Curls for the girls (and boys!)

Hello my curly-haired pals! I’m so thrilled you stopped by. I’ve been meaning to get serious about this head-to-toe blog series for quite some time but, you know…life. We’re here now and i’m so stoked, so let’s dive in head first!

One of the top things I’ve been asked about in my career as a hairstylist is “How do I deal with my curls?” That question can sound different depending on who’s asking it. One person’s ‘frizz’ might be another person’s ‘cowlick’s’ or ‘flyaways’

I’ve noticed over the years that a couple of things are true when it comes to dealing with anything in our hair that might be considered ‘unruly’.

1) Almost everyone has gone through a period of wanting their hair to do the exact opposite of what it naturally does.

2) In order to achieve this, we’ll often try to tame or force the hair into a different shape; We make it submit to our wishes using heat or some other damaging method.

3) SO MANY people have no idea how to work with the natural curl patterns of the hair, so they HATE on their curls and oftentimes ruin them.

I love natural curls and I love to geek out on this stuff so lets chat!

Problem #1- ‘Frizz’

Maybe this is you-No shame if it is, we’re here to learn right? Your beauty routine starts with a shower in the morning, you wash your hair with tea tree/peppermint shampoo because it feels re-freshing, run some drug store conditioner through the ends to get the tangles out; Out of the shower you twist your hair up in a terry-cloth bath towel while you shave, moisturize, apply make-up or whatever. Then, you take it out, run some other drugstore frizz solution through the ends, flip your head upside down and blow dry ‘for volume’.

By the time you get to work and look in a mirror most of your do’ is a don't. Its flat on top and frizz on the ends; one spot looks so cute and wavy but the other side is totally flat. You try brushing it but that just makes it worse. You’re thinking it might be best to messy bun today and try again tomorrow. Ok… this routine can work for some people. I said no shame and I mean that, if that is truly working for you GREAT, move on now this post is not for your hair type.

If this routine sounds like you, or even the past you because you’ve been trying to turn over a new leaf; It’s probably left you frustrated or underwhelmed by a lot of products and tutorials. Congrats! You’re in the right place. I know some of my tips can help you out 😊

Frizz solution: More moisture, less touching

Problem #2 -’ It just doesn’t grow’

Yes. It. Does. Trust me, it does, ok? I’ve met so many people who tell me that they ‘only go to the beauty parlor once a year because their hair just doesn’t grow’. They wish for it to be longer but it just won’t grow past a certain point. There’s kind of a lot to unpack here but let me start by saying, it absolutely does grow.

Most likely, the actual reason your hair doesn’t get any longer is because it’s not getting proper care and nutrients and it breaks off. In a healthy person, hair doesn’t just stop growing-if it does, you should definitely see a doctor. Note *There are circumstances when someone who is dealing with certain medical conditions could have hair that grows very slowly; Like instances of chemo-therapy where the hair might actually stop growing and/or fall out but that’s not what i’m talking about here. In a typical, healthy body, hair doesn’t just stop growing.

**Also, just as a side note because I hear this one so often- that perm you got in 1984 didn’t ‘make your hair go curly’ permanently. Chances are your hormones probably changed somewhere along the way while that perm was growing out, leaving you with natural waves you may not have had before; OR you did have those waves before the perm and learning how to wear your hair curly with the perm in it encouraged the curls to stick around 😉

Hair growth solution: Your hair needs (at the very minimum) gentle care, nutrients and heat-protection; Get everything you need in one easy system from my #BeautyBesties- InCommon

Problem #3 ‘Tons of cowlicks’ These could be waves in disguise. Let’s try to love on them a little and see what happens.

Solution: Heatless styling techniques like this trending one

Problem #4 - “I Have to shampoo everyday”

NOOOO! Please stop doing this. There is a better way than stripping your hair’s natural oils away everyday and then trying to replace them with artificial garbage products. Those products are marketing to you under the claim of ‘fixing’ the hair but the truth is that a lot of those products are just covering up the symptoms of dehydrated hair, using waxes and silicones. By perpetuating this crazy shampoo marketing LIE that we need to be washing our hair everyday to be clean, they’ve actually caused the very problem they’re now claiming to solve…looking at you Fructise 👀. Whooosah, I do have some personal problems to unpack with the beauty product industry but that’s another post for another day 😝 That being said, check out my previous post for some ‘no-wash wash day’ tips and tricks that I use to keep my hair & scalp feeling fresh and my curls moisturized and lively between shampoos. I also highly recommend using a dry shampoo as a solution to stretch out your time between washes.

The video montage below is a little something I put together over several weeks of not shampooing my hair. You’ll see what my hair usually looks like after 3-4 weeks of no shampoo and what I do to stay feeling cute in between. *After filming these I realized two things: 1) How badly I needed a cut and color and 2) that I’m not that good at video editing, so you will probably see me re-film these at some point and update this post 🤪

*Note- reducing the need to shampoo everyday without feeling like a dirty oil slick is something that’s best done slowly, over the course of a couple months in order to give the scalp time to adjust it’s oil production. I’ll be putting together another post to show you some tips soon ✨

Interesting links for further reading: How Often Should You Wash Your Hair & Plopping method

Shop for the very same products I use (some of the best, if I do say so myself) : Get the goods

Resources for the extra-curly babes~ blackcurlmagic.com