Wurly haircare is similar to curly haircare. There are several wonderful websites dedicated to curly hair. Naturallycurly is one--but be prepared to sift through tons of ads and irrelevant information. LiveCurlyLiveFree is another which even has an e-book and a hair analysis service to tell you what type of hair you have. I also like Curly Q, a mom blog about her daughter's curly hair.
But even though there are similarities, haircare for wurly and wavy hair really isn't the same as for curly. And it isn't the same as straight either. Many techniques that work for curlies and straighties just don't work on waves and wurls.
Detangling-- Best to do while washing and with fingers. Brushing will often result in poofyness and frizz--(but not on the scale of a true curly LOL.) Occasionally brushing will give volume and gentle waves, but this usually only works in low humidity. Wide-toothed combs can also work well.
Washing-- Best tip is no shampoo! Or at least one with no sulfates as that ruffles the cuticles and encourages frizz. We wash Snowflake’s and Rainbow’s hair with a technique called Conditioner-Only washing, or CO. Best to use a silicone-free conditioner as it will buildup and need a sulfate shampoo to clarify once in a while (although if you don’t mind that occasionally it won’t be a problem.) We use various Suave and V05 conditioners in the natural line--which are surprisingly ideal for CO.
First, the washing step. We use a lighter conditioner for washing--like Suave Clarifying. Wet hair. Then pour a generous amount of conditioner onto hands and cover hair. Work it into scalp with the pads of the fingers, starting at the sides, working to the crown, and finishing at the nape. If it gets hard to spread and rub in, splash a little extra water on the hair to dilute the conditioner (or start with diluted conditioner.) Detangle the hair with your fingers--starting from the bottom and work up. Rinse hair thoroughly, concentrating on getting ALL the conditioner off the scalp.
Next the conditioning step. (With Rainbow’s short hair I usually skip this part.) Use a generous amount of a second conditioner (it can be the same as the first, or a heavier one, like Garnier Fructis Triple Nutrition.) We only add it to the ear level down, scrunching it into the hair. Scrunching means you cup the hair from the bottom and push it up and “squish” it with the hair. It’ll make a fun squishy sound if you’ve used enough. Rinse, but not quite completely. Scrunch as you rinse.
Drying & Styling-- For Rainbow we just blot with a T-shirt, if that, and let it airdry. For Snowflake we get a gel (so far we’ve used 100% Aloe Vera Gel, and LA Works wet look gel) and pour a generous amount into my hands. Then I scrunch it in. We don’t use terrycloth towels on hair as that creates frizz and disrupts waves and wurls. T-shirts and other smoother fabric is better. We use a large T-shirt in a technique called “plopping.” J I lay out the T-shirt and she flips over her hair upside-down. She puts her head directly upside-down on the T-shirt--this allows the hair to stay in it’s coils while it dries. I envelop the rest of her head in the T-shirt and wrap the sides around the back of her head and tie them together. If it is nighttime, I’ll tie it around her forehead and send her to bed. It usually comes off by morning but the wurls definitely look best this way. If it is daytime, she’ll wear the T-shirt for at least 20 min and then we’ll take it off and let it airdry.
The girls being little, they will of course end up rubbing their head all over something at some point and make it messy. Not to worry--I wet my hands and run it over the top of the messy hair and lightly finger-comb. Looks good again! This is also what I do in the morning with the bed-head.
And here they are a few hours after washing and drying! Snowflake insisted on wearing her mask, sorry! :)
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