How I manage my natural curly hair

by Stacie Smith
(Lee's Summit, Missouri)

These are the steps to manage my natural curly hair. The first thing I do is wash my hair. Duh! I use Sunsilk, Captivating Curls. I get it at Wal-Mart in a green bottle. They have shampoo and conditioner.

I wrap my hair in a towel for a few minutes. Then I comb it out with a wide toothed pick or comb.

After that I use a leave in cream, which is just a little thicker than normal gel. It's the same Sunsilk brand as the shampoo and conditioner.

I use a diffuser to dry my hair a little more. It gives it some volume but I don't dry it 100% because then it starts to frizz. When I diffuse the root of my hair I scrunch some of the hair into the diffuser and then rotate or twist the diffuser towards my face. That helps with the volume at the roots. My hair dresser who also has natural curly hair taught me that one.

I used to hate my hair like most people do. Everyone always wants what they don't have. But now I have come to embrace my curls and now I love my hair. It does sometimes get in the way now that it is so long and now that summer time is coming I have a feeling that my hair is going to be up most of the time.

I am thinking about cutting it shorter but I'm afraid it will look bad. It's always been about shoulder length or longer ever since I can remember.

How I Manage My Curly Hair in Different Lengths

by R.R.
(Copenhagen)

I mostly wear my hair around shoulder-lengths but during warm months I go quite short. I have normal curly hair and it tends to change the way it behaves with length. I use to get quite frustrated but then I realized that I need different products for different lengths - at least for me!

When my hair is long, my curls get dragged down by weight and lose shape. I use Aveda Be Curly style prep. It helps to lift my curls up and makes it appear more defined.

When I cut my hair shorter I use another product. I use Aveda Be Curly Curl Enhancer to control the puffiness that comes with shorter haircut. It won't make my hair to curl much up.

Perhaps Aveda is not your product. It's quite expensive and I wish I could find a cheaper replacement with same benefits. But point is that for each hair length you might consider different product.