A snowstorm can’t stop our curls from thriving. Oribe can attest to this—thanks to their luncheon yesterday in Times Square which gave editors a first look at their new Eternal Curls collection. It’s an extension of their first-ever collection geared specifically towards textured hair—with a whopping 12 products no less! But, the real key to using Eternal Curls isn’t just in the new moisture-rich formulas.
“You heard it here first,” textured hairstylist and Oribe partner Stacey Ciceron tells editors in a demo of her new moisturizing method. “We’re doing the LOG method.” Unlike the LOC (leave-in, oil, cream) for high-porosity hair or LCO method (leave-in, cream, oil) for low-porosity, Ciceron coined the LOG method. This new technique is for wash-n-go moisture layering irrespective of porosity, texture, and hair type.
As she strategically layers products onto a Black model’s low-porosity tight coils, she’s simultaneously disproving the myth that defined wash-n-gos are only for loose curls. And, at the same time, dismantling the belief that our hair’s beauty relies solely on how defined our wash-n-go is.
Below, Ciceron breaks down the LOG method and how to use Eternal Curls to achieve the look.
What is the LOG Method?
“The LOG method is a moisture-retention method that stands for leave-in conditioner, oil, gel, which is the order I would recommend layering products on highly textured hair for a wash and go look,” Ciceron tells ESSENCE. “This technique will lock in maximum moisture and create definition on highly textured hair.”
How does the LOG method differ from the LOC and LCO method?
“LOC and LCO are moisture retention methods that were geared towards twists and braids,” Ciceron says. Alternatively, “the LOG method is a moisture-retention method for styling a wash and go on highly textured hair.”
For a long time, Ciceron notes the wash-n-go style didn’t feel doable for women looking for definition of their highly textured hair twist outs and braid outs were more popular. And, that meant cream was preferred over gel. Now, textured wash-n-gos are on the rise.
“If you want a wash and go style on highly textured hair, you should choose a gel instead of a cream,” she suggests, which informed her LOG method. “A cream doesn’t have the ability to hold the style and the definition that is associated with a wash and go.”
How to Prep for the LOG Method
Before you approach the LOG method, the first step is the prep. She recommends shampooing your hair once a week with the Eternal Curls Moisturizing Shampoo, a shampoo that gives instant moisture gratification to coily hair. Then, following up with either the Deep Treatment Masque or Intense Conditioner, which she alternates depending on the condition of the hair.
“If you’re coming right out of the shower, you want to make sure that you leave all the water in there,” she says. For a textured wash-n-go, “the hair has to be fully saturated.” In fact, how saturated your hair is is actually the foundation of the LOG method. “We forget how powerful water really is.”
How to Achieve the LOG Method
L = Leave-In
The “L” in the LOG method stands for “Leave-in”. Or, in this case, Oribe’s Priming Lotion Leave-In Conditioning Detangler. Using a climbing motion, she detangles the model’s fully saturated hair in sections from the ends first, then the root. “It’s a non-negotiable first step for me no matter what curl pattern I’m dealing with.”
Already prepped with the shampoo and conditioner, she says is what makes this first step more manageable. “You can almost comb through the hair already with the shampoo and deep treatment masque,” she says. “By the time I go to put in the leave-in conditioner, it’s extremely manageable.”
Rich in cupuacu and mango seed butters, the detangler is an ultra-hydrating formula with a high level of slip. “A little bit goes a long way,” she instructs, suggesting you build as you go.
O = Oil
Like the LOC method, “O” is still the second letter and step in the acronym and stands for “Oil”. For Ciceron, that means using the Eternal Curls Polish & Protect Oil. “My family’s from the Caribbean, so we grew up using a lot of olive oil and castor seed oil,” she says, using just one pump of the Oribe oil.
You can use it as a pre-shampoo treatment, hot oil treatment, with a protective style, or, in this case, to nourish, strengthen, and seal in the leave-in’s moisture. “It also protects from over-cleansing,” she says. “Sometimes we can strip the hair of its natural oils if you shampoo too often.” (She suggests shampooing once per week.)
G = Gel
The third and final step of the LOG method is really where the switch up is. Instead of using cream (the Eternal Curls collection has three: the Straight Away Smoothing Blowout Cream, Curl Control Silkening Crème, and Styling Butter Curl Enhancing Crème), the “G” in this method is all about gel. Specifically, a big pot of the silky, hydrating Curl Gelée for Shine & Definition.
Formulated with macadamia, neem, and apricot oils, the gelée moisturizes and detangles strands, which Ciceron layered on in sections. “This is the styler,” Ciceron says. As one of the products she worked on when she first started her partnership with Oribe, she finger-combed the gel through the model’s coils.
“I rarely use the brush,” she says, which she uses almost exclusively for detangling. Instead, finger combing allows the curls to clump together with the help of the gelée’s neem oil. Then, “I set it and forget it,” she says. “If you leave it alone, it’s going to start to enhance and encourage the curl.”
The No-Go’s For a Wash-N-Go
“The biggest mistake when it comes to moisturizing textured hair is not moisturizing appropriately and at the right time,” she warns. “Maximum moisture needs to happen on wash day using water based products like moisturizing shampoos, deep treatment masks and leave-in creams.” That means not using oil to make up for the loss of moisture throughout the week.
“Oils will not work on your dry hair to add in moisture,” she says. “They are only effective when used on damp or wet hair to lock in water-based products.”
That, and the mistake of thinking definition is the end all be all of beauty. “We need to get comfortable with our hair in various stages — growth stage, definition stage,” she says. “Everyone’s hair curl pattern is so unique and different. If you’re trying to mimic someone else’s curl pattern and trying to keep defined curls throughout the stages of your wash day may not be realistic and it’s torture trying to keep up.”