doing the deep conditioning)

Remember, slow and steady wins the race! Us curly-haired sisters fail in the detangling stage. We get frustrated and our arms get tired and we just comb these curls showing no mercy. OUCH! Your curls are crying. Please don’t do that. You are breaking your hair in the process. Treat your curls as gently as possible in the process. Detangling from bottom to top. SLOW AND STEADY. I personally love my paddle brush to detangle my hair. It does it quick and easy. If you prefer a comb:  ALWAYS USE A WIDE TOOTHED COMB WHEN DETANGLING! small toothed combs will break and yank all your hair out. OUCH!

I use the conair paddle brush.

3. CANTU, CANTU, CANTU

OK. Now that you have washed your hair off and it looks and feels fabulous, its time for your leave in conditioner! yay! I get so excited about this part because I absolutely love the CANTU leave in conditioner! Needless to say I do not use any gel on my hair. I have found no need after purchasing this baby.

PURCHASE THIS! You will thank me. Not only does it smell delicious?! But it also is a repair cream and locks in moisture. Your hair is soft and you now have those amazing bouncy curls. I have never looked back or used another product after using this! The most important thing? Keeps frizz down so there is no need for gel. Alright, so as soon as I leave the shower after washing my hair, doing my deep conditioning mask and detangling my hair I lather this stuff on. You don’t have to use a lot of product either. (of course depending how long and thick your hair is).

4. PADDLE, PADDLE, PADDLE

OKAY. Now this is the most important part to getting amazing curls. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION. Now, while your hair is still nice and wet and moistured with the CANTU hair product take your handy-dandy paddle brush once again and begin to comb your hair once again. The paddle brush with the Cantu product will give your curls the best shape. You have to make sure to brush all the way from bottom to top and make sure the curls are forming as you are doing it. You will see how amazing your curls look!

5. SET THOSE CURLS BABY!

Last step is diffuse! Now, you can either let them dry naturally or diffuse. I diffuse because my hair would take way too long to completely dry and to be honest I don’t have the time to wait around for hours for it to do so. So I start diffusing my hair first with cold air to set the curls and reduce frizz. If at all possible just do it with cold air. As this will minimize frizz. If you need it to dry ASAP then you can switch to heat diffusing after. Once my curls are dry and set comes the fun part. I like my puff big so I start to puff them out with hands. Keep in mind the more you touch the curls the more frizzy they will get so only try to keep this at a minimum. The last and final step before I leave the house it to apply small amount of heat with my blow dryer to the root of my hair to decrease shrinkage. I mostly focus on bottom of my hair since I don’t like too much shrinkage. I blow dry the roots to give me more length.

THERE YOU HAVE IT!!! That’s how I get my curly q’s. Let me know if you have any further questions! 🙂

P.S at night-time I wear a satin bonnet to preserve my curls. Cotton sheets and pillow covers will dry out your curls. In the morning I shake my curls out apply a bit of water and Cantu if needed and blow dry my roots a bit to reduce shrinkage. I can usually get away with this for 3-4 days. After that I start to tie my curls back 🙂 My curls are not perfect but they are getting there. 🙂

Be blessed,

Eli<3