Curls n waves oh my!

Oh boy! So far, my curly hair journey has been really strange. I have just recently realized that it is something that is important to get right, don't be fooled though because it takes a lot of time to work out and get right. I still haven't gotten it right. I would currently classify my current hair as a type 2A or 2B.

I was about to get my first haircut from a person who specializes in curly hair. I had an appointment and about a week before the appointment we were put on lockdown here in Washington State and I, same as many people, were very upset about it. So many people are complaining that they can't currently get their hair cut and I was definitely one of those people but now I have come to the decision that this is a great opportunity for me to experiment with my "more natural" hair. I can't wait for the day when I can get my hair cut by someone who specializes in curly hair so I can see if the haircut makes a difference. I feel like it would because there are different techniques that the hairstylist has to use in order to make sure that they layers are where they should be not only for your hair type but also for your hair length.

I didn't realize that this was a whole thing I had to be aware of. I knew I had curly hair and that I should probably be using products that were for curly hair. Mostly I was just using Pantene products which were good but I realized that my hair could be so much curlier if I had only used the right wide-tooth comb and shampoo/conditioner combo in order to make sure my hair was getting the moisture that it needed.

I used to have straight hair all through elementary school and about 6th grade (~11 years old) was when my hair started to transform from straight to wavy to curly. I wasn't really guided properly through figuring out what works best with my hair and how to properly care for my hair type.* I was shown some suggestions but never had the opportunity to experiment with what works best for my hair.

Once my hair started changing, part of my wanting to fit in to the dominant white society that I found myself forced into without realizing was that I wanted to straighten my hair. I wanted all the frizz gone (because at this point it was changing so it was in its frizzy/puffy phase before getting to the curls) so I straightened it at night before going to bed and then retouched it up every morning. It took me so long to straighten my hair as I wasn't really good at it, it was quite thick, and I had an ideal straightness that I wanted it to fit into. It took me a long time to realize that it would never be that straight unless I went to a hair salon and had it professionally straightened. Even then it would only last a whole day before it got curly, forget about fixing it up if I slept on it! That's a whole different issue.

My freshman year of high school I was still straightening it a lot but my mom was telling me to straighten it less and I was trying to because I liked the idea of having curly hair. I just hated the fact that when it dried that it didn't look like what I imagined it to be in my head. That was my first problem. Curly hair will never look the same, every day it is a new journey and a new group of problems that you have to figure out how to deal with. Once I started running cross country in my sophomore year of high school I was having to shower every day. This meant waiting 4+ hours for my hair to fully dry to the point where it was okay to straighten it. It became too much work and I decided that I was just going to see what it would do on a daily basis. I didn't really know how to take care of it (I am still learning) and wasn't given any guidance. Especially since I was going to a hair dresser who didn't know how to properly cut my hair (she was great for when I was straightening my hair but as I started wearing it more natural she didn't get how to layer it properly so the top wasn't poofy. She had straight hair and so did most of her coworkers). I am thankful that I finally learned that there are ways to tame and manage your curly hair. Some people have longer routines than I do. I found in high school that one of the best things I could do to revive it the next day after washing it was to turn my hair upside down in the sick and get it wet and then add some sort of leave-in conditioner. That was the most extravagant that I ever got with my hair until recently.

One of the newer products that I have used that I really liked was the Aussie Miracle Curl Creme Pudding. It works great and I would definitely go back to this product, I am just currently trying to find if there is a better option for my hair type.

Currently I am still struggling with finding the right product and how to properly put my hair up at night in order to keep as many of my curls in tact as possible. I know it is harder right now because my layers are not helping the weight of my hair. That is contributing to the top half of it looking way fuzzier or poofed than it should look after getting a good hair cut. I am just hoping that soon hair salons will open up and I can continue my curly hair journey, but until then I am happy to just work with it every day and see what happens. Everyday is its own journey and I have to just work with it no matter what.

Currently I have been using these products:

Shea Moisturizer Curl Enhancing Smoothie

OGX Extra Strength Damage Remedy + Coconut Miracle Oil Shampoo

OGX Quenching + Coconut Curls Conditioner

DevaCurl No-Poo Cleanser

*Wait what.....? There are different hair types? What is my hair type? I didn't even know there was a difference in hair types either. Well, here is a link to a website with a chart that really helped me to figure it all out. There are so many charts out there and they are mostly all the same but in my opinion this chart gives the most variety within hair types.