Curl Talk Wiki

4-Amino-2-Hydroxytoluene 1.0

2010-01-05T19:19:03Z

This is another ingredient found in, among other things, hair color. It has been linked to various cancers, allergic reactions, infertility, hormonal problems, neurotoxicity, and organ toxicity. One or more animal studies show that there is body-wide organ toxicity at "moderate" levels. Yet, we women are supposed to be content putting this stuff on our heads.

2-Nitro-p-Phenylenediamine Sulfate 1.0

2010-01-05T19:15:35Z

The jury is still out on the safety of this. What is it? Well, it's an ingredient in a lot of hair colors. There is some indication that it can cause liver tumors. It's a coal-tar based dye. However, it has been linked to various cancers. It's prohibited in the use of cosmetics even though it's still allowed in hair colors. And according to skindeep.com, there is a growing body of evidence that this is not a safe thing to be applying to ourselves.

Protiens 1.0

2009-07-20T19:54:06Z

Protiens can come from all kinds of things - from soy beans to milk to coconuts to silk and hooves. This is listed as an "iffy" ingredient because a fairly high percentage of curlies have hair that reacts badly to it. The normal "bad reaction" means that once its applied, hair becomes dry and/or rough. In many cases, the sensitivity to it is limited to a particular type - such as silk or whey.

Ingredients 1.9

2009-07-20T19:50:32Z

This will be a place to list all the ingredients with as much information as I can muster up about each one. I've also added my own experiences with them. I've been careful to note what is pulled from other sources and what my own experience. Its offered here in an effort to be helpful to other curlies and to at least be a jumping off point for your own experiments into caring for your hair.

As you get started doing things the right way for your hair, I would STRONGLY suggest that you look at your hair care products and check the ingredients carefully. If you see that any of them do indeed contain any of the following ingredients, stop using them for 30 days. Put them in a box and hide them from yourself. In order to properly care for curly hair, you will probably want to get rid of those products altogther.

Sulfates
Silicons
Mineral Oil
Petrolium Jelly
Parafin

This is a list of iffy ingredients for many curlies. The sure way to tell if your hair is "sensitive" to these is to remove anythig that contains that particular ingredient from your routine for 30 days. See if your hair normalizes or not. Then you can reintroduce it to see if the problem comes back.

Proteins
Magnesium Sulfate
Honey
Polyquats
Glycerin
Agave Nectar
Oils
Butters
Cocamidopropyl Betaine
Sodium Coco-Sulfate
Decyl Glucoside
Polyquaternium-7

Product Classes 1.4

2009-07-20T19:44:12Z

Products grouped into various classes. The major classes are cleaners, conditioners, moisturizers, oils and stylers.

Cleaners are futher subdivided into shampoos and soaps. Co-washing sort of blurs the line between cleaner and conditioner, but most conditioners also contain surfactants. A surfactant is "A shortened form of "surface-active agent", a surfactant is a chemical that stabilizes mixtures of oil and water by reducing the surface tension at the interface between the oil and water molecules."

Non-curl friendly shampoo uses things like SLS, ALES, and other sulfates for surfactants. Detergents work by breaking the surface tension of the water and allowing them to carry away things like oil and dirt. You can see this in Dove shampoos for example. The "Frizz Control" formula -

Curl friendly shampoos use a variety of other surfactants. Usually these are derived in some form or fashion from coconuts. Occasionally, they come from other sources. They tend not to foam (lather) as well the sulfates, so they're not used as much. Cocamidopropyl Betaine (Coconut Derived), Sodium Coco-Sulfate (Coconut Derived), Decyl Glucoside (Sugar Derived), Polyquaternium-7 (Coconut Derived)

One of the more "green" and curl friendly solutions is to use "bar shampoos". These solid bars of shampoo are technically (chemicaly speaking) not shampoo but soap. Soaps, in the chemcial sense, are a bit different in that they work by having the soap molecule bind to oil or dirt and emulsify it so that it can be carried off. They tend not to bond to everything in sight, like SLS, which will actually strip protien out of your hair, so they're a lot gentler than "regular" shampoo.

