Curly Hair Journey

I’ve been naturally curly my whole life. However, I constantly flat-ironed it up until my senior year of high school. I always loved my curls, but I straightened it for 2 reasons.

1. My hair was long and I loved having it down, but it was hard for my mom to manage . It hurt like hell when she, and especially my grandma, had to comb it out.
2. I cut it to shoulder length. When my hair was curly, oh the shrinkage! I hate the feeling of my hair above my shoulders, therefore, I kept it straight.

With my hair straight I stopped taking care of it. I didn’t moisturize it (my grandma traumatized me when she did my hair, she added so much grease!), I didn’t trim it (my split ends would get so bad stylists always wanted to cut off 2 – 3 inches, so I stopped going). I didn’t do anything but wash and straighten it.

By the time I got to 9th grade my hair became so damaged that it would no longer stay straight. No matter what I did or how many times I straightened it, as soon as I walked out the door my hair would poof up. As if I only blow-dried it. It was a nightmare, and that’s how I started high school.

One day I greased down my hair and it stayed straight, but I felt gross. It didn’t look extremely greasy, but this was a time when I was hiding behind my hair because I was beginning to get acne. My entire head was feeling like a pot of oil!

I researched for alternatives and hair masks, and came across this natural DIY. It was simple, 3 ingredients, and the main one was right in my refrigerator. THE EGG. The golden egg. That, mixed with a little bit of baby oil and a teaspoon of water became my salvation. I believe the instructions said to leave it in my hair for either 15 or 30 minutes. I left it in for an hour for extra measure. My mom and brother walked into the house like, “What the hell is that smell? And what is that dripping down your face and neck?” I nonchalantly replied, “An egg”. Neither of them were a stranger to the weird things I do or try, so they let me be.

And it worked!

I washed my hair then flat-ironed it. The results were amazing! My hair was silky, smooth, soft, flowy, and naturally shiny. The next day my friends were shocked by my hair transformation and asked what I did. From that day forward I tried to keep my hair more moisturized.

Eventually I started wearing my hair curly more. I went to cosmetology school to learn how to do my hair better. I was trying to practice doing cornrows on myself  and it turned into a braid out the next day, which I didn’t know was a thing until senior year.

I learned different techniques to combat shrinkage my senior yea, and thus began the journey of my wearing my hair curly more and straightening it less. When I started college I gave up the flat-iron to once or twice a year.

I’ve grown to love the way I look with curly hair more than straight. My hair is big, bouncy, and fun. I’m still working on getting better at trimming it, but with it curly you can’t even tell.

– A Dose of Denise