Author Archives: Curly Q&A

My Soapbox

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Good morning friends! So, I don’t mean to sound like I’m preaching at you all from atop my lofty soapbox, but I just have to be serious for a few minutes. Bear with me.

I’m sick and tired of being inundated with glossy magazines telling me what trends I should try, how I should look, what I should wear, and how I should look while wearing them. Usually it’s based on some stylist’s ideas, or celebrity looks, and as someone who used to work in the glossy industry I can tell you it’s mainly BS. Everything is written and photographed and manufactured to sell–sell clothes, accessories, make-up, hair care products, and advertising for the worst of the above. I mean everything.

When I worked for a certain shall-not-be-named publishing house, the magazines had sample sales where large conference rooms would be crammed with TONS of unused make-up, hair products, and even clothes and accessories. Literally, it would make you sick. Or filled with the glee of a 5-year-old on Christmas morning. These items were all sent to the writers completely free and completely full-sized, we’re not talking small samples here. Whenever a magazine features a product, look, or style, there is most likely some advertising or partnership behind it.

So while I’m probably damaging the prospect of any magazine favoring my blog henceforth, I just can’t pretend I don’t feel this way. So the jig is up, ladies and gents, I am saying it’s OK to be the way you are, just be the best of yourself. That’s what this blog is all about, finding a way to be happy and in love with the hair you were given at birth, and how to make it shine.

I guess that’s my mission statement!

Oh and I still love my magazines, don’t get me wrong. They are crammed with lots of helpful and fun tips, stories, and important health information. Just be sure to take some of it with a grain of salt. Figuratively speaking, of course 🙂

Real Simple Curly Call!

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A friend forwarded me this call for curly-haired mavens from Real Simple. You’d have to let them color and cut your hair as desired, which I don’t trust just anyone to do on me, but give it a try if you’re not as crazy-paranoid as me, live in the NYC area, and would like to appear in a national magazine!

Real Simple is looking for women with curly hair—long or short, tight curls to loose curls—to make over with a haircut and possibly a change in hair color. Candidates must be in the New York City area because of the time commitment involved: two separate photo shoots (before and after) and a salon visit over the course of a few days in mid- to late May. Any interested candidates should e-mail their age, contact information, a description of their hair and its texture, and at least one recent photo by April 24 to maura_fritz@realsimple.com.

Leave-in Essential Oils

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courtesy: womenshomeremedies.com

Sometimes even I have to battle dryness; usually if the heat has been on, or if it’s been extra-windy, or just through normal wear and tear. Our hair is like fabric and we have to treat it gently or it will break, become course, frizzy, and a whole host of other atrocities.

One thing I like to do when my hair has been feeling dryer than usual, and in between bi-weekly deep conditioning treatments, is to slick a nutrient- and moisture-rich oil treatment over my ends and to let it sit for one full night and day.

Worried about looking greasy at work or school? If your hair is really dry, it will soak up most of the oil while you sleep, and in the morning you can put it up in a loose bun. Try separating some of the greasier-looking bits with a wide-tooth comb, then forget about it until you get home. Wash it out with the lemon juice-conditioner mixture, or some No-poo, and voila!

(Note: I recommend using one of the quality store-bought oil treatments in this case, since the oil treatment detailed in this blog is less condensed and will make you look like a wet rat regardless of how much your hair soaks up. A few drops of condensed essential oil treatment, thoroughly distributed with your fingers and hands, is plenty. Experiment based on your hair-length.)

Bonus: If you go to the gym or hit the pavement to work up a sweat, you will be essentially steaming your scalp and hair, opening pores, and making the treatment even more effective!

Allergies and your hair

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Spring brings more than pretty flowers! Read on for another easy way to combat seasonal allergies.

Hello, friends! Those readers who are currently experiencing springtime may notice that the allergens are in abundance, and have been for a few weeks already. Warmer weather earlier in the season (and in some cases, an almost non-existent winter) has created the perfect storm for a heavy-hitting allergy season. Aside from the usual <obvious> ways to avoid constantly red eyes, runny noses, and itchy skin, may I also remind you that your hair is a huge attractant for almost everything airborne?

