It’s been about seven months since I first posted my curly hair routine. At that point, I’d been following the Curly Girl Method for a year.

Since that post, I’ve made some changes and modifications to my routine as my hair has continued to change and evolve.

I’ve added some steps, modified some steps, and changed out some of my products. So, I wanted to give you a post with my updated routine!

Just like with my last post, I hope this post helps you create your own routine or helps you modify an established routine to complement your evolving curls!

Without further ado, here is my current Curly Girl Method routine for a wash day!

Side note: This page does contain affiliate links, which means if you purchase something using the product links on this page, I may get a small commission. This comes at no extra cost to you and helps keep this site running. Thank you!

Wash

At this point, I only wet and wash my hair every three days, which is a pretty big development for me!

For most of my Curly Girl Method experience, I had a terrible time refreshing my hair.

I used to wash every 4-5 days and co-wash in between. But no matter what, every day started with wet hair. If I didn’t my hair would frizz.

Now that I’ve got a refresh routine (you can find that here), I only wet my hair every third day when I’m actually going to wash it.

I’ve come to LOVE Cantu’s TXTR scalp shampoo, which has done a lot to help my dry scalp.

(You can check out my review here, and learn more about my dry scalp struggles here.)

Once my hair is wet I use the targeted applicator to apply the shampoo directly to my scalp.

I massage my scalp with my fingers and a shampoo brush.

Then I rinse.

Condition

The next step in my curly hair routine is conditioning!

Like in the past, I follow the method recommended in The Curly Girl Handbook. First, I take about a palmful of conditioner.

conditioner amount

Then I gently spread it over my hair like I’m icing a cake, doing my best to avoid the scalp.

Once my hair is coated, I start to work the conditioner through my hair and detangle as I go. I pay special attention to the nape of my neck, which tends to have extra tangles.

I usually need more conditioner about halfway through–the goal is to get your hair saturated so your fingers slide through with very little resistance.

The biggest change to my conditioning approach is that now, I mix a few different conditioners every time I wash.

I start with Suave Essentials Tropical Coconut conditioner for my initial conditioning and detangling. Then, when I reach that halfway point and need more conditioner, I reach for Mane N Tail Conditioner (You can find my review here).

This is because as my hair’s gotten healthier, I found that the Tresseme alone as a little too heavy on my hair, but the Suave wasn’t quite moisturizing enough on its own. Mixing them, however, gives me a good balance.

Once my hair is completely detangled, I flip my head upside, cup my curls in my palms, and squish my hair (full of conditioner) up towards my scalp. (AKA squish to condish).

This encourages the hair’s natural curl pattern.

Then I leave the conditioner in my hair for the rest of my shower.

I know this looks and sounds like a lot, but honestly, this process doesn’t take me more than three to five minutes.

Rinse out

This part of my Curly hair routine is the same as before.

At the end of my shower, I rinse my conditioner out completely.

I used to leave some conditioner in my hair, but it turned out, I was really bad with avoiding the scalp when I put the conditioner in.

If I don’t rinse out, I end up with conditioner build up on my scalp that flakes off throughout the day. It’s gross and uncomfortable!

But if you’re giving this routine a try and you find that your scalp-avoiding skills are stronger than mine, you can skip this step and just leave some conditioner in your hair (though it will likely take some trial and error to figure out how much to leave in).

I use cold water to rinse out (with my body out of the spray) to seal the hair cuticle and lock in moisture.

Remove excess water

The beginning of this step is the same as it used to be.

First, I gently run my hands over my hair in a downward motion to brush off excess water.

This used to be all I did. Now, I also grab a t-shirt and (with my head still upside down) gently scrunch upward twice to remove excess water.

I used to do this in the very beginning when I first started following the Curly Girl Method. But I found at the time, even this was taking too much moisture out of my hair, and I had much better results skipping this step.

But lately, it’s been taking my hair forever to dry. I decided to give this a shot again to see if maybe the reason it was taking my hair so long to dry was that my hair didn’t need as much moisture as it used to.

This turned out to do the trick! My hair dries faster, but with no added frizz!

Leave in

Just like in the past, my product application starts with a leave-in conditioner.

I still apply all my styling products as soon as I get out of the shower.