Conditioners are classed according to "slip" or the slipperiness of the product in question. High quality conditioners like MOP Glisten, Miss Jessie's Creme De La Creme, Jessicurl's Too Shea are all classed as "high slip" conditioners because when applied to hair they really get things sliding around and work out the tangles. Drug store conditioners like White Rain,Dove, and even our much beloved Suave Naturals are are low slip conditioners because they just don't have the higher end ingredients required to get that "sea weedy" feel going.

Moisturizers are a very important class. This is NOT oils or any oil based products. Oils have their place in hair care but they are NOT moisture. I can't say that often or loud enough OIL <> MOISTURE.

Moisturizers are things that supply water to the hair. These fall into two major classes - water (in some form) and humectants. The first includes things like misting, aloe vera gel, etc. and the latter includes things like glycerin, honey, agave nectar, etc.

Health Related Hair Problems 1.2

2009-07-20T19:38:54Z

Let me just say this... If you are experiencing sudden and unexplained hair loss... TAKE YOURSELF TO THE DOCTOR. There are about a 1000 reasons for this ranging from stress to hormonal imbalances to kidney disease to cancer and it's up to your doctor to decide which one is your problem. Because hair grows so quickly, it is often the first to feel the effects when something else inside the body is malfunctioning. So if you're having this problem, please, for the sake of your own health, go see your doctor.

Hair Types 1.0

2009-07-20T19:38:12Z

Let's talk a bit about hair types. We get so focused on the curl that sometimes we forget that it's HAIR that's curling. Hair has a few things going on...

Density - This refers to the number of hairs per square inch. Typically, the darker your hair, the higher your density. If you have a higher density, you actually have MORE hairs. That means you will need more product. If you're a blond, you will probably need less.

Porosity - If your hair is very absorbent, you will need more product and may benefit from things that add protien to the hair. Chemically damaged hair is often very porus. On the other end of the spectum, if your hair takes a long time to get wet and/or doesn't soak up a lot of product, then you might want to avoid protien containing products.

Texture - Are you individual hairs so thin you can barely see them or are they so thick that they look like small wires? Most of us are somewhere in between but there is definitely a texture. Fine hair needs to avoid heavy products to keep from being weighted down. Coarser hair may need heavy products to help control shrinkage during drying.

Leave in Conditioner 1.0

2009-06-22T05:38:13Z

This usually falls between the rinse out conditioner and before the styling produts. Something gets applied to the hair to help prevent tangling and to help the hair retain moisture.

Curly Hair Styles 1.3

2009-06-22T05:33:04Z

I'm going to try to catalog curly hair styles here. First, though, I want to make some comments about curly hair accessories. Yes, there are rules to this too...

Do not use rubber bands. They can cut and break your hair.
Do not use any really narrow metal barettes as they can also cut or break your hair.
Be very careful with braids, twists, and corn rows as you can create a condition called traction alopecia. If you braid your hair too tightly you can make it fall out and cause bald spots.
Try not to use things that are heavily beaded or jewled as they can become tangled in your hair.
Do try to use scrunchies, wide barettes, snap clips, long alligator clips.and other accessories that don't put too much stress on your hair.
Try to use oversized accessories - larger barettes, jaw clamps, etc. as this will lessen the stress on your hair

Uptail Twist 1.0

2009-06-22T05:31:53Z

This is really easy hair style and will take you about 5 minutes in the morning. Spritz your hair and do what you need to get your curl refreshed in the morning. Take some pomade, shea butter, cocoa butter or what ever to smooth down your hair and form up a pony tail in the back just above the nape of your neck. Twist it a few times, taking care to gather in all the hair but not pull too tight. Clip it up with a jaw clip and leave some curls spilling out the top.

Tetrasodium EDTA 1.0

2009-06-22T05:13:21Z

Tetrasodium Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetate or Tetraacedic acid is a chelating agent used to bind up hard water ions and remove them from the hair. It helps to stabilize products and extend shelf life. Unfortunately, its a rather nasty thing. The OSHA required labeling says that anyone handling it should be very careful not to eat or smoke or drink so that "even minute amounts of it" won't be ingested. Anyone handling it is also supposed to wear protective clothing because it can be absorbed through the skin. Once absorbed, it gets stored in major organs such as the brain and liver. It's not known at what level its toxic. And unfortunately it's in EVERYTHING.... and the exposure is cumulative. It's in your shampoo, your conditioner, your hair gel, your aloe gel, your hand lotion, and a lot of other things. It's used so often that its now being classified a persistent environmental pollutant. We use so much of it in so many products that its polluting our water.