We know that dirt is attracted to and sticks to our hair, partly because we add products and partly because that’s what hair is actually supposed to do, so the same is obviously true of pollens. Because of this, I’m trying to at least wet down my hair every night before my head hits the pillow, and it seems to be helping so far. While it’s not ideal for most curly girls to wash right before bed (air-drying becomes a bit of a problem) it’s not a bad idea to at least rinse your hair off, and then you can do the full routine in the morning. It’s also a perfect excuse to use oil and protein treatments more often, since you usually want those to sit on your hair overnight anyway!

If you are going to bed with wet hair I suggest wrapping it in a microfiber hair towel, and by the time it falls off in the middle of the night your hair should be mostly dry. Added bonus: Something about going to sleep with a soft towel snug around my head makes me feel like I’m at a spa or something. Try tying your hair on top of your head first if you don’t want it to come loose and get matted around your neck while you toss and turn. Then enjoy a nice, clean, sneeze-free night!

Start Curly

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One minor thing I’d like to address is that every hair styling tip I read about in magazines instructs you to blow-dry curly hair straight first. The tousled look, for example, involves blow-drying your hair in all different directions, then curling the ends, and texturizing it with pomade. Straighten my curly hair only to curl it again? Wha…? What these articles do is convince us to buy a ton of pricey products that aren’t all that great for our hair, make our ‘do’s high-maintenance, and promise shiny frizz-free results that we all know just aren’t going to happen. Especially as the warm and humid spring and summer months approach.

Back-combing can be done with a small black comb to create height near the roots of hair. Do not comb your hair to the ends with this!

My theory is work with what you’ve got: You have curly hair and you want it tousled? Fine, tousle it. Tousle ’til your heart’s content! I picked up a new trick over the weekend that I love. I’ve already recommended using a wide-tooth comb if you absolutely need to comb your hair while it’s wet in the shower, but I was recently given an olive-oil infused wide-tooth comb that I LOVE. I haven’t combed or brushed my hair (except when straight) in almost a decade, so this is kind of a big deal. I already knew you could use a small comb (like the flimsy black ones they gave you before school pictures) to add body at the roots of your hair. It works like back-combing, you brush against the direction of the hair at the very roots and get some upward movement.

Olive oil comb--great for combing through shorter layers to loosen curls and create a more "tousled" look.

The olive-oil comb, however, is so silky-smooth and non-invasive that I find I can use it with my shorter layers, like bangs, and also use it to back-comb for body on the crown of my head. It loosens up my curls, making them look a bit more fun and frisky instead of orderly and controlled. If you want to add texture try spritzing with some spray gel or the Coldstone Apothecary salt-water spray I mention on the products page once you’ve achieved your desired look.

If you do choose to gently comb through your hair to the ends with the wide-tooth comb, wrap unruly curls around your finger to eliminate frizz.

Also, once you’re done combing and before you use product, try finger-curling the rowdier pieces to make the hair come together in harmony again instead of being too frizzy. The amount of combing you do depends completely on how much of a statement you want to make, and over time you may find yourself doing it more and more. It’s also a great way to add height to hair that has dried somewhat flat on top.

Good Guide

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Good morning fine friends! I’m going to take a rare foray away from hair-specific talk to inform you about one of my favorite sites that will help you with organifying and cleansifying your lives in more ways than are detailed in this blog. It’s a site called GoodGuide, and if you haven’t heard of it you should definitely take a look.

Basically it’s a place where you can search for the products in your home, or products you’re thinking about buying, that you use regularly, and you’ll get the health and environmental low-down. Toothpaste, conditioner, hand soap, baby shampoo, the works. Each is rated on a 1-10 scale based on Health factors, Environmental impact, and Society–whether the company gives back to its community.

