Curly Girl

So I finally read this hair changing book and I'd like to share what I thought. I pretty much only have awesome things to say about it.

Now if you read my previous no-poo post, you know my hair story. It's been a struggle for me to love this hair, but this is the hair God blessed me with and it's time for me to embrace it and this book really helped me do that. 

The whole philosophy of the book is, you've been given curly hair for a reason, quit straightening it, love it, it's beautiful. And just reading it was healing after struggling with not being straight haired my whole life. 

The book goes into great detail about diagnosing what kind of curly hair you have and how to care for your specific kind and even has "potions" you can make to use on your hair. Word to the wise: be careful with the heavy cream one. :) 

So I've been doing the Curly Girl routine for a couple of weeks or so now, along with the no-pooing (they work really well together) and it's going great! Every time I start to feel a little afraid and have the urge to straighten, I remind myself that God blessed me with this hair and I'm going to love it and for the most part, it's been great.

God has blessed me with little compliments from people along the way. On one particularly insecure day a girl at Firehouse Subs told me she thought it was awesome that I didn't straighten it and I almost cried. (Yes, I'm that emotional.) And then today one of my students said, "Mrs. Schell, with a monsoon of respect, you have the curliest hair I think I've ever seen." And another said, "It's awesome." 

So I'm getting there. It's hard to let go of that straight haired ideal that you've been sold your whole life, but it's coming. I can feel it, one more step toward self acceptance. 

Granola Crunchin Hippie

Yup I'm going to do it. I'm going to no-poo. Have you heard of this movement? You probably have because apparently I'm a little late getting on this train.

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The Hair Story


I have always struggled with my hair. Well since the 6th grade. And I think that counts as a long time. I remember the day it went crazy curly. I went to the hair salon. She cut it and let it air dry and I had someone else's almost kinky curly hair. Back then, they didn't have a lot of products to tame that, so I endured the next few years with a lot of teasing and being made fun of. And if you think that doesn't leave some scars on a middle school girl's psyche, then you know nothing about preteen girls and how they grow up and turn into women with scars from their preteen years. So yeah. I'm a little insecure about my hair. 


The last year or so I've been straightening parts of my hair, mostly the bangs and keeping the rest of it in looser curls. But recently I got a haircut that I wasn't too thrilled with and felt like the haircut and God were pushing me to just go back to what He gave me naturally and to love it, eventually. 


Side note: I'm really working on it. I'm really working on being ok with the way God created me. I think that's really important, ladies. He created us a certain way for a certain reason, with the kind of hair, shape, whatever  because He loved that and saw that as beautiful. When we wish that away or hate it or want it to change, we're hating what He created and that's sad. I think it makes Him sad. So I'm getting there and He's helping me. 


So, first I went back to all curly. It was a struggle with the bangs at first, but now they're turning into ringlets and getting better. Then, I heard about a book called Curly Girl, which I'm about to start reading, but read about online first, which led me to read about the no-poo movement. 


The no-poo movement  can go one of three ways. First, you don't use shampoo, and to do this you can use only conditioner or only water or baking soda and apple cider vinegar. Supposedly, there is a transition period where your hair is a little more oily as it adjusts, but I'm willing to endure for the results. Plus, it's harder to tell with my hair because it's thicker. 


So Why No Poo?


Well most normal shampoos (what you buy at the store and even the fancy salon stuff) have crap in them that's really bad for your body and they strip your hair and scalp of the natural oils that are there. We've been stripping our scalps of these essential oils for so long that they're producing extra oils. And some of us (me) have developed nasty skin conditions on their scalps like eczema. The stopping of the stripping is supposed to help with that. So I'm going to try it. And if that's not enough to convince you there's the whole list of chemicals that are in most shampoos and what they do to your body. Check out this post if you want the crap scared out of you. Basically, the whole philosophy of natural skin care is, if you wouldn't eat it, don't put it on your skin because your skin is the largest organ of the body and it absorbs a lot of stuff. Really.


So today was day one of no-poo and I have to say it went really well. I did 1 tablespoon of baking soda in a bottle with 8oz of water and 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in a different bottle with 8oz water. I did baking soda first and then massaged my head in circular motions. Supposedly the whole trick with this is working the oils on your scalp down the hair shaft. Then I rinsed and it felt clean. I was surprised! Then I did the acv on the ends of my hair and it made it feel smoother. 


Styling
Now girls with curly hair can't just cut out the styling products immediately or at least this one can't. So I went to Whole Foods yesterday and got this. I was a little nervous about the name. (Kinky Curly) heehee But it turned out pretty good. No huge frizz so far. I'd prefer a cream, but this is the most natural thing I could find. I think I'll stick with it and experiment with amounts. 



So I'll keep updating about my experience with no-pooing. :) I plan to try it for 8 weeks. I'm all for ridding chemicals. Plus, it's cheap! We'll see how it goes! 




And yes as I rode down the road yesterday talking about my decision to stop washing my hair, on the way to Whole Foods, eating my natural granola bar and listening to Led Zeppelin, happy with the fact that I had on very little make up and was ok with it, I realized I'm really turning into a hippie. Who would have ever thought? 

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