Curly to the Rescue!

A couple months ago I walked by a friend at church who had beautiful curls in her hair. She didn't usually have curls.  I commented on how much I loved her curly hair; she told me that they were her natural curls and she never knew she had curly hair until she tried the "curly girl" method. She said that I probably have curly hair since about 5% of the population have completely straight hair, while the rest have some kind of wave in it, or curl. She offered to help me figure it out.

I finally got around to meeting with Buffie a couple of weeks ago. She had sent me some videos to watch beforehand so I could see the process of what we would be doing. It included a lot of washing, rinsing, and squishing, but you would never believe how much curl my hair actually has!

This is right after leaving Buffe's! All that curl is natural!

I kind of knew I had some curl in my hair from the way my wispy hair pieces used to curl when I wore my hair in a ponytail in high school. I also know that since I've had kids and lived in a humid environment my hair wants to curl, but it never does what I want it to do. I never actually straightened my hair, but I brushed and brushed it so that it would straighten as it dried and there was always a part in the back that didn't want to be straight, it was always a little wavy. And then I always had frizzy wisps, at least when I'm in a humid climate. Actually using a curling iron or rollers on my hair didn't work well either. The curls either didn't hold or would be a frizz-bomb! The most bothersome thing about my hair was the major cowlick I have in the back. It's hard to cover with straight hair, but with curly hair, there's already so much going on, it's easier to hide it under some curls that I place over it. My hair is low-density, so my scalp tends to show more in various places, especially the cowlick.  

So, I've decided I'm going curly! That means I have to wash it in the afternoons, not every day, thankfully, but I can't do it in the mornings anymore since I go to work early. I also have to sleep on a silk pillowcase with my hair up in a loose bun, held by a silk scrunchy. That all protects the hair at night from becoming too frizzy, especially if I want to keep my curls for a few days without rewashing. I don't brush it anymore and I have already noticed that I shed way less! I was shedding like crazy! I always said my hair was dry, but it's not, it just needs extra moisturizing, for now. When my hair gets treated the way it's supposed to be, after a few months or more, it will start curling more easily on its own because of all the moisture it will be taking in. Hooray for curly hair for saving my hair-life crisis!

This is the next day after Buffie's and 4 hours of work with preschoolers! I had pulled back the top to cover my cowlick since I hadn't focused on it. Plus, my front hairs weren't lifted enough and were in my face. 

These are the products Buffie has. I only bought the purple products on the right. I'm hoping to not have to buy too many products. They seem to work on my hair pretty well. Everyone is different and their hair responds differently to different products, so you never know what will work for you!

Luckily, Victoria already had this and I found it helped smooth my hair out and refresh my curls that first morning. 

This is what it looked the first time I washed it by myself and then used Jason's gel, which is not curly hair approved, but I didn't have all my products yet. A little crunchy looking, but after sleeping on it that night in the bun, it looked pretty good the next day!

This was the next day after work, not bad!

And this is a couple hours after my third time washing it.

This the next day after my third washing. I had a lot more lift in my roots and my hair stayed out of my face, even though it looks like it's in my face here, it never hung into my eyes and I never had to tuck it behind my ears (another plus with my new doo, no tucking behind my ears!)