You have probably got a cupboard full of products that worked beautifully for someone else. If yours is thick, long or simply dry no matter what you do, most ranges are not made with your hair in mind. Pretty Curly Girl is one of the few that is. Founded by Hanan El Fizazi and made in the Netherlands, it is built for curls that need serious moisture and serious hold. It is also, unusually, formulated to suit every porosity, which is rarer than it sounds.
What is on this page
- Why it works when other brands have not
- Who it actually suits
- Hanan El Fizazi and why she started it
- The products worth starting with
- Ingredients and Curly Girl Method
- Shop Pretty Curly Girl in Australia
Why it works when other brands have not
Two reasons, and both matter if you have been disappointed before.
The first is porosity. Most curl ranges quietly assume high porosity hair. If yours is low porosity, products sit on the surface, never absorb, and leave your curls looking greasy while still feeling dry underneath. Pretty Curly Girl is formulated to work across all porosities, so it absorbs rather than sits. If that sounds like your experience, our guide to finding your porosity will confirm it in a few minutes, and you can browse everything suited to low porosity curls.
The second is what has been left out. The range is free from coconut oil, argan oil, olive oil and several other common ingredients. If a long list of well reviewed products have all let you down, there is a decent chance one of those oils is the reason. We have written about why loved products still fail some hair if you want the longer explanation.
Who it actually suits
Pretty Curly Girl is at its best on medium to thick hair, roughly Type 3b through Type 4, and on long hair that struggles to stay moisturised from root to tip. If your ends are always drier than your roots, that is the problem these formulas are built around.
Because it suits all porosities, it is also one of the few brands we can recommend confidently when someone has no idea what their porosity is and just wants something that will probably work.
Hanan El Fizazi and why she started it
Hanan started the brand out of the same frustration a lot of our customers describe. She had thick, long, curly hair, and the products on the shelf were simply not up to it. So she made formulas with the richness and holding power that demanding curl types had always needed and rarely found in one place.
She also cares about the people, not just the products. In 2025 she joined us to host Curl Fest, an Australian curly hair festival, and spent the day talking to people about their hair in person.
The products worth starting with
The Magical Flaxseed Gel is the one to try first. It is a custard textured gel with medium to strong hold, and it gives you volume and definition together rather than making you choose. If you have avoided gel because you associate it with crunch, this is the one that changes minds. Our piece on why curly hair needs gel explains why the cast is a good thing, and how to scrunch it out.
You can also see the full gels we stock if you want to compare hold levels before committing.
Ingredients and Curly Girl Method
Pretty Curly Girl formulates with a clean, curl conscious ingredient philosophy, and many products in the range are sulphate free and silicone free, which makes them a good fit for the Curly Girl Method.
Because the range is broad, we would always suggest checking the individual product label for the specific vegan, cruelty free or organic certification that matters to you rather than assuming it applies across everything.
Shop Pretty Curly Girl in Australia
We stock the full range. Shop Pretty Curly Girl at Curly Life and finally give your curls something formulated for hair like yours.
If you are not sure whether it suits you, message us. Tell us what has not worked and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right place to start.
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