Embracing the Curls

My hair looks more like this now rather than the much straighter hair you see in my profile pic to the right.

Some of my sisters and I have hair that has decided to go {unevenly} curly as we've gotten older. Mine has taken a little longer than my two sisters who are just younger than me, but it's catching up. In the past I've attempted to blow dry it straight on Sundays and then just let it air-dry during the week. As my hair has gotten longer, even blow drying hasn't completely tamed the curls in the back, and I decided it was time to finally embrace the curl. When I got my hair cut a month or so ago I asked my hairdresser to cut it to encourage the curl.

Surprisingly, the hair cut actually made quite a difference in encouraging my hair to be more curly. But it still needed help and I needed to find some product that would give me nice curls that weren't crunchy or frizzy.

When we were visiting my sister last week, we were discussing our weird hair, and she gave me some things to try. She's had good success with Aveda's Be Curly line so I gave it a try too. It works (and I love the smell of Aveda products), but then I read the ingredients. All four products contain wheat protein, AKA gluten. I didn't have a reaction (the two times I used it), but since I've had problems with a gluten-containing shampoo in the past, I decided it wasn't worth the improved curl behavior. I'm sure over time the products would become problematic and I can't risk my health just for my hair.

So I've been doing some research into gluten free curl encouraging products. The challenge is finding a product that doesn't also have a nasty chemical smell, which is impossible to tell over the internet.

In the meantime, I'm also changing up how I treat my hair. I no longer brush it or use a standard towel to dry it. I'm having a hard time adjusting to not having smooth, tangle-free hair, so not brushing it is taking some self-control on my part. I use a wide-tooth comb to detangle after I put the conditioner in, then rinse the conditioner out after I've detangled. After I get out of the shower, I wrap it in a hair wrap thingy to soak up the excess water- no rubbing my hair with a towel to dry it anymore. This is supposed to encourage the curl and decrease the frizz. So far, it seems to be working.

The picture above is what the back of my hair looks like using Garnier products that I happen to have in our bathroom cupboard. They're ok and aren't very expensive, but they leave my hair a bit crunchy. At least the smell is nice and they'll work till I find something else to try. I have a list of brands to try, but I need to find them in a store so I can smell them before I buy them. The real challenge will be finding products that help the side/front of my hair- they don't look nearly as nice as the back does- the curl is much less defined.

Do you have curly hair? What products do you use?