My hair, my own personal barometer, is like Mother Nature’s mood ring. When the weather is humid, my hair becomes large and kinky. When it rains, my hair calms down. When there’s a drought, or a couple days without washing it, my hair maintains a bun formation even when it’s released from the hair tie. For that very reason, I would like to dedicate this to the broken brushes, the lifeless hair bands, the impossible braids, and the clogged drains. They have done me the valiant effort of taming the beast.
Once upon a time, you wore the tiny moose emblem on your blouse and burned your hair until it was crispy-straight every morning, even if it meant sizzling, steaming, and splitting it. Ironing your hair became more important than ironing your clothes. My ringlets were too challenging to tackle on my own, so I needed my mom’s undeniable blow-drying and straightening powers. The whole process took two hours…so not worth it.
I eventually realized people wanted my hair. Correction—we all want what we can’t have. As desperately as I wanted gorgeous straight hair, some wanted my gorgeous curly hair. I stopped fighting nature and began loving my wild mane.
There was a learning curve that came with balancing my style and voluminous hair. For example, glasses with thicker frames and hoop earrings don’t get camouflaged by curls— instead, they become statements of their own. If accessories don’t exist in your daily routine, you can always invest in quality mascara that darkens and adds volume to your lashes for prominent eyes every day.
Beneath my sink, a graveyard of half-full products becomes dusty, and the liquids within the squeeze bottles coagulate into gunk. Here lays a community of anti-frizz creams, curl shapers, and Hulk-strength hairsprays that just couldn’t do the trick. The long-retired straightener, blow dryer, and curler are all shoved to the back of my little cabinet. On top of the vanity counter is the one product I haven’t gone a day without since elementary school: conditioner.
My Holy Grail may seem anticlimactic, but don’t click away to the dark depths of the internet just yet. My dirty little secret is generic Pantene Conditioner, but you can pull whatever conditioner you normally use in your showers for the following trick. Distribute a generous amount of your go-to conditioner through troublesome areas and lengthy bits. Curl and twirl the pieces whichever way suits you; your fingers are the best tool. Clips can also be used to strategically place each hair where you want them to dry. It’s as simple as that, and my hair has never looked better.
Did you try my trick? Or are you bold enough to comb out your own curly hair? Show us your curly hair pride on Instagram by tagging @CFashionista!
