Humidity and Curly Girls

I washed my hair yesterday. Oh boy, big deal, huh? Nah. It’s me, curly girl. I have had it up in a pony tail most days for the last week. So I finally washed it. It’s not shampoo that a curly girl uses though, no need for that. Just water and conditioner. When it’s up in a pony tail for days on end it’s just too squished to wear down, so I don’t until I wash it. Washing entails getting it all wet, at the least. Then my hair takes time to dry. So I don’t just do that everyday or even every other day.

It’s funny how, just a week of wearing it up can make it feel odd to be down. It’s true for me though. I looked in the mirror this morning and wondered who that long hair freak was. Oh, that’s me. 🙂

I should go outside for awhile. It super humid, it’d plump my hair up quite a bit without me having to “wash” it again. 🙂 We are going through a few hot days here in the south. It’s so hot and humid that it’s “dangerous” to be out. I quite agree. I am super sensitive to the heat.

What makes frizzies for curly people is the humidity. I don’t mind them since I’ve been a known curly girl. I was ignorant of things before I read the book, but was a curly girl naturally, just didn’t know it yet. So I spend my time with gel, lotions, hairsprays, to get rid of the frizzies but keep the curl. It was a time that I gladly put behind me. A few frizzies are A-OK. Hair that is naturally conditioner-washed will have some frizzies, but not get out-of-control frizzies. It’s the moisture in the conditioner, it’s the curly girls best friend. It gives juice to the curls, and that’s what they need. A shampooed curly girl will go out into the heat and humidity and whooosh! Her hair puffs up and out, out, out. A conditioner-only curly girl will go out into the heat and humidity and her hair just sings, ah lovely, and gets a nice slight halo. Curly girls that laquer their curls won’t get the big humidity effect, but they won’t have a natural appearance.

It’s freeing to be able to walk into humidity and not have to worry, knowing that your hair will be alright. It’s just a natural curly girl look, a little frizz, curls happy with the moisture inside, no need to suck up the humidity, and free to bounce around as curly girl walks, runs, moves her head. 🙂

Bad hair day? Oh very much a thing for shampooed curly hair. Not so much an issue for a conditioner-only head of curls. To go naturally curly girl means freeing yourself from the “it has to look THIS way” thought process.

If you want it curly (if you have curly girl genes), just wet it, condition it, let it dry. Some gel is in order at times. I just use the conditioner in dabs as I would hair gel. A quick refresher is just some watered down conditioner applied to dampen my curls and scrunching my hair up to aide more curl re-forming, re-plumping, after sleeping on it if it needs it. (if your curls are dry and you put conditioner straight on your dry hair, watch out for gigantic wool-like growth … water down the conditioner, or spritz your hair with water first, if your hair is super thirsty dry. If you get that wool-like feeling, just toss your idea of not wetting your hair down entirely, and wet it down.)

I have long hair, so my way of doing it may differ from a shorter hair curly girl, as well my way is custom for me, and different from anyone else, maybe, maybe not, but it’s my own thing, and if you are a curly girl, you will get your own way down if you look to be a natural curly girl, and just start.

Curly girls, embrace your curls! Don’t straighten them to death. Don’t blowdry them, chemically treat them. They are lovely, and if you don’t think so, it’s because you haven’t learned how to make them work naturally for you.

A bad cut will affect curl adversly. So in that case, you have to grow it out, and go through a horrible phase, but if you start the curly conditioner way now, you’ll see your curls treating you better as you go through the bad phase of grow out. When your hair is treated nicely, it’ll benefit you in the future, it’ll be in better shape when the curls are long enough to do their thing fully.

Some folks search the web looking for how to straighten curly hair. You won’t find direction for that here. I advise you not to straighten your curly locks. Let them come out and learn how to play with them nicely.

Another thing folks search the web for and come here is about how to color curly hair. That one is something that is necessary to understand if you are going to do it. I don’t have the answers though. I don’t color my hair now. I have done so in my youth, but haven’t for many years now. I have horror stories I’ve written about it to a degree here on this site though. It’s better to just accept your hair, it’s curl and it’s color. Let it be. But if you must, research and see about lightening it, that’s the roughest thing to do to your hair, and a curly girl won’t be happy with the results in many cases. It’s not a good way to go IMO. Darker is better, or same color, or just a tad lighter but not bleaching.

Many women do use henna products. There are good things out there, not like past years of henna red only. It’s a natural coating process that is not damaging though, so seek out info on modern henna treatments if you can.