Curly Hair Color 1.0

2009-06-15T21:39:32Z

MORRIGHU'S GUIDE TO HAIR COLOR

Coloring your hair at home with professional hair color isn’t nearly as hard as you think. There are a few things to take into consideration, but on whole, if you can bake cake mix, you can do this too! Most of what you need to know applies to hair color period – kit or professional.

Using professional hair color at home means several things. It means you can custom blend a color to complement your own skin tone. It means that you can pick additives and products that are the least damaging to your hair while still giving you the color you want.

General Hair Color Guidelines –
Understand that there are 3 basic types of hair color – permanent, semi-permanent, and demi-permanent. If you are covering grey, you want permanent. Semi and demi are made to wash out/fade over time. Demi will fade the fastest, followed by Semi. That means you’ll have to keep doing your whole head to keep your grey covered. If you’re covering grey, just get full on permanent and be done!

2 days before you color, do a deep treatment on your hair. You want your hair in the best possible shape before coloring it.
Do NOT get your hair wet for 24 hours before you plan to color it. This will help the color bond to your hair properly and prevent fading.
Do NOT get your hair wet for 72 hours after your color it. This will also help the color bond properly and prevent fading.
Shampoos fade hair color. If it lathers, it probably strips hair color. The only difference is the matter of degree. Low-poo and bars are better than sulfate containing shampoos. Either of those options may be perfectly acceptable to you.
DO NOT USE METAL BOWLS, MEASURING SPOONS, UTENSILS, COMBS, BRUSHES WITH HAIR COLOR. Most hair color will react with the metal and you may well end up with Crayola black hair – UGH!
Sun, salt and chlorine fade hair color. If you must go swimming, be sure to saturate your hair with tap water and conditioner before you go in. Try to wear a hat or keep your hair covered outside. Besides, it’s good for your skin too!
ONLY the first application of a new color should be to your whole head. All subsequent colorings should be roots only. Just work the color into the rest of your hair for the last 3 to 5 minutes of the coloring process if you feel that you need to so that you can cover any fading.

Professional Hair Color Guidelines

Buy yourself some gloves. You can get them at the beauty supply but it’s usually cheaper to go to Harbor Freight, Home Depot, etc. and purchase the Nitrile gloves. Besides, no one likes dyed fingernails or hands.

If you don’t have one, get a plastic squeezy bottle like the ones that come in the kits or get yourself a bowl and brush to apply your hair color. This will help you apply the color. You can rinse them out and reuse them almost indefinitely.

Use the developer that is made for your hair color. It’s not that much more and most manufactures formulate the developer to work with the additives in their hair color.

When you pick a developer, go with the lowest volume developer offered with your hair color that will color your hair. That’s typically a “10 volume”. It will have the least peroxide in it and be the least damaging. Developer isn’t that expensive – usually about $6 for a 16 oz bottle. You’ll only use a few tablespoons at a time, but this is the part where you can really start to control how much harm you do to hair during coloring. When you do this for the very first time, it’s well worth it to spend an extra $6 or $12 on some developer you may not use so that you can minimize the damage to your hair for rest of your life. Most home kits use a either a 20 or 30 volume developer.

Sally’s sells additives for hair color. I’m going to mention a few here. If there’s not a Sally’s in your area, you can order it on line. Most of these are under a $1.00. If not, most any other beauty supply will have something similar.
Look for an additive called “Care & Comfort”. It’s a pH buffer that will protect your hair and scalp from some of the harshness of the developer. It goes into the hair color. I personally double up on this one.
If you have resistant grey, there are couple of different additives, depending on the color that you are going to, that I would recommend. One is for dark/red shades and another is for ashy (green based or cool) shades. Pick the appropriate one for your color.
777 is a conditioner additive that helps repair the coloring damage while you’re coloring.
Ion makes a protein treatment that goes into the color that also helps to repair the hair during the coloring process.
If you are custom mixing a color, be sure to measure precisely so that you can recreate it later.
Mix the developer and the color in ratio listed in the directions. Some will be 1:1. Others will not. This is another reason that it’s important to measure accurately!
Mix a bit of your color formula with the right amount of developer and DO THE STRAND TEST. This will tell you if 10 volume developer will work for you or not. Some hair, particularly grey hair, is very resistant to color and 10 volume may not work for everyone. You may need a 20 or even a 30 to get the results you want. You won’t know until you test it.
Once you get your timing, your color mix, and your developer down, then you can color your hair.
Follow the timing from your strand test.
Rinse you hair really well.
Buy the after color conditioner. Sally’s sells the Feria but there are other brands available for use immediately after coloring. This helps to neutralize any developer that’s left in your hair, remove any excess pigment, and seal in your new hair color.

