Embrace Your Curls

I see you. I know you straighten your curls because they are hard to deal with. Because it is more chic to have straight hair. But what if you learned to love them?

I know, you're laughing because you've tried in the past and it never worked. I hear you.

Aaaaaaalll through high school and college I straightened my hair. I never went to school with curly hair and if I didn't have time to straighten it, it went up into a bun.

I got to a point that I would drool all over (not literally) other girls hair that had perfect ringlets. I wanted those perfectly formed curls and that exotic look. I knew I had curls, but I didn't know how to manage them. I wanted to figure it out.

When I did, I realized I looked more like me (go figure) than when I had straight hair. I felt more like who I was supposed to be too.

After looking through tons and tons of pictures on Pinterest (research purposes, okay?!) I realized I was wanting what I already had:

I just never knew how to manage it. There had to be a trick right? Well, I figured it out -> Read on!

High school graduation, 2006. As straight as I could get!

The one photo I have allowed a school to take of me with my curly hair! 

For the longest time, I gave up on it. I didn't know how to manage or style it. I would always go to stylists who claimed they knew how to style curly hair, but in reality, not one ever gave me any advice I could use.

Thank God the internet and Google was invented.

I researched the heck (years and years worth) out of how to take care of and style curly hair. I'm here to share this with you because I have found that my curls can actually be beautiful.... and manageable.

I got it from my mama!

I have come to actually love my curly hair (when it cooperates) and think I look better with it. I still opt for straight hair (A LOT) because its easier to manage, but I think in time I'll go with my curls more often. I even did for Halloween!

Teachers get to dress up too!

What did I find on my journey du hair?

First things first - 

1) NEVER, I repeat, never use a regular towel to dry your hair! It snags the cuticles and makes your hair more frizzy.
      Use a Deva Towel, t-shirt, or (my new fav - a pillowcase).

2) Don't run a brush through your hair unless it is sopping wet, like out of the shower and before a towel wet. Unless  you want to break the curl and turn into a lion, don't ever brush through your curls.

3) Figure out what curl type you are. Some girls are wavy, curls, tight curls, or kinky. Some girls are curly and wavy. You can figure that out here: https://www.curls.biz/curly-hair-type-guide.html
    (I have 3a curls)

4) Once you know what curl type you are, you typically can figure out (via google) how other people style their same hair. Most of the time the routine is the same:

5) The typical curly girl routine - 

        a) Hop in the shower and wash hair with a NON-SULFATE SHAMPOO, then brush hair with wide tooth comb after applying conditioner.

       b) Wash out hair, flip it over and scrunch a quarter size of gel into SOPPING WET hair! (YES it does have to be sopping wet).

      c) Scrunch until you cant get anymore water out. This is a lot but it is so worth it.

      d) Use a Deva towel, pillow case, or t-shirt to scrunch more until you feel like you can't get anymore water out.

      e) finally, flip your head back over so you're standing upright and let your hair part where you normally part it.

      d) Do NOT TOUCH! This is the trick. You literally cannot touch your hair until its like 80% dry. Even if it looks like its not going to curl right. Trust me, looks are deceiving. Your hair won't look how it is supposed to until it is completely dry. Then you can touch it to fix it.

     e) You can then "Break The Cast" or the hard gel that is on your hair by scrunching it again. This will get rid of that "wet hair" gel look. I usually do this and put my fingers at my scalp and shake there to give extra volume.

I seriously have seen sooooo many girls use this same routine no matter what kind of curl type they have. The only change I add is that instead of only gel, I do 50% gel with 50% curl lotion. I feel like it makes my hair look less "crunchy."

If you have even the slightest amount of wave in your hair and you use this technique, I promise you will see what your hair is really capable of.

Products I use:

1) Aveda Curly Hair Products - They are amazing! But my current fav is:
2) Deva Curl Shampoo/Conditioner/Gel
3) Deva Towel and Dryer
4) T-shirt to wrap my hair up while I get ready