The products I recommend on my site are healthy and hair-friendly, but if you want to try to find something a little less expensive that won’t be damaging, this is the place to start your search. I hope that sites like this one start to influence big company’s business practices so that these important keystones of corporate responsibility will become the norm one day. Have fun, and here’s to your health!

The Curly Shag

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courtesy: seagullhair.com (No, this isn't me. I wish!)
This will work for curly hair of any type, as long as you don't cut layers too short. Be sure that you have it cut while your hair is dry!

I love my hair cut. Best part is, it works with any curly hair type. I have what I like to call a “curly shag,” a la the image to the left.

I needed to have more body on top, so one day I just started snipping layers around my face, since my long hair was dragging way too much. Right away I noticed that the curls came back to life, and my hair started drying much more quickly. It’s a great way to thin out thick hair, while adding volume and bounce for thin hair, since shorter top layers aren’t as weighed down. Great for a spring look if you don’t want to lop all of your hair off.

This cut is also very easy to manage! I recommend pairing it with wispy bangs that gradually get longer going from the middle of your forehead toward your temples, then blending that with your longer layers.

Curly Hairstyles

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One thing that always peeves me is how hard it is to find good examples of curly hairstyles. As if it’s hard to make curly hair look great! Quite the contrary, my dears. I, myself, have quite a few stand-bys that I like to sport, and it often looks professionally done (despite taking 5 minutes or less to “do”).

1) The Pile: This is the easiest and most becoming, in my opinion. It also works on any length that is long enough to pull into a pony tail. There are modifications for shorter hair, but we’ll get to that shortly.

What you need:

  • 1 thin elastic hair rubber band (“Ouchless” with no metal bar, preferably)
  • About 4-8 bobby pins, depending on your hair thickness and length

How it works:

  • Put your head upside down and gather all of your hair toward the middle of the crown of your head. How far toward the back or toward your brow is up to you.
  • Gather the hair into the elastic. Wrap the elastic around your hair once or twice. Only twice if it’s loose enough to slide right off once your put your hair upright. Never more than twice, if you need to wrap it more than twice get a newer, more elastic band.
  • Flip your head back up slowly and fasten the elastic band where you want the pony to stay on top of your head. Pull the hair up and out of the pony-tail holder so the elastic is as close to your scalp as possible. It looks kind of Victorian era, which is what I love about it, but it’s also a pretty quick and easy up-do sort of look that works at the office or at a fancier event. Experiment with how many curly tendrils you’d like to have escaping around your face for the best effect.

For shorter hair:

  • It will take time to perfect this look if your hair is too short to get into a pony tail, but you can use just bobby pins. Start with pieces on top and start positioning them the way you’d like them, a little higher up on your crown perhaps. When they look good, use as many bobby pins as it takes to keep it that way. Then continue to go down your head doing this with every layer. The bottom later can be pulled up and criss-crossed over the back of your head, and bobby pinned to stay that way.
  • If your hair is so thick that the pins aren’t cutting it, try using mini claw clips instead.

2) The Side-braid: I’ve mentioned before that I love this look, it’s so medieval. I often braid my hair when I’m sleeping since it’s so long that it gets tangled and matted to my neck in warmer weather. Just loosely braid your hair down the side of your head, as a french bread if you’re so adept, or you can bobby-pin stray tendrils if you can only manage a regular braid. I usually like to keep some hair around my face, but you can switch it up.

3) The Fountain: The regular claw clips also come in handy to simply twist your hair from behind in one large twist, then fasten it to your scalp toward the top of your head. If you have enough hair it will spout out of the top like a fountain. As with the other do’s, you can bobby pin any stray hairs in place.

photo4) Headbands: Until recently, I had equated headbands with those stiff plastic things that gave me headaches if worn too long in the 80’s. Much has changed since those days, there are some great options that don’t squeeze your head so tightly and are much more fun to wear–even more so when you mix and match. My favorite is to twist my hair in the back of my head and to pin it up with as many bobby pins are needed to keep in place. Next, I add on headband in the usual place, and one more toward the back to elongate the front-to-back direction of my hair, as seen at right. Use a few bobbies to keep the bands in place, and voila!
Headbands pictured are from LF.

