This one goes out to my fellow curly haired ladies. We all know the struggle is real.
For the majority of my childhood I had straight, fine hair, that is until puberty hit. Once I entered middle school, my hair made a drastic 180° and the mess of confusion on my head was created. Suddenly there were curls and frizz reaching levels I didn’t even know my hair had the capacity to reach. My mom was totally clueless as to how she could help, since she had straight hair herself. The best she could do was offer a conciliatory “You would have rocked high school in the 80s!” Not much of a consolation as I suffered through my years of braces, thick eyebrows, AND bushy hair. As a result, I spent my middle school years relentlessly straightening my hair with a flat iron in the hopes that the curls would magically disappear. I even turned to magazines, but those weren’t much help either. I’ve since come to learn that hair styling spreads and advice pieces are totally skip worthy for a curly haired girl like myself. Any and all attempts at “beachy waves” only end in wet dog chic, or even worse, a disheveled Foxy Brown afro.
It was only in high school, as I grew more used to my curls, that I finally let them roam free and embraced my inner lion. It took many attempts to find the magic combination of products that would leave my curls just so, a process I’m sure many of you curly-haired ladies can relate to, but eventually I did. Unfortunately the discontinuation of even just one of the many gels, detanglers, or frizz control serums I used could result in a devastating imbalance that left me back at the beginning. But over time I got used to the ever revolving network of products that tamed my mane. At the moment I’m currently hooked on DevaCurls (check them out!) and Garnier leave-in-conditioner.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve learned to love my hair, curls and all, and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I’ve gotten more used to people’s incessant need to pull/play with them (ouch!) and I’ve just gotten over the fact that I will probably spend twice as much on conditioner and products than most of my straight haired friends. There are still struggles, especially with the unpredictable weather in Williamstown (hello random afternoon rainstorm on a sunny day), and the Greylock dances (Shakira hair like never before) but I’ve come to laugh over the things that would have made me cringe in middle school. All I’m saying ladies, is that you should embrace your hair—curly, straight, natural, relaxed— and WERK IT. Your hair deserves the same amount of TLC as your skin and the rest of your body. Treat it nicely and find what works for you. And when all else fails ponytails hide a world of sins!
Ps. If you ever need a laugh http://www.buzzfeed.com/erinlarosa/problems-only-people-with-curly-hair-will-understand