My Curly Hair

I have naturally curly hair. My hair has been a big part of what has defined me throughout my life as it made me quite recognisable. As a child I hated the attention my curls brought with all sorts of people thinking it OK to run their hands through my curls as I sat in my push chair. Later in childhood my curls bought me to tears every time I went to the hairdressers as stylists had no idea what to do with my hair, treating it as they would straight hair. They would use a fine toothed comb to comb my hair while DRY which on its own bought me to tears let alone the fact I then had to walk home with my hair a frizzy Afro mess.

As I grew up I voiced my plea that they wet my hair before trying to comb it and that they use a brush or wide toothed comb to de-tangle it before cutting it.

As I hit puberty I became aware I had to learn how to style my curls. I had no idea what I was doing and no one to ask as my mum has naturally poker straight hair. Some products left my hair stiff/crunchy and other products left my hair feeling too light and fly away for my liking.

After a lot of trial and error I found a few different products that worked:
1) Hair mousse such as Shock Waves Curl Defining mousse
2) Curl Creams and serums

How I Style My Hair

I wet my hair pretty much every morning in the shower. When getting out of the shower I squeeze my hair out before wrapping my hair in my towel to help dry it slightly. My comb of choice is a Tangle Teezer which gets rid of my knots without damaging my hair or pulling on my scalp. Once my hair is de-tangled I apply a few good palms full of mousse into my hair, scrunch and then blow dry using a defuser with my head upside down.

My curls are different everyday, sometimes my curls form ringlets, sometimes the curls form looser. As my hair has got longer the curls have increasingly formed looser and ringlets appear less often.

I’ve read/watched a lot of advice on how to style curls such as changing to a silk/satin pillow case (which I am yet to do) and using clips to help keep volume at the top of my head such as this awesome YouTube video. I really like her video but the whole process takes way too long for my liking.

My biggest issue as an adult with curly hair is that I still haven’t found a hairdresser who knows what they are doing with curly hair. I need to find a hair dresser who is confident with the right way to cut my hair and how to style it curly. After a couple of disasters I never ask a hairdresser to style my hair curly as I get angry when they put just one small hand full of mousse or only a couple of pumps of serum through my hair thinking that could possibly tame my curls. I end up leaving with frizzy undefined curls and a bubbling anger in my stomach.

Would it be wrong to ask a hairdresser to watch a video like this before I let them near my hair?

I’m not entirely convinced by the cutting technique this lady uses in her video. If I styled my hair the way I always do and cut an inch off of one of my dry curls; When I then style my hair the next day that curl I cut an inch off would be MORE than an inch shorter than it was before being cut. The reason for this is because as my hair has got longer, it has got heavier which means my curls form looser, if i were to cut an inch off my hair my hair would be lighter and therefore form tighter curls and therefore look EVEN SHORTER. I’m not sure what it is the best way to cut curly hair, I like the idea this lady has but I’m not convinced.

If you have curly hair too, you should check out a website I have recently stumbled upon and saved to my favourites which gives real, manageable tips on how to get the most out of your natural curls.

I’d love to hear from all you lovely curly people with hints, tips, good products or just your own curly hair problems.

Smartie x