About my hair…

*Products used linked at the bottom*

Ok I promised you guys a few weeks ago on Instagram an in-depth blog post about my hair…

I get more questions about my hair than anything else, both on social media & in real life. I have always been a long-hair person – not to say that I haven’t chopped it a few times, but only a few. I prefer to have a mane that I can flip around like Fabio. I am fortunate to have very thick hair, but it is VERY unruly & coarse…might be the Italian in me. In high school I went through a few years where I would get up at 5:00 to shower, blow it out, and flatiron it. I also had oily hair, so I had to do that every other day (hadn’t discovered the WONDER of dry shampoo yet). It was just too much, I am too low-maintenance (or lazy, whichever) for that. Sometimes I would blow it out & curl it with a big curling iron, which had a similar effect to my bohemian curls but not quite. I gave up on all of that in college, attempting to just work with it au naturale. This was ok for a while, went through TONS of different products, but it really has multiple textures throughout as well as different curl patterns. So I could never find one product that worked for all of it. During my hippie phase, I stopped combing or brushing it. That helped with bushiness, but ended up looking a little dread-y. I was OK with it at the time because I really wanted dreads, but then I entered into the professional adult world & felt like maaaaybe I needed to comb it occasionally. I had it relaxed twice which also helped with bushiness, but then it lost most of its curl which I missed.

Finally, while visiting a friend in Louisiana, I saw that she was just styling/waving the top layer of her hair & letting the bottom do its thing. Her hair is totally different from mine so she was able to do this with a flatiron (which I LOVE LOVE LOVE), but that doesn’t really work for me of the so-coarse-you-could-pick-a-lock-with-it strands. Then Frank bought me the Chi Orbit 3-in-1 Curling Wand for Christmas a few years ago. *cue choir of angels* This is my magic wand, y’all. It even came with a little instruction book on how to achieve the kind of curl you want.

So this was all well & good but did nothing for the texture of my hair. My AWESOME hairstylist had been recommending Moroccannoil products to me for years, & I was just really wary because I *thought* I had oily hair. So first of all, I don’t really have oily hair anymore now that I’m older. It’s more just middle-of-the-road now. But second, the argan oil isn’t greasy; it seems to help balance out the natural oils. So I finally took the plunge & ordered the Smoothing Shampoo & Conditioner, Blow-Dry Concentrate, & Curl Creme. I’m sold. It makes my hair much more tame & soft, manageable. And I can go about 3 days without washing by using the Moroccannoil Dry Shampoo. It doesn’t get flaky or gunky at ALL & smells great.

So, on to the process…

STEP 1: Wash, condition, etc. with your favorite stuff. Obviously, I highly recommend Moroccanoil products. I use curl creme to smooth & enhance the curl that I have, & blow-dry my roots with a diffuser to create lift. The rest is usually still a little damp. Just do what’s best for YOUR hair, but keep in mind that we are working with our natural hair texture rather than styling all of it. If your hair is naturally fine or straight, try a sea-salt spray or mousse instead of creme. I’m also a fan of the Moroccanoil Dry Texture Spray.

STEP 2: Smooth any weird kinks or flyaways with a flatiron. Again, remember we are working with our natural texture here so don’t get carried away. I always have to smooth the pieces right around my face.

STEP 3: The wand chooses the wizard! Select your wand size & shape by the way your hair naturally curls/waves. Since my underneath layer is pretty spiraled, I use the 1″ tapered attachment for my straighter top layer. If you really want to get fancy, use more than one attachment for more variation. I don’t have time for all that, though.

STEP 4: Work the magic! Wrap .5″ – 1″ sections of hair around the wand, about mid-way down the hair piece. Leave out the ends.

STEP 5: As my girl-crush Elle Ferguson says, “Always brush the curls out!” If your hair is thinner or fine, that will work great. If your hair is thick & bushy like mine, DO NOT BRUSH. Use a wide-toothed comb or your fingers to loosen all those “lollipop” curls. If you got the ends curled a little too much, you can flatiron those but JUST the very .5″ – 1″ ends.

ET VOILA!