Curly Girl

One time a new friend asked me what my sign was. I’m a Leo. Not that I’ve given any stock to astrological signs since I was 15, but she asked. Then she asked if I was obsessed with my hair? Um, kinda. Her theory is that the lioness Leo is obsessed with her mane of hair. Yeah, except that lioness don’t have manes. Anyway, maybe it is because I’m a Leo (doubtful) or maybe it’s just because I’m a women, that yes, I have a minor obsession with how my hair looks. Who doesn’t?

Anyway, this is yet another post in regards to my hair. Because I found a new stylist and I want to tell you that I.Love.Her.

But more importantly, I want to tell you WHY I love her.

First of all, she told me she thought I looked “like 28 or something” and acted completely shocked when I told her I was about to celebrate my 39th birthday.

Her: “No way! I just can’t believe that. You must take really good care of your skin.”

Me: “Well, you know.”

And then me again, “I love you. YOU are officially my new BFF.”

Okay, on to the hair.

The second reason I love her is that she spent about 10 minutes with me just TALKING about my hair. It was like hair therapy. Seriously. She asked me questions like, When do you love your hair the most? What do you hate about your hair? What would you change? What would you keep the same? What do you want people to think about you when they see you and see your hair?

Well, last week I wore my hair in braids to go to the pool and someone called me Heidi. I really do not want people to think of Heidi when they look at my hair.

The third reason I loved her and the salon is that they specialize in hair with natural curl. And she LOVED my natural curl. Her next question was if I had ever had my hair blown out curly.

Wehhhell… I did not know you could blow your hair out with it’s natural curl. I thought blowing your hair out meant straight – as in no curl. Because every.single.stylist blows my natural curl right on out of my hair.

But she didn’t.

She also taught me how to embrace my natural curl and if I want to not wash it for two whole days in between. She called it the 3 Day Style.

Sign me up! A morning I don’t have to wash my hair is a morning I can spend doing a million other things!

The last reason I love her is that she recommended and used my very favorite hair products – Biolage.

Three of them to be exact and in a specific order called layering, pointing out not to mix them into a hair product cocktail as each product has it’s own special purpose.

She gave me a few pointers about naturally curly hair.

• Touch it as little as possible.

• Use the right products and the correct amounts

• Use conditioner AFTER you get it cut before you blow it out. So, yes, she washed my hair and conditioned it. Cut it and then conditioned it again to seal the hair.

• She gently squeezed the excess water out. Do not wrap your hair in a towel or towel dry. This separates the hair and will cause it to look frizzy. The goal is to keep the hair together and smooth.

Then she put the following products on in this order. Oh, and I should tell you she did not skimp on the use of the product. I promise a hair was not left uncovered with all the goo. These are the products that she used on me. You can use whatever works best for you, of course.

• Step 1: Cover your hair in Biolage Curl Defining Elixer. She said to use about 50 cents worth. As in two quarter sized squirts. I have pretty long hair and I use less than that – about a quarter. The product helps the curls stay together.

• Step 2: Completely cover your hair with Biolage Smoothing Shine Milk. Don’t miss a hair! This will give you the shine.

• Step 3: Completely cover your hair with Biolage Thermal Activating Spray. You will need this for the next step as your hair is about to take some heat.

• Step 4: Place a diffuser on your hair dryer, flip your hair over by hanging your head upside down. Place sections of hair in the cavity of the diffuser. High Heat, High Volume is the key here. Hold for 3o seconds. Move to the next section of hair. Turn your head from side to side and flip your hair up if you need to. Do this until your hair is dry. It will seem to be a little cruncy and look wet but will be dry. THIS blog post is a excellent description of how to do this. It will also look very big but does fall with a little time. Don’t worry, we’re not heading back to the 80’s here.

• Step 5: Milk your hair. Okay, imagine if you will that you are milking a cow. Or what it would be like to milk a cow and that is how you scrunch your hair. Gently move the hair between your fingers and the fatty part of your hand to manipulate it the way you want. This will get that crunchy look out and let you style it more.

You are done. Diffusing is the way to blow out curly hair and should last 2-3 days.

To keep this hair style for 3 days, she said to just tuck it gently away at night and let it down in the morning. On day 3 – use pins or pull back.

The key to keeping this style for a couple days is not fussing with it too much. You kinda have to just let go of perfection with curly styles.

Here is the salon owner’s blog, Curly Girls, and some posts about curly hair.

Quick Tips for Curly Hair

3 Day Curly Hair – this is pretty much a more detailed version of my post here. This post and my time with my new stylist are the source of ALL of this great information.

So, this is my hair straight.

I love the way my hair shines when it is straight.

And…

This is my hair curly. Not sure why I am so smiley there. And 28? Really? Yeah, not so much.

I can’t say I like one better. Really it’s all about my mood and the humidity. This new style is great for high humid summers in the South. It never ever feels frizzy which is what I love about it.

I guess the best part about it is that I have the flexibility to wear it either way. I also think it is important to find a stylist that understands how to really work with curly hair. It really does make all the difference.