Curly Hair Cuts 1.3

2009-06-15T21:30:00Z

Having a good hair cut is crucial to having good hair days with curly hair. A good hair enhances the curl pattern, frames the face nicely, and works for your lifestyle (length, time, care habits, etc.) The first step to getting a good hair cut is finding a stylist.

There are many ways to find a good stylist. If you spot another curlie with fab hair. Stop them and ask who the their stylist is. They will be flattered and usually happy to share with you. Many web sites for curlies offer salon references from other curlies. If the web sites are popular enough, there may even be some in your area.

Don't just get the salon name though. Get the individual stylist. I've let my mom make my hair appointment at the salon only to arrive and find out that it is NOT with my usual gal. I've suffered through the appointment because of time constraints, and gone to a wedding with my hair rolled up on a Hairdini in a French twist because it was a horror of a hair cut. Let that be a warning to the rest of you!

How to talk to your stylist -

1) Tell them that you want CG friendly products. If they don't have any, bring your own. If the salon has a problem with that, then this obviously isn't the place for you.

2) Tell them that you need long layers at no more than a 45 degree angle. You do not want to look like a mushroom or a cheese wedge.

3) Discuss shrinkage. Curly hair shrinks a LOT when it dries. Our hair will shrink 4 or 5 inches or more from wet to dry. Wet, my hair is nearly wasit length. Dry, it barely comes to my bra strap. Know how much your hair shrinks and explain this to your stylist.

4) Be specific. A trim can be anything from 1/4 of an inch to an inch or more, depending on the stylist judgement. Communicate what you expect a trim to be.

5) Your head of hair has a density - meaning the number of hairs per sqaure inch of scalp. If you have a low hair density, keep your layers longer to avoid the dreaded "wedge head".

6) Ask them to use "no tension" if they are wet cutting your hair. Dry cutting is preferable.

7) Go in for a shampoo and a style the first time to check them out. This lets you get a good look at the stylist in action and lets the stylist get a good look at your hair. You can see if you like them and are comfortable with them and if what they have to say makes sense to you. You can, even more importantly, see if they listen you. If they do not listen to you - RUN!!!

Questions to Ask Your Stylist -

1) Are you a curly? And do you wear you own hair curly? I personally find this one to be UBER important. Anyone who doesn't have curly hair themselves is unlikely to know how to deal with it. Not impossible, just extremely rare.

2) Does your salon carry any CG products? Check to see if the salon has any of the CG lines. If they do, your odds of having a stylist who is familiar with curly hair go up dramatically.

3) Where did you learn to cut curly hair? Ask where they learned to cut curly hair. Odds are, it was some kind of an apprenticeship program.

Hair Cut Faux Paus - Things NOT to Do

1) If you are uncomfortable at all - DO NOT STAY THERE! GET UP AND LEAVE. It is your hair. You will have to live with it for months while it grows back out.

2) Unless the salon says to show up with your hair styled, do not show up with product on your hair for a dry cut. You need to have product free hair for this.

3) Do not check the eveness of a dry cut under tension. Without ever having seen your hair, your head, or your stylist, I can tell you that it will NOT be even under tension. It's supposed to be even when it curls not when its streched out. All of you know that each and every curl is slightly different. Because of that, a dry cut will always be uneven under tension.

4) Your stylist is not a miracle worker. If one side doesn't curl quite the same as the other, a cut isn't going to fix that. If one side has more hair than the other, a cut isn't going to fix that.

Curl Trivia 1.0

2009-06-15T00:15:14Z

34% of women have wavy hair. 11% of women have curly hair. According to one survey 40% of women have wanted more curl and texture in their hair. Curly hair comes in 2 patterns "S" and "Z". Z pattern hair is much harder to straighten and retains less moisture than S pattern hair.

