Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Curly Tales 3 - Hair cut and hair accessories

All those who struggle with curls remember your hair journey is a marathon, not a sprint. Here is my story.

As a child, I always had short hair, so a school hairband or two small ponies or Rasana hairstyle looked cute and perfect.

Then the never ending journey of long hair, maintaining those curly long hair, getting perfect hair cut and selecting perfect hair accessories started. When you have curls you can’t wear those fancy accessories with beads or diamonds. They just get stuck in your hair and you have to brutally pull it off breaking your hair and literally making you cry. Even a diamond ring is a big no no for curls. With such ring a simple task of tying hair into a bun can be a nightmare. That diamond prong do get stuck and tangled in curls, breaking them up or the hair.

There is no perfect hair accessories for our curls. I have tried many such hair accessories from simple clutches, hair clips, hair pins, barrettes, scrunches. Nothing work best for curls. They just break after one or two use or their teeth falls down one by one. And it has nothing to do with the quality. I have purchased the cheapest to costliest clutches from train to imported set from Japan. I even got one Korean set of hair accessories. It broke on day one and then I realised that Koreans and Japanese have soft, straight and silky hair, they do not understand curls. Point is it will last for a month if you are lucky. Be it plastic, metal or acrylic, maximum life of all these accessories in curly hair is one month. They just get suffocated in curls, it’s volume and finally die in suffocation. The only long lasting hair accessories is the hairbands. That black sling hair band. सस्ता, मजबूत और टिकाऊ. So all curly girls, don’t waste your time and money buying expensive hair accessories. Just get those sling hair band in all colors and your job is done.

Another struggle is to get a perfect hair cut. No hair salon, hairdresser or beautician understand curly hair. They will wet your hair making them look like straight hair, Comb with the closely spaced comb and then cut it in straight line. Then they will blow dry your hair to style them up. All such process is wrong. Curly hair tend to bounce up once dried. If you cut then evenly when they are wet they will end up becoming uneven once dried. One need to cut curly hair when they are left natural. That is the only way one can end up having them in straight line. Funny but true. For many years I did cut my hair again after getting a nice haircut from a hairdresser as they always looked uneven at the end. Cut them when they are dry and bouncing.

Another part is hair styling. All those hair styling with blow hair dry is of no use. Inward turn and outward turn at the bottom are not real for curls. We got springs, so no matter how much you make them wet and pull them down straight and try to make an inward turn, they with bounce up like Maggie noodles one they are dry. 

I have gradually learned to just flip my hair like I just don’t care. To loose my bangs and let the wind do the rest. I have finally learned to  enjoy and embrace my curly.