I have had thick, curly hair my entire life, like a lion mane (except curly of course). Luckily, I have a mom with the same hair texture, and she always taught me how to properly take care of my hair. Part of that is using de-frizzing hair products.
One annoyance of having thick, curly hair is how easily it frizzes. Once it completely dries, POOF! My hair just looks so…poofy. It wasn’t much of a problem when I was little, but as I got older I clearly needed to tame the mane. I started using de-frizzing products in my hair such as gel, mousse, and different creams.
If I wanted to go cheap, I would buy TRESemmé, and for a cheaper brand I always thought it did a good job. However, it would make my curls look crunchy at times, which I’m sure other people like me have experienced. Most recently, I started using more high end products that would take better care of my curls. The good thing about higher end products is you only need to use a little at a time, so the bottle lasts a while. One of my favorites is Shea Moisture Curl Enhancing Smoothie (not the smoothies we get at Jamba Juice). It smooths my curls with little to no crunch. For about a year, I have been using Cantu Curl Activator Cream. I have been getting so many compliments on my hair ever since I started using it.
To give you an idea, here is what my curls look like on a very good day:
Whew…that sounds like a lot right? Sometimes I wish I could just let my hair go without de-frizzing product and not have to worry about it. Then I began to think…what if I did just that?
Welcome to my experiment: Hair science. For four days, I put Cantu away, and I let my curls go without any kind of hair product. All I did was take my shower as normal, put my hair down and went on with my day as normal. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t put some kind of de-frizzing product, bu here’s how it all went down.
Day One: My curls were a little bamboozled
I had an internship meeting this morning, so I was a little nervous about my hair looking like a rat’s nest. I went for it anyway.
To start, I took a shower in the morning. One thing that may have thrown off my experiment was I forgot to wash my hair. I just combed my hair in the shower and put conditioner in, which I did all days of the experiment.
One classic trait of my hair is that it takes forever to dry. I will take a shower, go to bed, and wake up with my hair still damp. If I shower in the morning, I will usually put my hair product in as soon as I take my towel off. Of course, I didn’t, and my hair was completely dry within 10 minutes.
To my surprise, my hair didn’t look terrible. I will say I was scared that when my hair dried so fast it was just going to get drier and puffier throughout the day. It actually didn’t get much puffier after the morning. One thing I did notice was how flat my curls were. They were more waves than curls. I’m no scientist, but I want to say it’s because my hair had gotten so used to the curl activator that when I didn’t put it in that day my curls, quite literally, deactivated.
My hair didn’t look fantastic, but overall it wasn’t a bad first day.
Day Two: Oof…
I tried something a little different this day and showered and braided my hair the night before. I thought doing this would create some pretty beach waves. I also washed and conditioned my hair this time.
My curls were not happy with me. My hair was very, very frizzy (of course), and my curls were flat again. Not flat to the point where my hair was relaxed, but flat and poofy.
I’m thinking this was because I didn’t wash my hair the first day, so some hair product may have been left over from the day before. When I washed it all out, my curls were not happy and protested.
Here’s what I was dealing with by the end of the day:
Day Three: A little less “oof”
I didn’t need to wash my hair since I wasn’t using any hair product. Plus, as many people should know, you shouldn’t wash your hair every day because it will dry your hair out.
I took my shower the night before again, but I didn’t wash my hair. Something different I did was put my hair in a half up-half down style. Right away, I noticed a gang of fly aways.
Despite the fly aways, this was probably the best day. My girls were still flat, but my hair was a lot smoother. At one point around 3:30, I wet my hair a little in the bathroom, which surprisingly helped a lot. Even before that, my hair didn’t look so bad.
Day Four: The final day
I let my hair down again like normal, and once again did not need to wash my hair. I did shower this morning, but I left my hair alone.
Many of my curls were still flat, but I noticed some of them were a little more defined. I seemed like my hair was becoming unaccustomed to the curl activator cream, and learned how to activate itself without the cream. We love being self-reliant!
While my hair was frizzy again, it didn’t look terrible. I actually found some parts of my hair that were shiny. I think that because I had stopped putting product in my hair, the natural oils in my hair were restored and did some serious work.
It was interesting to see how my hair would react to the experiment. I thought my hair would look like an actual lion mane, but it didn’t turn out as bad as I expected. I missed my Cantu, so I did immediately go back to using it the next day. I probably will continue to use my hair products, but at least now I know I can survive without it.