Polypropylene Glycol 1.0

2009-06-02T20:23:10Z

Often abbreviated as PPG with a number after it, this class of ingredients scares me a bit too. It's used in antifreeze which will kill cats, dogs, and small children. Ingestion of antifreeze is assocatied with kidney and liver failure. It used in polyurethane - the finish on bowling lanes and basketball courts. Its used in hydraulic fluid. It is absorbed through the skin.

Disodium Laureth Sulfosuccinate 1.0

2009-06-02T19:23:40Z

While this still contains the dreaded "Sulf" and personally makes me suspicious of it, it acts differently than the other surfactants here. The sulfate isn't the surfactant, but instead the sodium ions, resulting in a much milder action.

You can read more about it here.

Using Styling Products 1.1

2009-06-02T16:33:32Z

Again, its important for you to avoid silicones here as well. There are a variety of gels and mousses that you can use to style your hair. I've become extremely suspicious of the "Beauty Industry" for a couple of reasons. One, labeling is spurious at best. Deva, who is one of the top names in curly hair care, recently admitted to "using up old labels" while putting their new formula in the bottles. When confronted, they stated that it was an industry wide practice. My own investigations have confirmed this. Two, many of the ingredients that are commonly used, cannot, in my humble opinion, be healthy for you long term.

However, I recommend Flax Seed Gel. You can make it at home and it works amazing well. Its made 100% out of things you can eat. If you can eat it, it should be safe to put on your head.

Here's how it works. Get out of the shower. DO NOT DRY YOUR HAIR. Apply what ever leave in conditioner you use. Once I have mine applied, I use a little oil too to help seal it all in. At this point I use my denman brush to make sure that the product is distrubuted properly.

Then I add my home made flax seed gel. I use a LOT of it, so it's good that's uber cheap!! I squeeze it in until my hair is really squishy with it. Almost like the "sea weed" in the conditioner section. Then I use my deman brush again to make sure that it's all evenly distributed.

Then I get an old t-shirt and wrap my hair up. DO NOT DO THE TRADITIONAL TURBAN. What I do is more like folding the towel around my hair so the tshirt can absorb the excess moisture. If I soak through the first one, I get another one. I will very carefully and gently remove the wet shirt and replace it with a dry one. The really important thing is not to rub or disturb your hair at all while it's busy making curls. When I feel like it has shed enough moisture, I will take the t-shirt away and let it begin to air dry.

Some days I find that the clumps of curls are HUGE! Some times they are so big, I look like I have bald spots. When that happens, I gently brush out that clump with the deman brush. Then I will scrunch it a bit and leave it to dry. It is important to NOT to touch your hair while it is drying.

Sleep Care 1.2

2009-06-02T16:32:52Z

Curly hair is special and needs to be cared for while you sleep. Cotton, nylon and other fabrics will actually pull moisture out of your hair and cause frizziness. This means that your sheets, your pillow case, and your towel are party to blame for your frizzy hair.

If you are going to do an overnight condition treatment, apply that to your hair. I find that a small amount of shea butter, hemp oil, or cocoa butter worked into my hair does me a world of good. Once you have your overnight treatment worked into your hair well, then you have some choices.

Many of us sleep in what is called pineapple. Turn your head over, and make a big pony tail on the top of your head with a scrunchi. If your hair is too long this might not work well for you. You might need to go to a banded pineapple. You make a regular pineapple and then apply more scrunchies to the hair about every 4" or so to keep it banded.

Otherwise, you can apply your satin sleep bonnet, do-rag, or just a pillow case and get to snoozing.

Anatomy of a Hair 1.2

2009-06-02T16:15:14Z

It's eaiser to deal with something when you understand what that something is. In this case, it's a curly hair and we all have about 150,000 of them on our heads. That number varies according to genetics, but it's a good round number for most all of us.

Your hair starts its life in your scalp in a thing called a follicle. It's a little microscopic pouch in your skin that you can think of as a hair nursery. Here blood and nerves supply everything that's needed to grow a new hair. Now, as was mentioned previously, hair for curly people is physically different in part because the hair follicle is shaped differently for curly haired people.

However, the hair shaft is also different. Straight hair tends to be more of a round shape while curly hair is flatter and more oval in shape. The molecular bonds inside curly hair a different too. We have more hydrogen sulfide bonds in our hair.