NOTE: Bobby pins have a frizzing effect if used too liberally, so don’t attempt a highly pinned look if you want to let your hair down later on in the day. If you want to pin pieces back, go with the mini claw clips, as they come out easily and ruffle-free.

Coloring!

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I’ve had a few people ask me whether it’s safe to color curly hair. Here’s how I feel on the subject: I spent my entire young adult life (from about 15-24) coloring my hair all different colors. I’ve been a firey redhead, a blazing blonde, a dashing dark-haired diva (ok, enough alliterations, sorry) and it was grand. But my hair also sucked. This was before my shampoo-free revolution, so I didn’t think too much about what I was putting into my hair, or at least not as much as I do now.

Henna hair color dyes, courtesy: alibaba.com

When I went poo-less, I stopped coloring and wanted to grow my hair out. I figured that the best way was to keep my hair healthy all-around. That being said, I think if your hair is a hot mess and you need serious recovery time to regain luscious well-moisturized curls, don’t mess with color. Give the whole routine a couple of years to work its magic, then go back to semi- or demi-permanent colors. Good salons will offer these. Pick a low-maintenance color close to your own so you don’t have to go too often. Keep in mind, though, that bleach will never be good for your hair. Also, any time you do something drastic like get any color or a hair cut, your hair will take up to 2-3 weeks to feel like itself again. Be patient, use your weekly oil treatments and plenty of condish, and the beauty will return! A large part of having curly hair is having a saint’s aptitude for patience.

Also, I’m sorry, but I do not believe that blondes have more fun. Curly-haired people have more fun. 🙂

Now, of course, if you are hell-bent covering grays or want an even more natural approach to hair color, this advice doesn’t apply to you. I’d say that if you’re regularly coloring your hair, you should look into henna color. I know that sounds hippy-dippy (what doesn’t on this blog?) but they’ve come a long way and have a variety of colors and strengths. I hear that they work well on grays, so definitely try it. And comment to let me know how it goes! This also applies to those who are pregnant; according to what I’ve been told, henna color will not harm your baby. Definitely speak to your doctor before trying this, however.

Part of accepting your curly hair is accepting who you really are, and loving that beautiful person! Try to stay as natural as possible and your curls will thank you.

Let’s Talk Follicles

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As if you’d ever need a reason to become forever devoted to maintaining your gorgeous curly mane (ha!), you may be interested to know that there is no known non-surgical way to permanently straighten your hair. Some of us have tried various techniques, and I’ve heard friends say, post-keratin/chemical straightening, that they have found that their hair has grown out much less curly. Some even turn straight, God forbid!

The truth of the matter is, your hair is curly because your hair follicle, which is grown in a tiny sac beneath your scalp, is oval-shaped. The curlier the hair, the more oval-y (?) the follicle is. Case and point, here is the cross-section of a piece of African American hair (right). This is the extreme, a wavy or loosely curly hair follicle would be much more circular.

Conversely, if you have stick-straight hair, your hair follicle is a circle. As the hair grows down your back, the shape of the follicle determines whether it spirals down or hangs straight. Take a look at this Asian hair follicle (left).

Now, the health-conscious reader may wonder to themselves as to what chemical reaction could possibly cause permanent hair relaxing, if this is indeed possible. It’s quite alarming that a hair treatment might affect the shape of the hair that grows from a fixed-shape follicle in our scalps. Other factors may also be affecting it, like any big life event that changes your body as a whole, such as aging, a major surgery or — pregnancy! This is why many of us notice that our hair changes after having kids. I say, learn to love it and always keep your hair well-hydrated with monthly if not weekly oil treatments. Dehydration is one of the biggest reasons that curly tops become unhappy with their natural locks.

It’s science, really.