When I was younger I had long curly hair. I used to wash it, leave it and run out of the door. Then I got a proper grown-up job and decided I needed a proper grown-up hair cut to match. All the curls went, out came the styling products, straighteners and hairdryer.

Over the years, the texture of my hair completely changed and I found I was having to use more and more products to tame the frizz and make my hair look shiny. I grew it again at one stage, but the curls didn’t come back. I thought I’d killed them off, so I had it all chopped off again.

Having recently grown my hair again, I was moaning to my hairdresser that the curls I’d had when she first started cutting my hair (more years ago than either of us would like to remember!) were pretty much nonexistent and she suggested the ‘Curly Girl Method‘.

After she’d finished cutting my hair, I started scouring Google and Pinterest to find out more and found lots of inspiring before and after photos. I’m always a little bit mistrusting of comparison photos but the explanations seemed to make sense. A couple of websites were really helpful, Curly Cailin and Curls and Beauty Diary contain loads of interesting reading and clear explanations of each step, so I won’t repeat that here.

I was already using sulphate and silicone free shampoo and conditioner but my styling products still had silicones and alcohols in them. I added a few new products to my weekly shop and did a final wash with a chemical ridden shampoo. My hair felt squeaky clean (I now understand how bad that actually is for my hair!) and I spent the rest of the day with a really irritated scalp.

All the Curly Girl blogs talk about how patient you have to be and for the first three days I was somewhat disappointed. The ends were beginning to curl, but it just looked messy. However, Day 4 arrived and I sent a photo to my hairdresser, I couldn’t believe the difference! A bit more mousse and a whole lot more scrunching had done the trick!

Although I’m not following the Curly Girl Method to the letter – I have to use a diffuser to dry my hair otherwise I’d never get out of the house – it seems to be working for me. Now for my before and after photos:

Look at the difference in just 4 days! The first photo was taken in the artificial light of our kitchen and the second was taken in bright sunshine- it looks like I’ve dyed my hair, but I haven’t!

I love having my curls back!