curly girl method – scrunch out the crunch

I’ve been meaning to post lately about my favorite curly girl method technique I’ve learned since starting. Scrunch out the crunch! Or SOTC in the curly girl language I’ve been trying to pick up on Instagram.

If you have wavy or curly hair and have ever used a gel that made your hair crunchy, you probably hated it. I was the exact same way! No one wants crispy wet looking hair.

This is the exact reason I have pretty much always avoided gels and opted for curl creams, mouses, and custards instead.

But if there is one thing I have learned from the curly girls–its that they love to layer on the product! I often leave in a little conditioner, then add a curl activator, then a mouse, then a gel! Whew!

So back to scrunch out the crunch…what is it?

Scrunching out the crunch is a process that describes scrunching dry hair that is still in it’s cast aka it’s crunchy gelled state. You can use a little bit of oil on your hands here (I do sometimes) or just dry hands.

Here are the results. I included the time stamp portion so you can see how far apart these photos were taken!

1. This is wet hair with gel in it at 2:17pm

2. Forty minutes of diffusing later…fully DRY hair in it’s crunchy cast

3. Only three minutes later I had scrunched out the crunch!

I am no longer afraid of crunchy hair. In fact, I strive for a “good cast” each wash day and Aussie Instant Freeze Gel has been the BEST gel hands down that I’ve found so far.

The gel allows hair to dry in it’s curly or wavy shape and protects it from frizz. Once hair is dry, and do be sure to wait until it’s FULLY dry, the cast can come away to reveal soft dry hair.

If you’ve never experimented with this technique I recommend it–it’s made the biggest difference for me since going “curly girl”6 months ago.

Happy scrunching!