Now for the chemistry lesson. Hair is what is called an alpha helix. You've all seen the DNA stand. Well, your hair is 1/2 of that. It's one side of the DNA double-helix "twisted ladder". "Three alpha-helices are interwoven into a left-handed coil called a protofibril. Eleven protofibrils are bonded and coiled together to make a microfibril. Hundreds of these microfibrils are cemented into an irregular bundle called a macrofibril. These in turn are mixed with dead and living cells to make a complete strand of hair."

All protiens are chains of amino acids, which, BTW is why so many body builders take amino acid supplements. The protien in your hair is no different. In this case, your hair uses a lot of the amino acid cystiene. Cystiene has a lot of sulphur (in the form of disulfide) in it which is drawn to the disulfide in other cystiene molecules in your hair. This is what makes curly hair stay curl. These particular bonds are what cause hair to snap back when you stretch it. This particular bonds are what perms, relaxers, texturizers and other things attack when you try to chemically alter your curl pattern. If you want a description of what is happening chemically to your hair during the process, you can read this.

All of these disulfide bonds causes the protien strand in curly hair to be wound tighter than straight hair. This is what makes curly hair more fragile and explains why it needs to be handled delicately and treated with respect.

Frizz 1.3

2009-06-02T15:07:52Z

Frizzy hair is a major issue for most curlies. Many things can cause it and many things might be the answer for you. We'll discuss what those are here. Frizz for curlies comes from breaking up the curl pattern, leaving hair sticking out all over the place.

Problem #1 - Silicones are a major cause of frizz. They claim to tame frizz and they do initially, but long term they actually cause it because they keep moisture out of your hair.

Answer #1 - Use a sulfate based shampoo to remove the silicones. Or use an apple cider vinegar rinse or baking soda mask to remove them. Then do a deep treatment on your hair. Continued DT's should result in a reduction in frizziness.

Problem #2 - Dryness. Curly hair desperately needs moisture. Not oil - moisture. Oil is not moisture. Oil helps to seal in moisture but it is NOT moisture. Dry hair will frizz.

Answer #2 - You can get moisture from water or aloe vera gel. Go to the cleaning aisle at the grocery store and get a good spray bottle with a mister setting. DT's will also help you to keep a good constant mositure level in your hair.

Problem #3 - Morning frizzies. If you hair is frizzy first thing in the morning, it's time to look at how you are sleeping.

Answer #3 - Get a satin bonnet, scarf, or at the very least pillow case. Cotton and other fabrics actaully pull moisture and oil out of your hair. This will make a HUGE difference.

Problem #4 - Wash Day frizzies. If you hair is frizzy after you wash it, one of two things is happening. You are either using a convetional bath towel or your touching your hair too much.

Answer #4 - Ditch the towel. Do not rub your hair while it is wet. Use a microfiber curl towel, chamois, or an old tshirt to carefully wrap up your wet hair. Once you have your products in your hair and its air drying, do not touch it.

Problem #5 - Heat damage. Damaged hair will frizz. The individual hair shafts become so damaged that they just won't make a proper curl and so they frizz.

Answer #5 - Ditch the blow dryer, the curling iron, the flat iron, the hot rollers, and even the hot water. When you heat your hair, the water inside the hair shaft actually becomes steam. Since water vapor takes up more space than liquid water, it raises the pressure inside the hair shaft until it creates a blow out, just like your car tires. Learn to clip your hair and let it dry naturally. If you must blow it dry, learn to properly use a diffuser. If you hair is already damaged, try using some protien treatments to help restore the outside of the hair shaft.

Problem #6 - Chemcial damage. Chemcial damage can come from a lot of sources - relaxers, perms, texturizers, hair color, chlorine, and salt.

Answer #6 - The first thing to do is to STOP doing the chemcial process on your hair. If this is something you're going to the salon for, STOP IT RIGHT NOW. The sooner you stop adding to the damage, the sonner you can start fixing the frizz. You will need a lot of DT's and time to restore chemically damaged hair. Even then, you may still end up doing the "big chop" to cut off the most damaged areas. I recommend an emergency repair treatment like Ion or Ineral. You can get them from beauty supply stores. I also recommend adding something like Aphogee Protien or Roux Fermodyl to your DT's on a weekly basis for a while. This will help you start to rebuild those precious strands of hair.