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Monday, March 5, 2012

A Natural State of Mind (aka A Curly Girl's Story)



I have naturally curly hair. When I was young(er), all I wanted was to have straight hair. When I was a little girl, my mother would wash and condition my hair, divide it into sections and then let it air dry at least overnight. The next day, we’d spend the afternoon in the kitchen, while she hot combed my hair. I’m talking old fashioned, put the comb on the stove to heat it up, hot comb. Then when I turned 11 or 12, I started to do the whole routine on my own, so that I could do it more often and so that I could get it STRAIGHTER.

 I never even thought to wear my hair in its natural state until I was in high school and I became good friends with another curly girl. She gave me the courage to finally wear my hair in curls too. I’ve been experimenting with different combinations and brands of products to achieve the perfect head of curls since then.

However, unlike my friend who always wore her hair in curls, I still preferred to wrestle with and tame my tresses until they were bone straight. I felt more “me” with straight hair. Curly was simply an alternative when I wanted to do something different, or felt too lazy to tackle the daunting task of washing, conditioning, detangling, braiding, treating, waiting to dry and the hour to hour and a half it took to actually straighten It (and it took that long even after I discovered the wonders of Frizz Ease and a flat iron). Yes, there were the several months during my senior year of high school when I was on the swim team and my hair was in a perpetual state of curls (it was plain unrealistic and just a waste of time to do all that work for it to be straight for half a day). But still, I felt most confident, pretty, and myself when my hair was long and straight.

Fast forward to having my first child-let’s just say it’s hard to find the time to regularly (and painlessly) wield extremely hot objects when you have a little one knocking you in the knees every five minutes. Curly finally became my regular state of being, but only by default. I still longed for and preferred my straight hair. Until now…

A few things have changed my opinion of my natural state. First and foremost was my hubby. He was the first (and I suppose, the last) man I was with that actually liked my hair curly. I knew he was special because he preferred me just the way that I was. Then there was the discovery that our first daughter was a curly girl too. To see the time and effort he (yes, HE does our daughter’s hair) spends on making sure her hair looks its best, from researching new products and washing and taming those tangles; the two of them have really helped me to embrace the texture I was born with.

And now I have yet another reason to be curly and proud! I truly have no idea how, but fairly recently I stumbled upon NaturallyCurly.com and I am hooked. They are an invaluable resource as far as the care, maintenance, and overall empowerment of curly and textured hair. I have learned more about how to make the absolute best of my tresses in the couple of weeks I have been making daily visits to the site than I have in my ENTIRE LIFE! Really, it’s that informative.

So I guess I’m saying, prepare yourselves for a lot of curly girl love and attention, including tips, techniques and product reviews galore. No, this won’t be a hair blog, and I’m not saying that you won’t catch me with straight hair every now and again. But for the first time ever in my life, I’m excited about the wild thing that is my hair, and I want to share it with you all. So stay tuned.
















Me, Curly


                                                                            
Me , Straight (and 8 months pregnant)




Until next time…

Ciao, XxO

Q

PS- The moral of the story is, although it’s great to experiment with new and different looks and forever strive to attain the best version of yourself, it is most important to EMBRACE and not be afraid to BE exactly who you ARE! 





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