5 Quick Curlformer Tips

1. My CF set needs time to dry. Preferably 12+ hours with an hour under the dryer.

2. The soft hood dryer from Hair Flair (CF company) will not fit 48 Extra Wide, Extra Long (EWEL) Curlformers. So instead I do the back of my hair all at once. When I'm done, I place the dryer on the back CFs, tighten the drawstring and begin working on the front. It's still taking me 2 hrs to install so the back gets an hour under the dryer.
-2.5 they aren't kidding when they say use it on low heat. Otherwise your dryer will begin to blister. Don't ask how I know.

3. Wash your CF's! I haven't experienced this yet but I've seen a few ladies mention bacterial growth, or the CF ends falling off due to product buildup. This is just hearsay, but better to be safe than sorry.

4. More hooks = faster process. I plan to buy more when I have a Sally's coupon.

5.  Use something with hold to have a lasting CF set. When I used the Jane Carter my set was nice for a millisecond. Gel gave me a much better look.

Bonus: To speed up installation section and part your hair in advance. Right now I do:

• 7 rows total in the front. My side part is on the left, so the left has four rows, with 2 CFs by my ear, 3 CFs on the next row and 4 CFs on the last two. The right side has one row of 2 CFs by my ear and the other two rows get 4 CFs. 23 total. 
• The back gets split into 4 rows across. The nape gets 4 CFs across, row two gets 7, row three gets 8 and row 4 gets 6. 25 total.

To prep for all of those rows, the day of my CF set I braid my hair into the sections above. Then I shampoo and condition in the braids. Then as I'm doing my set I take one braid down at a time.

*As with anything posted here, this is just what works for me.

DOH! Do your own research!

One of the first hair bloggers that I looked up to was Curly Nikki.

2010- Although I was still transitioning at this point, her hair looked like what I imagined my hair would look like. This was just a guess because I had no clue what my hair looked like. As a child my hair was always blow-dried or in some stretched state. 

So, I went out and bought some of Nikki's staples, most memorably Herbal Essences Hello Hydration. I used it several times and each time it made my hair feel tangled, coated and gross. Wash day wasn't easy at a few months post, but it was extra painful with the HEHH. I came to my senses and tossed it.

2013- A few years later, I still followed Nikki's blog even though our hair has different likes. Now more educated about my hair, I knew that we had similar textures and fine strands. I saw a post of hers raving about AG products and rushed to Ulta to pick a few up. 

I got home, tried the AG conditioner and fortunately, the Aveda Disaster taught me to do a test patch. My test patch is a small section in the back that has my 3c and 4a sections.  Although it didn't make my hair a tangled matted mess, my hair felt horrible. No curl definition (which is how I tell if my hair is moisturized) and my hair felt off. I had HEHH flashbacks and put the bottle down. 

Although Nikki and I have similar hair and strand size, our porosity is totally different!