My Curly Hair.

I am a curly girl.

If you are not a curly girl, then you will not understand the agony that curly girls go through. Yes, I am judging your ability to empathize with me and my mess of frizzy tangles. Granted, I will not understand a straight haired person's obsession with getting a bump-free ponytail. That just isn't a possibility for me, so I could never be bothered to obsess. I aim lower, like hoping my hair bumps look less like a rat's nest and more like I actually tried to pay a little attention to my hair. So let us agree that we are both in agony and this is why the hair care industry is such a bustling business.

My hair has been curly since it grew long enough to curl. It was fine and blonde until I was about five, then it turned into thick brown waves. Once I was into my teenage years, it had thinned out a bit and was back to being curly. I didn't know how to deal with it, I didn't know how to deal with it, I didn't know what I wanted it to look like, I only knew I didn't like it. the result was a few years of bad hair.

At some point, I figured out what I wanted from my hair - long, flowing curls - and I've been working toward it ever since. Now my hair is quite long, falling about halfway down my back.

But - of course there's a but - I get sick of it. Every time I grow out my hair, I get positively sick of it. It gets tangled, frizzy, and full of knots. It gets to be less than and more of a chore, even if I love how the final result looks. I have that love/hate relationship so many women seem to have with their hair.

A few years ago I switched to the Conditioner-Only (CO) method of washing my hair. Shampoos make my hair squeak, which means it has been completely stripped of its natural oils. My hair ends up dry and prone to breakage. My shower routine for my hair usually starts with a clarifying conditioner (such as Alberto VO5 Tea Therapy Clarifying Conditioner in Vanilla Mint Tea) which I then follow up with a heavier, more moisturizing conditioner (such as Biolage Conditioning Balm) When I do shampoo (which is very infrequently, maybe once or twice a month), I tend to only shampoo the roots.

So, where does this get me? With this:


That's some long hair, people! And it's grown a bit longer since I took this several months ago.

Anyway, it is a lot of hair to take care of, and washing - even CO-washing - causes damage. I wash my hair every few days, and tinker with my hairstyles on the days I don't wash. So expect to see some posts of different updos and other experiments on my hair.