The Curly Girl Method

The Curly Girl Method was developed by Lorraine Massey

Lorraine wrote her method in a book called Curly Girl: The Handbook, and this method became super popular in no-time.

If you have waves, curls or frizzy hair, you know that it, sometimes, can bring a lot of work and problems with them.

Sometime you just don't know what to do or how to model that beautiful bunch of curls properly and healthily. Until the book came out!

The Handbook contains many useful advices about how to take care of curls, how to shape and maintain them, which products to use and which products are best to avoid. Checking for the right ingredients is important!


What is the CG method?

The CG Method is the Curly Girl method is the best method to take care of your curls, that makes them look healthy, groomed, shiny and bouncy. It is not a miracle shampoo or a miracle mask. It's a way to really get to know the needs of your own hair. Whether your hair is coily, curly, frizzy or something in between. All types of waves and curls will benefit from the CG method.

Difficult? No, no! Not at all!

In order to use the CG method to understand this, we are going to take you through a few basic steps. Before you get into the deep end with the information, it may be wise to take time to first read the basic information.


Step 1: Avoid too many ingredients:

A lot of manufacturers and brands put a lot of "junk" in their products, mainly to create a temporary "wow" effect, which is harmful to your hair in the long run. In the CG method you learn to look at the ingredients of different products. Because this is quite complicated, we only sell products in our webshop that are Curly Girl Friendly! So you can use all products in our shop with confidence.


For example:

Silicones give a temporary "wow" effect to your hair because they form a kind of layer around your hair. Silicones that are not water soluble will remain on your hair. As a result, nutrients will not reach your hair (and hair shaft), but also dirt and other bad substances cannot leave your scalp and hair. As a result, your hair dries out and breaks down. Because a product with silicone is often used repeatedly, the silicone layer accumulates, making your hair heavier and heavier and your curls sag. We do not sell products containing silicone, unlike many other online shops.


Avoiding the certain ingredients is not the only thing you should pay attention to. It's also important that you choose the products that suit your particular hair, and that's why we're going to...


Step 2: Know your hair type

You might imagine that dark kinky hair has a very different texture than blonde, wavy hair and each texture needs a different care. So... every curly hair needs a different care.


Your curl type

First, you're going to determine your curl type. Your hair can consist of different types of curl types. Often these are 1,2 or 3. Look closely at your hair and determine which types of curl types you see.

Curl types


Hair thickness:

Consider carefully whether you have thick and coarse hair or perhaps fine hair. The thicker your hair, the heavier the products you can apply. The thinner your hair, the lighter the products you need. Some products contain butters as an ingredient and are less suitable for fine, thin and wavy hair, while they are very suitable for a bunch of thick coily curls.


Hair elasticity

Measuring the elasticity of your hair is important.

How to test elasticity:

Wet a hair strand and hold it between each hand. Then gently pull it apart. Do this a few times with some hair in different places on your head (for example, behind your ear, at the top, near your bangs, and on the side).

The hair breaks almost immediately: You have LOW elasticity. This means there is too much protein in your hair and not enough moisture. It is wise to use products without protein.

Note: Do you color your hair? Then it is still useful to add protein, and go for products suitable for normal elasticity.

The hairs stretch a little bit, then breaks: You have NORMAL elasticity. This means that there is a good balance of protein and moisture in your hair is present. It is wise to maintain this balance and use both products with protein and without.

The hairs stretch very far, do not spring back to their original state and break very late:

You have a HIGH elasticity. This means that there is too much moisture in your hair and too little protein.

You should use products WITH protein.

Your hair porosity

Your hair is made up of hair cuticles. Compare it to a pine cone. It is important to know the position of your cuticles. Are they wide open or closed? We call this your porosity. Your porosity is affected by chemical treatments and heat, among other things. Are you a fan of blonding your hair? Do you regularly run straighteners or curling irons through your hair? Then it is more likely that this has affected your hair cuticles and that they are open like a pine cone, but it is still useful to test this.


This can be done in different ways, choose one of the following methods to test your porosity:

Slip - & - Slide:

Pick up a (dry) string of hair, and slip your finger from the bottom to the top of your hair.

Do you feel bumps? Then you feel the hair cuticles. You have HIGH porosity.

Do you feel some bumps? You have NORMAL porosity.

Don't feel any bumps? You have LOW porosity.


Drying time:

If your hair has been completely wet and you let it air dry. How long will it take for it to dry completely? (This method is a little less reliable, because the length and thickness of your hair and the humidity of the room you're in also play a part)

No more than 2 hours to dry? You have HIGH porosity

Between 4-6 hours to dry. You have NORMAL porosity

More than 8 hours before your hair is dry? You have LOW porosity


The more your hair cuticles are open, the more moisture your hair absorbs. But... the moisture also goes out just as easily. This causes your curls to look dry and dull. It is therefore important to nourish highly porous hair with protein, so that it can recover and you get more and more shine back.

Now that you have go through all the steps, it's important that we're going to look at what products are best for your hair match.

To make it easy for you to make, we have starter packs made for you, in a variety of price ranges for each budget.

Of course, you can also shop separate products in our webshop. The main advantage of this is that you no longer have the ingredients need to be aware of, that are already done for you!

If you have any questions, we would, of course, be happy to help! Simply use the Whatsapp chat option or email info@curlygirlfriendly.nl for product advice.


All Starter Packs

Starter Packs Low Elasticity

Starter Packs Normal Elasticity

Starter Packs High Elasticity