My new curly hair routine for 3A/3B curls

My new curly hair routine for 3A/3B curls

So over a year ago, I did a post all about my hair care routine and explained how having good hair seemed to help me with my depression by lifting my spirits. Well since then I've done a heck of a lot of research into the best ways to care for curly hair as well as trying a few different techniques.

Now along the way, there was lots of frizz, lots of knots but in the end, lots of good results.

So I thought I'd share this new routine with all my curly haired friends out there and those who are intrigued by curly hair, which to be honest seems to be everyone in my life who doesn't have it.

I mean, I even have complete strangers sometimes come to look and even try to touch my hair.

No, not weird at all, go ahead random person I don't know, attempt to run your hand through my impossibly thick hair while knotting it up in the process.

Just....just no.  

Now, just a couple of things before I start with the routine itself. 

1) You are going to see that I only use LUSH products for my hair. I'm not affiliated with them in any way (but I would not say no if they asked, just say the word LUSH) I just really like the way their products make my hair feel but its all about finding the products that work for you.

2) I never really knew what my hair type was. I just knew it as "curly" but I knew if I wanted to properly care for my hair, I needed to find out what type of "curly" it was. So after much research and online quizzes, I appear to be somewhere in between 3A and 3B but a lot depends on different factors such as the season, how much time I can spend on my hair and how long it has been since I last washed my hair (which is sometimes a little longer than I'd like to admit to). 

But that's enough admin, let's get onto the reason you came to this post. to find out what my new curly hair routine is.

The first thing I do is look at the horrendous state that my hair has gotten into as I've been living my life and decide I need to do something. 

I always put on a har mask first to help my hair to help add strength to my hair and control/prevent frizz after washing. 

I use the LUSH jasmine and henna fluff ease which is not only made with curly hair in mind but also red hair like mine because in case you haven't noticed, I have naturally red hair and I have heard all the jokes. I challenge you to try and tell me a joke in the comments below about naturally red/ginger hair that I have never heard 😉

I'll then put my hair up into a top knot for an hour or so. It says 20 minutes but I found an hour works best for me just because of the sheer amount of hair I have. 

Then I get ready to wash, where it is VERY IMPORTANT to note my special technique here and that is to wash my hair upside down. 

Yes, you read right. I wash my hair upside down, with head flipped over so I'm bent forward to let all my hair fall towards the front (I really hoped I explained that alright, if not ask me in the comments and I'll try to explain it better).  

You may be wondering why I do this but I swear I have a good reason. Basically, when I would put my head directly under the water head in the shower I found that the falling water was pushing my curls down and it affected the curl as it was drying so by doing this the water doesn't hit the curls as hard so they have more volume later on.

I also do something else which may seem a little strange to others but also works for me.

I like to use my conditioner before I use my shampoo.

What I do exactly is after I wash out the hair mask, I put a small amount of LUSH American Cream conditioner on my hair as it contains ingredients to gently cleanse the hair for the first time but also helps again with frizz with the orange juice in it helping the cuticles to lie flat.

I then put my hair in a shower cap and do everything else I need to do before flipping my hair back over, washing out the conditioner and then using the LUSH Curly Wurly shampoo with its small pieces of coconut helping to bring volume to my curls while exfoliating and cleaning my scalp. 

Now the reason I do this is because I found that any conditioner residue left behind in my hair was weighing it down and seeing as I use a leave-in conditioner as well, I wanted to get rid of this residue but still get the benefits of the conditioner itself. 

So, by using it first and leaving it in for a bit, my hair fibres and cuticles still take on all the benefits but none of the excesses is left after I use my shampoo. I just like to be able to control how much moisture is in my hair so that my curls don't get too weighed down but aren't dried out.

After all that work...well there's still more work to do.

What? I just said this is my new curly hair routine, I never said it was simple.

Anyway, straight after I get out of the shower, I put my hair in a microfiber towel while I dry off and get dressed. 

I'll then take it out and scrunch my hair with the towel to get out a little of the water. 

I then follow this with putting the LUSH R&B hair moisturiser to add a little more strength to my wet hair and give it a nice, light perfume. 

 I will then place large metal clips to my hair at the roots to help get more volume there as my hair is air drying as the curls can be heavy and pull the roots down. These clips just help to give them a little more lift. 

One last scrunch and then I put all my curls in a silky scarf at the back of my head (mainly so it doesn't get in the way) and leave it from then until I get up the next day no matter what time I have washed my hair. You may think that the clips in the hair would be uncomfortable to sleep on but no because they are only on the top of my head and it turns out I don't sleep doing a handstand so it's fine.

And the scarf is to help protect my hair from the environment such as cotton fibres in a pillowcase so that there is no frizz, the fibres don't get damaged and that the curls don't get broken.

Fast forward to the next morning.

I take the scarf off and let all the hair fall down. It may still be a little damp but for the most part, it's dry so I take out the clips at the roots and that's it. 

My curls can be seen it all their glory and I'm ready to show them to the world. 

I hope that this helps my fellow curly haired people with ideas on what you can do to help your curls and that those who are curious can now see why they shouldn't run their hair through others hair because of how much work goes into them.

Really? I mean why do people do that?

Also, if you made it this far, well done. I know this was a long post but thank you so much for making it to the end.

Honestly, who knew curly hair could be such hard work? 

Be happy, be healthy, from Abbie x