I flip my hair upside down, and I leave my head like this until all of my products are applied.

Then I squirt about a little more than a quarter-size amount of conditioner in my hands.

Leave in

I coat my hands in conditioner then spread the conditioner over my hair using the praying hands technique.

Then I cup my curls and scrunch up toward my scalp to encourage the curl pattern.

I’ve found regular conditioners make the best leave-ins in small amounts. Currently, I’m using Tresseme Botanique.

(Side note: I only use a leave-in because I rinsed all the conditioner out of my hair in the shower. If you left some conditioner in your hair, you can jump to the cream.)

UPDATE 5/20/22: I no longer use a leave-in. My hair seems to be holding moisture better and the leave-in was weighing in down.

Cream

I’ve always needed a hair cream to help my hair stay moisturized throughout the day. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know my favorite cream used to be the Not Your Mother’s Curl Talk Defining Cream.

Unfortunately, that cream stopped working for me a few months ago, and I recently switched it up to Cantu’s Curl Activator Cream. You can check out my full review here.

I love this cream! It leaves my hair soft, and my curls frizz-free and fabulous for days.

However, it’s really easy to use too much of this! I find I only need about a little more than a fingertip’s amount for my entire head.

curl cream

Then just like with the leave-in, I spread the product evenly over my hands, then use the praying hands technique.

If your hair needs extra help curling or if you like a tighter curl, you can scrunch here. I like my hair to curl a little looser, so I don’t scrunch until after I put gel in.

Gel

This step is almost identical to the previous post. The only difference is I use a little less gel now than I did in the past.

My favorite gel is still Biotera’s Styling Defining Gel (you can check out my review here). However, I used harder hold gels earlier in my Curly Girl process and they worked fine!

My hair is still tipped forward, but this time, I’ll separate it into two sections.

I squirt about half a palmful of gel into one hand. (I’m writing this with the Biotera gel in mind. You may need more or less if you’re using a different gel).

Gel amount

I spread the gel evenly between both hands, then use the praying hands method to coat half my hair in gel and repeat for the second section of hair.

Then I (again) cup my curls in my hands and scrunch to the scalp to encourage the curl.

Drying

My drying process is practically the same!

I still tip my head back upright and shake my curls out so they fall naturally into place.

I still tend to have halo/surface frizz, so I take about a quarter-sized amount of gel, spread it between my hands, and gently coat the surface of my hair.

For root volume, I gently gather the top of my hair together and loosely clip it at the crown of my head with a large claw clip. This helps the roots dry lifted and using a large clip keeps the curls from getting crushed.

I remove clip after about an hour and a half.

I let my hair air dry completely. It typically takes 2-3 hours. While it dries, I get ready for the day, and start working.

Scrunch out the crunch

When my hair is completely dry, I have a gel cast coating my curls.

To get rid of this I tip my head forward again and gently scrunch upward toward my scalp to break up the cast. I also gently ruffle my hair at the roots for a little extra volume.

This always seems like A LOT when I writing it out, but now that I’ve got the hang of things, my whole wash day process only takes about five to ten minutes in the shower and five minutes after (excluding drying time).

Looking for more guidance on your curly hair journey?

For beginners

If you’re new to curly hair care and looking for some help, you should check out the No-Stress Guide to Curly Hair Care!

After spending two years learning and caring for my curly hair, I wanted to create my own, in-depth guide to help fellow curlies create incredible curls in the easiest way possible. 

It took me a while, but I eventually found an approach that helped me create a curly hair routine that fits into my life in the simplest way possible. And now I want to help you do the same!

click to learn more

For more intermediate/advanced guidance

If you’ve been on your curly hair journey for a while but still have some struggles, check out Curly Hair Problems!

After spending hours scouring the internet looking for solutions to my own curly hair problems, I found myself wishing for an easier, more comprehensive guide to the most common problems.

So that’s what I created!

Curly Hair Problems offers you 78 total solutions to the five most common curly hair care problems, including frizz, curl clumps, limp curls, product issues, and scalp issues.

click to learn more

Sound off: If you try this curly hair routine, how did it work for you? (Be sure to tell us about your hair type). You can also share your routine! Leave it all in the comments!