Four inexpensive 2b wavy hair products (Curly Girl approved)

I recently shared a photo on social media of my wet hair followed by my dry, scrunched wavy hair, and lots of people were asking about the products that I used.

(By the way, Curly Girl is a method for taking care of hair that’s not straight. Here’s a good summary.)

Wait. Your hair is wavy?

Well. My hair is smack dab in between curly and straight, and if I leave my hair in its natural state, I have always felt that the best descriptor for my hair is “worn-out perm”.

Like, not straight. Not curly.

Just kinda frizzy and dry-looking.

So, I’ve always just straightened it, curled it, or put it up and out of the way.

And I always blow-dry and straight my bangs because they are really unfortunate-looking otherwise.

Also, if I put my hair up into a bun and then take it down later, my hair looks smoother.

So, it’s not like my hair was a total disaster before this.

I’ve made a few half-hearted attempts to work with my waves, but I have never figured out how to do this successfully.

(It might also be said that I have not tried super hard because…I am kind of lazy on the beauty front.)

Also, I am cheap/frugal, and a lot of curly or wavy-hair approved products are on the expensive side.

But Sonia sent me an Instagram post that shared several inexpensive products and I ordered them immediately. 

And while I’m still pretty new at this, I do think these products work pretty well. 

Here’s what I’ve been using.

Shampoo: Maui Moisture

I’ve been using sulfate-free shampoo for a while now, so I don’t think this in particular is responsible for my improved waves. 

But I do understand that sulfate-free shampoo is helpful for overall hair health.

I look at it the same way I look at eating vegetables. Do I see an immediate payoff? Nope.

However, I trust the science that says that vegetables are good for my body, and I trust the science that says it’s good for my hair if I avoid sulfates.

Conditioner: Garnier Plumping Conditioner

I’ve also been using silicone-free conditioner for quite some time (like Maui Moisture).

I like this one better though, since it’s a little richer. I felt like I had to use so much of the Maui Moisture conditioner, but I don’t need tons of this Garnier conditioner.

And it is made specifically for hair that is easily weighed down, which definitely describes my hair.

Cantu Curl Activator

This product goes a long way, so I think this $7 container is going to last me a nice long time.

Aussie Gel

This is the least expensive of the four items, and it is Curly Girl approved, despite being just a regular brand. Yay!

How much do these wavy hair products cost?

I spent $21 altogether, which seems very reasonable to me.

I imagine that these products will last me more than a month (especially the Cantu product), but even if I used them all up in a month, $21/month on hair care doesn’t seem crazy.

The Wash Day Method

I am super new at this, but here’s what I’ve been doing.

Shampoo, Conditioner, Curl Activator, Gel

First I wash my hair and condition it (nothing rocket-science-y here).

I squeeze the extra water out of my hair and then work a small amount of the Cantu curl activator in, brush it through, and then squeeze my hair to form clumps and encourage curling.

Then I spread some gel on my hands and kind of pat it onto my hair and then do more squeezing.

“Plop” hair in a t-shirt, then let it dry

Next, I “plop” my hair, which is basically just putting my hair up into a cotton t-shirt.

(Here’s a good explanation about how to plop your hair.)

I leave my hair plopped for maybe a half hour to an hour, then take off the t-shirt and let my hair air-dry.

(Sonia sometimes dries hers with a hair dryer, using cold air with a diffusor. This takes about eleventy-twelve hours and I am not patient enough for that.)

After my hair is dry, it’s super crunchy and it looks downright terrible.

But once I “scrunch the crunch” as Curly Girl people say, the gel cast is gone, and just the waves remain.

The refresh day

The next day, I keep my hair out of the water while showering, getting it briefly wet at the end of my shower.

Then I brush it, scrunch it, plop it with a cotton t-shirt, let it air-dry, and then scrunch it.

It’s definitely a bit frizzier and less wavy the second day, but it’s still better-looking than my hair was before I started using this method. 

This isn’t actually super hard or time-consuming

And you can trust me when I say this because I am very prone to thinking beauty processes are hard.

It only takes a few minutes to put these two products into my hair, and since I go the air-drying route, I am spending almost no time at all on my hair after the product application.

Also, I can go at least two days between washes, which saves time. 

I do think this is an improvement

I go back and forth a little about how I feel about my waves (if only they were just a little wavier!), but the fact of the matter is that without any products, my hair does look a little dry and frizzy.

So even if my waves are maybe not ideal, I do think they are better than my no-product hair.

And a nice thing is that even if I do put my hair up, the front part of my hair looks more interesting and less flat than it did before I tried this hair method. 

What are my future hair plans?

Will I stick with this routine most of the time? Will I get lazy and go back to my no-product life? I dunno.

I do want to try getting some inches cut off of my hair to see how less hair weight affects my waves.

And I’m sure I’ll get better at this wavy styling thing as I get more practice under my belt.

About the grays…

My gray hairs are mostly definitely easier to see with my hair this way.

But, I am going to do my best to resist dying them. This is less about taking a moral stand against ageism and more about me knowing that I am too beauty-lazy and cheap to keep up with dying my roots.

I would totally be the person walking around with inch-long roots, and let’s be honest, that is not a better look than natural grays! 

So. Embracing my grays would be lovely, but I’m more at the awkwardly-hugging-my-grays place for now. 

Any other questions? And if you have wavy/curly experience, feel free to share your methods and products.