On A Soapbox: The Curly Girl Gospel

When I was in school at Temple University in Philadelphia, I met a girl who had the most gorgeous curls I had ever seen. Being a curly girl myself, I had to tell her this. If you have curly hair, you understand the never ending struggle to find the perfect cocktail to tame your tresses.

I found an opportunity to gush about how beautiful her locks were, and what she said next shocked me.

"I don't shampoo my hair. Just use conditioner. Curly Girl - read it."

I was more than a little taken aback. My internal reaction was, "What? Ew... but, if her curls come out looking like that, then maybe it's worth a try..." Unfortunately, I neither picked up a copy of the book, nor was brave enough to try a shower without shampooing until this year.

Some time ago, I saw a magazine ad for this creepy looking green hand-hair-diffuser-thing that was apparently called a "DevaFuser". I was so intrigued by this strange contraption that I got online to find out more - the company's ad completely worked. It led me to DevaConcepts.com, and after some perusing I discovered that this site was linked back to the author of Curly Girl, Lorraine Massey. At this point, I was paying attention. I'd been led to this woman's approach to curl care at least twice - I was finally ready to hear what she had to say.

One of the turning points for me in my hair care regimen was watching this video:


I had never heard that washing your hair with regular shampoo was like dumping detergent on my head. And once she pointed it out, I thought, "Oh my gosh... she's right." I wasn't ready to give up completely on washing my hair, but I was open to an alternative. Sometime soon after, I ordered the Deva Curl Travel Kit to try out a different way of cleansing my hair. It was definitely strange to no longer have suds in my hair, but my scalp was left with a pleasant tingling sensation.

After that, I ordered the full-blown 32 oz bottles of No Poo, One Condition, and AnGEL a few months ago, and I've been using almost nothing but those products ever since. My hair really does feel healthier, much more moisturized, and I have far less "bad curl days." I went back to an old favorite "regular" shampoo just once a few weeks ago, and when my hair had dried it felt like straw!

So I am on a mission to stop curly girls' ignorance to the effects of sulfates. They are ruining their curls without even knowing it. For a long time, I thought Deva made the only sulfate-free line of hair products out there, but I have recently discovered a few more that are more affordable, and I'm continuing my mission to spread the curly girl gospel - there is a better way.

Love, Peace & the Planet - I had my hair cut at Lox Salon today, and the hairstylist used this to shampoo - it smelled so incredible, I asked her what it was, and as we started talking about it, I was super excited to hear it was a natural hair care line, and even more excited to come home and see that it is FREE of sulfates!

Rainwater Botanticals - I finally gave in to this amazing website called Etsy and decided to search for "sulfate-free" and came up with this gem of an independent store.

Burt's Bees and Kiss My Face - These don't explicitly say that there are no sulfates, but they are nowhere to be found on the ingredient labels!

L'Oreal EverPure - I'm a little more wary about this line, since it is a mainstream company, but it says it's sulfate-free.

Spread the word to other curlies... you never know, you may have someone stop you and tell you that you've got the most gorgeous curls they've ever seen!

sulfate-free :)