An Experiment: Curly Tightly Method

Anybody else out there have a kiddo with great kinky hair who sees photos like this and then finds herself completely disappointed at the way her own child's hair looks when left free? 

I found myself in love with Conleigh's hair when wet and then disappointed with her hair when her curls kinked and shrunk and turned themselves into a tightly curled Afro.  I wanted those little bits of spirally delight to stay.  It didn't seem to matter what curl definer I used.  And then I decided that it was just an issue of "this is what her hair does" and that I needed to deal with it. 

The other thing I learned was that a lot of styles that look like simple Afros are actually twist outs, meaning the hair has been twisted or braided before hand and then gently undone to give greater curl definition.  Good to know but a lot of work for a hair style that may last 3 days at best (and often about 3 hours with a 3 year old who has her hands in her hair, spends time rolling on the floor, etc.). 

The other issue I found myself contending with was that doing free hair is a nice break and gives me a chance for a wash and go hair style.  But the tangles that go with free hair are not so fun and leaving Conleigh's hair free too often meant lots of manipulating her already damaged hair and more breakage.

I'd read awhile back some information about a woman who has a specific method of defining her curls but decided the woman's curls were so much looser than Conleigh's that it probably wouldn't work on her hair.  But then this method became a hot topic of conversation on a hair care board I'm a part of.  So I decided to give it a try.  And I was pleasantly surprised at the results.  I followed her basic directions.  In my case I washed her hair because I was taking it out of yarn braids so I used a Castille soap/water/olive oil mixture to cleanse.  Then I deep conditioned with Aubrey Organics Honeysuckle Rose conditioner.  This I rinsed out as it's probably a bit heavy to leave in.  After patting off her hair, I added a "cheap" conditioner (Organix).  This I left in and left alone for a bit until I could see how her curls were starting to separate themselves out.  Then I used those separate curl clumps to make coils.  Basically, I rolled the curls in between my thumb and pointer finger until the curl shape was defined.   The last step was just to let it dry.  After it dried, I did add a small amount of flexible hold hairspray.  I liked how the end result had better curl definition and that it only took me maybe 30 minutes to do once I got her out of the bathtub.  And I liked that since the curls were slightly separated, it cut down on the tangles.  The next day, I touched up a few spots by gently retwisting any flattened curls but didn't do any detangling, just a few minutes of touch up time.  The original style lasted for probably 3-4 days.  I think leaving the conditioner gave the curls some staying power.  And the best part was when I wet her hair again to take the style out, it wasn't a huge tangly mess because of the small coils separating the hair.   I haven't seen much on this method and type 4 hair so I thought I'd share my experience in case anyone was interested.

The pics above are from last week.  The pics below are just her normal Afro.  I know it's probably not much different to a lot of other people but to me, I could definitely tell the difference.

Tomiko Fraser photo credit (Um, not sure. 

Borrowed it from http://elegantnatural.blogspot.com/2010/08/great-linkage-tomiko-fraser-interview.html

but don't see a link to the photographer)