Unconventional Hygiene

[Hinotori]

Wooden wide tooth combs are best for detangling. They do not catch at all. Hair slides very easily over the teeth.

Horn combs are also more gentle than plastic and a nice fine tooth horn one is good for styling. Note that fine tooth horn is hard to find, but medium tooth are easy. Horn also helps distribute hair oil evenly.


Can find both types at asian stores, or on amazon. The Breezelike brand on amazon are good quality.

 

[Hinotori]

I'm going to visit Mom soon. She put in an order for me to make her a large amount of chapstick since the homemade stuff works better for her than any store bought.

 

[tortoise]

I'll complicate the curly girl hair product stuff. Before buying product, you should test your hair to find if it is low or high protein, low or high porosity. If your hair is high protein, low porosity, you may have difficulty finding appropriate products - look at Shea Moisture or Cantu products. Not all Shea Moisture products are CG approved - gotta check each one.

The cheapest curly girl approved product is V05 conditioner used as cowash and LA Looks blue gel. However, if you live in a humid climate and get frizz, the glycerin in each is likely a problem and more pricey products would be needed.

Aussie Instant Freeze gel (blue label) is CG approved and glycerin free. Least expensive option I could find.

The only CG approved and glycerin free conditioner I have found yet is Shea Moisture coconut and hibiscus (coral color label).

I use this web tool to analyze products for me: https://www.curlsbot.com/

 

[milkmansdaughter]

How do you test your hair for protein and porosity?

 

[baymule]

Thanks Bee!

 

[tortoise]

How do you test your hair for protein and porosity?

Protein is tested by stretching a strand of hair.

Porosity is tested by how a strand of hair floats (or sinks).

I'd suggest google for the test instructions

 

[sumi]

Got some hair oil called Amla Gold to incorporate into my weekly scalp massages with castor oil/olive oil/tea tree EO.

Bee, can you post a pic of the bottle so I can see if it's the same Amla hair oil I used to use? That stuff made my hair grow like crazy. I'm talking about an inch+ a week crazy. No joke!

 

[tortoise]

WOW! I would buy a product for an inch of growth per week! I have finally figured out (because of Curly Girl Method) why my hair was breaking off and getting so ratty. I'm not afraid of letting it grow now.

 

[sumi]

WOW! I would buy a product for an inch of growth per week! I have finally figured out (because of Curly Girl Method) why my hair was breaking off and getting so ratty. I'm not afraid of letting it grow now.

You should try it then, @tortoise When I was about 15 I asked an Indian woman how long she'd been growing her hair, which was quite long. She told me 6 months. I said NO WAY! She told me she uses Amla oil, so I decided to try it myself. I wet my hair, massaged it in and left it in overnight. Washing it out I found a pain, I used ordinary shampoo and it took about 13 washes to get all the oil out, but good heavens, my hair grew after that! I only used it once every few weeks for awhile, since it was such a hassle to wash out afterwards and I got my hair back to the required length so fast. A friend of mine's aunt decided to try it then. Her hair grew very, very, very slowly normally. After using the oil she told us it grew 1 centimetre a week. So there ya go…

 

[tortoise]

Can you share the label for what you used? There are tons of amla oil products!