Embrace Wash Day

Anyone with curly hair knows the struggle of making every day a good hair day. From finding the right curly hair products to slogging through lengthy routines to fighting with unruly coils, it can be a real time-suck to get the results you want. With our simple guide to caring for curls, our Textures & Curls line can help enhance your natural waves, curls, or coils while helping to reduce frizz, dryness, and breakage.

The Textures & Curls collection is part of our My Hair My Canvas™ line celebrating self-care and self-expression. While all Alterna® products are formulated without Sodium Lauryl Sulfates, Sodium Laureth Sulfates*, and moisture-sucking additives, the innovative Textures & Curls line is also formulated without silicones, vegan**, and designed to embrace the beauty of your unique curl pattern.

“We really wanted to streamline the haircare routine for the curly hair consumer and create multi-benefit products,” says Alterna® Associate Brand Manager Jenny Lim, who helped with the concept and execution of the Textures & Curls line and even tested formulas on her own wavy hair. She adds that the collection incorporates ingredients like fair trade coconut oil and fair trade cocoa butter, as well as unique ones like kakadu plum extract and moringa seed oil.

As you care for your curly hair think of your strands as delicate fibers that should be treated with the utmost respect. Actually, we love this line of thinking for all hair types: The Alterna® brand is all about self-care rituals both at home and in the salon to take your haircare to the next level.

Here’s how to seamlessly incorporate our My Hair My Canvas™ Textures & Curls collection into your curly hair ritual. It might take some experimenting to find the specific curly hair routine that works best for you, and it’ll definitely take some patience as you get the hang of air-drying. But we’ll make this as straightforward as possible because the results you can achieve are that good.

Step 1: Cleanse

You’ll be washing your hair with our anti frizz Textures & Curls Begin Again™ Curl Cleanser formulated without silicones* (these ingredients can lead to buildup, although it’s complicated), SLS/SLES sulfates*, and alcohols (both of which can be especially drying for curls). Made with ingredients like vegan botanical caviar, fair trade cocoa butter, fair trade coconut oil, kakadu plum extract, shea butter, and coconut milk. It gently cleanses to help show off curl texture and formation, while helping to purify. To use, massage it into your scalp for at least a full minute, then rinse.

Step 2: Condition and Detangle

This step is all about thirst-quenching conditioner for curly hair that’s (once again) formulated without silicones*, SLS/SLES sulfates*. Textures & Curls Begin Again™ Curl Conditioner contains vegan** botanical caviar, fair trade cocoa butter, fair trade coconut oil, kakadu plum extract, coconut milk and banana flower.

Craving deeper moisture—more than you would your normal conditioner? Try hydrating masque Textures & Curls More Butter™ Masque, which easily detangles, reduces frizz, and enhances shine for beautiful, silky curls. Pro tip: One popular technique calls for you to flip your soaking wet hair upside down and then fully saturate the bottom half with conditioner to give your curl formation a boost.

Finally, carefully begin to detangle with either your fingertips or a wide-tooth comb. Remember that hair is in its most fragile state when it’s wet, so the gentler you are, the better. Rinse, but not super thoroughly—leave a bit of conditioner in your hair to trap in some of that moisture.

Step 3: Style

Since this step mirrors how you just conditioned your strands, you’ll be working a generous amount of a styling product into still-wet hair from root to tips (you can flip your hair over here as you scrunch, too). We like Textures & Curls lightweight styler, My Way Curl Defining Gel™ because this curl gel provides a soft but flexible hold and humidity resistance for up to 72 hours. Plus it’s one of our vegan** hair products.

Step 4: Air-Dry

This step is the easiest one: Let your hair air-dry as you go about your day or evening. (Avoid heat styling as much as possible because those blasts of hot hair can lead to frizz in the short term and damage in the long term.) After applying your styler, wrap your hair in a microfiber towel or soft T-shirt and gently squeeze out the excess water.

But, of course, not everyone has the luxury of sitting around, waiting for their hair to dry—there are errands to run, jobs to go to, and classes to attend! When you’re short on time, use a hair-dryer with a diffuser attachment on the lowest setting to help lessen heat damage.

Step 5: Repeat on Wash Day!

Like with most things, consistency is key if you want to experience truly great results. Depending on your unique curl type, texture, and history, you might need to tweak the amount of product you use or adjust your drying technique. My Hair. My Canvas.™ is all about versatile, playful vegan hair products to empower self-care and self-expression—so no matter your wash day ritual, the Alterna® Textures & Curls line is designed to work for your curls and lifestyle.

“The My Hair. My Canvas.™ Textures & Curls line [is] very realistic for anyone to use, and that is the most important thing,” says Alterna® Educator and Artistic Stylist Hadney Alexander. “Everybody has to be able to feel like their hair is a canvas, it really is!”

* Clean Haircare Philosophy | Alterna Haircare

**Free from animal derived ingredients