Can I just say that I have been absolutely loving my hair lately? Because I have been, and it's kinda weird because that is not something I ever thought I'd say. Let me explain...
I have naturally curly hair and ever since I can remember I thought of it as a curse. I longed for long locks that hung straight and shiny down my back, and instead I was stuck with a tangled dry mess of knots that usually ended up pulled back into a ponytail. And don't even get me started about what a complete and utter disaster my hair was when it rained. Then in middle school I discovered the straightening iron and my world was changed. I straightened my hair everyday, and when my straightener broke I used a real iron (yes, I was that obsessed with having perfectly straight hair). I was finally happy with my hair except for one small problem...straighteners are extremely damaging and the sheer number of split ends on my head was astounding. My hair never looked shiny and healthy, just straight and dull.
Fast forward to college, I became a bit more carefree and lazy and on occasion I would just smoosh some gel in my hair and let it dry naturally...it wasn't the cutest but it wasn't awful and I got myself a husband looking like that. So yeah it worked.
Fast forward to the day after David and I returned from our honeymoon. David returned to work, and I was jobless with a lot of spare time on my hands and I discovered a website called naturallycurly.com. Through that site I learned a lot about curly hair...what kinds of products to use, what ingredients to avoid, the science of curly hair, how to scrunch for optimal curl formation, etc. It was a goldmine of information and I spent the next few months testing different products and methods until I finally found myself a job and could no longer play with my hair all day long (darn).
Fast forward to today. I've got my method down, I've got my products down, my hair is super healthy and soft, and I got an awesome haircut about a month ago that I am still thrilled with...complete with side swept bangs and super short layers on top while keeping my length on the bottom. It is a great cut for giving my hair volume and keeping my curls more defined (which usually only happens when I chop most of my length off), while still being long and lovely. I can't remember a time when I was happy with my hair all the time except for when I was frying the crap out of it...and this is much less work.
(Now, I feel like I should note that on occasion I do still straighten my hair. Especially when I'm on vacation because, let's face it, you can't sleep only curly hair and have it look half-way decent in the morning, but you (or I) certainly can with straight hair. Hence the picture of my husband and I in front of the pineapple fountain...we were on vacation, and the next day I had to wake up super-early to walk to the starting line of his marathon so I straightened my hair the day before, slept on it, and didn't have to mess with my hair at all the morning of the race...just in case anyone was wondering, which I'm sure they were not.)
God made me a curly head for a reason, and doggone it, it's about time I started embracing my true beauty instead of trying to conform to what hair product commercials tell me is beautiful!
Have I mentioned how much I love my curls?
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