So I used to straighten it every single night. I would get home from school or work, then I would shower, blow dry, and straighten my hair. Mind you, sometimes I wasn't getting off of work until 1am. The struggle of working at Sonic Drive-In. Then, I would get up at 7am and run the straightener through my hair again. That is some serious dedication!
I knew I had curly hair, but I never knew how to embrace it. All I knew was that I wanted straight hair. When I got lazy, about my senior year of high school I think, I started wearing it curly. After much trial and error, I actually discovered that I had some pretty awesome curls! Then it was all downhill from there, because I became too lazy to straighten my hair when all I had to do was put mousse, gel, or some other product in it and go to school. Yay for more sleep!
Being late in the curly hair game, I am still experimenting with different ways for my curls to look good and what not. There are many products out there specifically dedicated to curly hair, you just have to know where to look.
Gel: Spray gel used to be the go-to for my curly hair. Nowadays the thought of gel in my hair grosses me out. Not only does it weigh your hair down, but it makes it greasy and it's hard to get that shit out in the shower, which brings me to my next point.
Curly hair shampoo/conditioner: THIS STUFF IS AWESOME. It takes some getting used to because the shampoo doesn't lather up quite like other shampoos but that is because it's sulfate free. This is amazing for your curls because it will not weigh them down or dry them out. Then of course the conditioner is a natural detangler so that's always a plus.
Mousse: I am always, always on the fence about mousse! Because on the one hand it makes my curls look amazing and actually hold all day long. But on the other hand, I have to wash my hair the next day because it makes them greasy really quickly. Then, there's the issue of formula. Some mousses make your hair, um, crunchy. ALSO, if you use mousse when your hair is too wet, you'll have a greasy look all day long. Not attractive.
Brushing curly hair:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Don't do it, seriously, ever. That is the point of conditioner, which is to detangle your hair. About once a month you should brush your hair before you take a shower but honestly even then, it's still really damaging to your hair. And don't even THINK about brushing it while your hair is still wet.
Cream: I'm still in the learning stages of creams for my hair. It's almost like a leave in conditioner type thing. I've found that it doesn't weigh my hair down, helps with frizz, and leaves my hair feeling soft and silky. The only downside is that it doesn't hold in my curls all day so by the end they are looking a little flat.
Hairspray: Ugh. No. Just no. Unless you want crunchy, extra frizzy hair, don't do it. Seriously it's just bad.
Other: I almost forgot about this, I'm not quite sure what it's called exactly. There's lots of curly hair sprays out there. Not quite a gel, not quite hair spray. Bedhead has a curly hair spray and even though it's $20 a bottle (yikes, I know. Thanks mom) it's seriously AMAZING!!! I can't even describe it.
One thing that's hard to refrain from is touching my hair all the time. It's actually bad to touch the curls constantly because the oils from your fingers will make your hair dirty faster and running your hands through the curls will make them lose shape and become frizzy.
Sometimes the mane is just plain un-tameable! Those are hat days, for sure.
Everyone's hair is different, you have to find whatever combination works for you. I have this giant diffuser on the end of my blow dryer, and it helps a lot with the frizz because my hair dries faster even when I'm not using any heat, just the cool setting. But again I'm lazy so I only use it when I have extra time. I also find that using a towel to squeeze out the extra water and to scrunch my hair helps tone down the frizz instead of using my hands. Showering every day will also dry out your hair quite a bit so make sure you are either using a hair mask every once in awhile or trying to not wash your hair each day.
Some days you can do everything right and your hair still looks bad. That's just how it goes. The mane has a mind of it's own, just make sure you take care of it. 99% of the time it looks fine, and you'll get a lot of compliments. The other 1%, it might be a good idea to just throw it into a pony tail for the day. Whatever, it's up to you. Here is my hair now, while it might not look that much longer, if I were to straighten my hair, it would be about a foot longer.
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