The Curly Girl Bowl Method

Have you seen the viral Curly Girl Bowl Method trending all over social media? This fantastic styling technique has been wowing curly girls across the globe with its excellent results! Although it’s currently trending, it’s not necessarily a new technique and has been circulating amongst the curly community for a few years.

If you want to obtain super-defined, voluminous curls, it’s an excellent method to include in your curly routine! Today, we will walk you through how to complete the Curly Girl Bowl Method!

What is the Curly Girl Bowl Method?

As its name suggests, the Curly Girl Bowl Method is a styling technique you will complete using a large bowl. To achieve frizz-free results and beautiful definition, a lot of curly girls tend to spend a significant amount of time in the shower and use a lot of water to style their hair.

The Curly Girl Bowl Method was created to reduce water usage while styling curly hair. However, it gained popularity across social media due to the unexpected and beautiful results it produced! The Curly Girl Bowl Method is completed on soaking wet hair, dipping your hair into a bowl of water, and scrunching several times. The repeated dipping encourages the hair to clump together, reduces frizz, and dilutes and distributes your styling products evenly throughout the hair. The result is hydrated and defined curls that have a ton of volume.

Why should I add the Curly Girl Bowl Method to my hair routine?

If you want to amplify your hair’s definition, reduce frizz, and deeply hydrate your curls, you should consider adding the Curly Girl Bowl Method to your routine. While it’s a more time-consuming styling process, its results are beautiful!

Because the technique is completed on wet hair instead of damp hair, your style will also last much longer!

What curly types does the Curly Girl Bowl Method work on?

The Curly Girl Bowl Method will work for all textured hair – wavy, curly, and coily!

If you struggle to achieve voluminous curls, this will be an excellent technique to add more volume to your hair without using heat, perm rods, or rollers.

Who should avoid the Curly Girl Bowl Method?

While the Curly Girl Bowl Method is a fantastic way to hydrate the hair and create a phenomenal definition, you may want to avoid it if you have high porosity, damaged, or color-treated hair. Individuals with high-porosity hair types are more prone to hygral fatigue. This is because the Curly Girl Bowl Method exposes your hair to water for an extended time. This exposure can result in high-porosity hair taking on too much water, and when done too often, it can leave the hair feeling brittle, soggy, and mushy.

The technique requires a lot of manipulation to encourage the clumping of your hair’s natural curls. If you have significantly damaged or fragile hair, you may want to avoid this method until your hair recovers. Extended water exposure is also unsuitable for individuals with color-treated hair as it can cause your color to fade faster.

What will I need to complete the Curly Girl Bowl Method?

The Curly Girl Bowl Method is simple, and you don’t need to buy any new products to achieve it!

You will need the following:

• Shampoo
• Conditioner or Deep Conditioner
• Leave-in conditioner
• Your favorite styling product (preferably curl cream or gel)
• A large jug or cup of clean water
• A Large bowl
• Hair oil or serum
• Plastic shower cap/processing cap (Optional)
• Microfiber Hair Towel (Optional)
• Blow-dryer with diffuser attachment (Optional)

What are the steps of the Curly Girl Bowl Method?

While the steps of the Curly Girl Bowl Method may be more intricate than your regular styling routine, it is an excellent way to amplify your curls’ definition and hydration levels!

Let’s jump into the steps of the Curly Girl Bowl Method!

Step 1: Wash

Clean hair is the key to hydrated, defined curls with volume. Start the styling process by washing your hair thoroughly with a shampoo suitable for your texture to remove dirt, excess sebum, and styling products.

Step 2: Condition

Follow up the shampooing process with your favorite conditioner and detangle to achieve maximum hydration.

If you have a tighter curl pattern, it may be beneficial to detangle your hair before shampooing and conditioning to remove any excess shed hair and prevent single-strand knots.

After you’ve rinsed out your conditioner or deep conditioner, apply your favorite leave-in conditioner.

Step 3: Bowl Method

The most crucial thing to remember for this technique is that your hair needs to be soaking wet.

Set your large bowl on a counter that you can easily lean over. Lean over your bowl and pour the clean water from your cup or jug over the top of your hair. Allow the excess water to collect into the large bowl beneath you.

After you’ve rinsed, begin to scrunch your hair in an upwards motion to expel the excess water. Next, gather your hair and dunk it back into the collected water to encourage your curls to clump together further.

Continue scrunching and dipping your hair until your curls have clumped together and the frizz has been eliminated. If you have difficulty removing frizz, add more leave-in conditioner to your hair.

It is possible that you will not experience a complete elimination of frizz, and that’s okay! The technique works as long as your curls are clumping together nicely.

Step 4: Styling

After your curls have clumped to your liking, it’s time to begin the styling process to encourage ultimate definition.

Apply a generous amount of gel using the “praying hands” technique to drenched hair. Apply your chosen styling product to your palms and fingers, hold your hands as you would in prayer, place your hands on either side of your hair, and press your fingers and palms together. Gently smooth the gel down the hair strands. Be sure not to run your fingers through your hair, as it can break apart the clumps of curls you just created!

Continue to scrunch the excess water out of the hair, allowing the bowl to catch the excess water. Once everything seems evenly coated and is scrunched and clumped to your liking, dip your hair a final time into the water that’s been collected in the bowl.

This final dip will dilute the styling product without disturbing the definition you’ve created.

If your hair seems flat at the top, give it a gentle shake to loosen it up to allow for more movement.

Step 5: Wet Plopping (Optional)

After completing the Bowl Method, grab your plastic shower or processing cap. Place your wet hair into the cap and plop it on your head for 10-20 minutes. This technique will encourage the curl formation at the roots of your hair.

After wet plopping, gently remove your hair and use the microfiber cloth to squeeze the excess water.

Step 6: Drying

If you believe that your hair may need additional hold, you can apply a bit more of your styling cream or gel before drying your hair.

To dry your hair, let it air dry naturally or speed up the drying process with a blow-dryer with a diffuser attachment. Be sure not to agitate or touch your hair too much while drying to prevent frizz!

Step 7: Final Touches

It’s time to finish styling and unveil beautiful, bouncy curls! Once your hair is thoroughly dried, grab your favorite hair oil or serum. Apply to the palms of your hands and gently scrunch the hair to break up the cast left from the gel. If you plan on wearing this style for a longer time, you can leave the cast on your hair and let it naturally break down to maintain the results for longer.

Enjoy beautiful, defined, and voluminous curls! Embrace your curls and enjoy beautiful results with the Curly Girl Bowl Method! While it may be a little more intricate and time-consuming than your regular styling routine, it’s worth trying! Make sure to also read my articles about the curly girl method!