The letter
I love my curly hair.
I just didn't love
wearing it down.
I used to wear my hair up almost every day. Not because I didn't love my curls. I did! I just never knew what they were going to look like.
Some days they'd dry into bouncy curls. Other days they'd dry into a frizzy mess. I'd spend forever styling them, give up, and put my hair in a bun before I left the house. Last year, I was scrolling through my camera roll and realized I had my hair up in almost every single photo.
For a long time I figured that's how curly hair was. My curls looked defined in the shower, then frizzed as they dried, and I told myself it was my curl pattern. When I finally brought it up with my stylist (why didn't I ask her sooner?), she explained it like this:
A curl holds its shape with water.
As wet hair dries, the curl sets. If the water leaves the strand too fast, the hair dries out before the curl has set, and by the next day it's frizz.
Curly hair dries out faster than straight hair, so it needs more help keeping moisture in.
Wash day · curl sets as it dries
Day two, dried out · frizz
She said it comes down to the outer layer of the strand, the cuticle. On curly hair it doesn't lie as flat around each bend, so water gets out faster. Heat tools, color and harsh shampoo lift it further. Over the years the damage reaches the bonds inside the strand too, and the hair gets weak. I'd tried every curly styling routine on TikTok. None of them fixed that.
It was never my curl pattern. My hair couldn't keep moisture in long enough for the curl to set.
My stylist said three things would make the biggest difference:
- A hair mask, to give my dry curls more moisture.
- A curl cream in place of my gel, to define the curls and keep them hydrated.
- A bond repair serum, for the damage my hair had picked up over the years.
After years of nothing working, I wasn't expecting much....so I was SHOCKED after week 2. My curls have literally never looked better. They feel softer, they're bouncier, and they're so much easier to manage. Most of the extra time is the mask, ten minutes once a week.
I used to put my hair in a bun every morning. I've worn my curls down almost every day since March.
— Jess