Curly Girl in a Straight World…

Keratin shampoos, straightening irons, frizz free gels, paddle brushes, boars hair brushes…everything you see in the pharmacy or the beauty supply stores tell you a woman should have straight hair and they all seem to offer the various products to help you achieve that goal.

Here’s the problem, I don’t fit into society’s model of a straight-haired beauty. For 43 years I’ve felt like square peg trying to fit into a circle, but about a month ago that all changed.

I have always had a lot of hair and it has always been really thick, there was a wave to it but nothing of the Bernadette Peters variety or anything. I was in hair hell:  too thick to go short, too much hair to wear long and zero ‘hair-ability’ (my word for ones inability to work a blow dryer and style ones hair).

Then I was handed a sample of Devacurl No-poo, One Condition and Gel from one of the beauty supply stores. I’d tried everything else, I figured why not give this a shot. I followed the instructions on the packs and suddenly my hair had a lot more curl to it, almost as if it finally knew what to do. So I started researching this product line and discovered that it was born out of a salon in NYC and was created by a really curly girl named Lorraine Massey. Her philosophy was to cut curly hair dry (since we don’t wear our hair wet, why cut it that way). It made sense to me but I wasn’t really certain that I actually had curly hair. I’d always assumed I’d had difficult or uncooperative hair, since hairdressers for years had always blow dried it straight as if that were the only option I’d had.

I was the girl who left the hairdresser very politely and very briskly to go home and wash it so that I didn’t look like I had a ‘coif’. There is very little worse in the self-esteem department than never really feeling good about or truly accepting yourself. The haircuts were always well executed, but they weren’t me at all. Something had to give.

My research brought me to New York City where I decided to take the plunge and get a ‘curly girl haircut’ at the Devachan Salon on Broome St./Crosby in Soho. After scouring the web for reviews of various stylists there, Jackie seemed to be a perfect match for me.

At worst I would be in NYC for a time and at best, I’d have a haircut that would make me happy.

Turned out be a win-win all around!

I couldn’t stop smiling from the moment I met Jackie to the minute I was done there. In addition to the best haircut I’d ever had, I was also educated on how to maximize the benefit of the products I was already using. Arturo assisted in showing me how to take care of my new curly tresses by encouraging me to feel and listen to what my properly conditioned hair should feel and sound like (yes, you read correctly, when properly conditioned, my hair should feel like silk and sound like ducks quacking).

This whole experience was a hair game changer for me.

Bad hair days are a thing of the past! Bye bye brushes and combs…Hello to Locks I Love!

Here’s to all of our happy hair days!

xo…Elisa

Above are the three products I use daily, they work wonders when you work them properly…