It’s funny how people tend to want what they don’t have. I’ve always been envious of those with curly hair. It seemed so versatile and I loved the natural volume that was lacking in my bone straight hair. However, aside from a few perms in the late 80s and early 90s, curly hair and me were just not meant to be.
The Journey of Curly Hair Begins
When we had our daughter, I was so hoping she’d get some curls from Frans’ side. Munchkin came out with straight hair that would only get a slight wave when wet. It stayed that way until just recently. As soon as she hit puberty, her hair suddenly started to grow in curly! We noticed this about 1-1/2 years ago.
So, now, my daughter only has about 4-5 inches of curl and the rest is straight. When her hair is wet, she even gets a few ringlets here and there. When we were in Florida, the humidity made the curls go wild!
Just learning to work w curls. DD’s once straight hair now has about 4″ of curl, even some ringlets! #LoveYourCurls pic.twitter.com/7xI7GrSlgJ — TerriAnn van Gosliga (@cookiesANDclogs) May 21, 2015
However, dealing with curly hair is not as easy as I had originally imagined it would be. Air-drying makes her hair frizz out like crazy, she often gets knots, and having various textures throughout has made it tough to figure out nice hairstyles. I really want her to like her curls but it’s been such a challenge since it’s all new to me too.
Dove Hair’s “Love Your Curls”
Apparently, the struggle to embrace curly hair is one that many face. Studies have found that only 4 out of 10 little girls think their curly hair beautiful and only 10% of women in the U.S. feel proud of their curls. That’s so sad! To encourage all women and girls to love their curls, Dove Hair has started a new “Love Your Curls” campaign. The aim is to help women to love their curly hair and pass that on that confidence to their daughters.
The Love Your Curls book is tribute to those with curly hair. Dove Hair was inspired by thousands of stories of real women and, together with author Taiye Selasi and illustrator Annick Poirier, created this lovely collection of poems. The intention is to “represent and inspire curly girls of all ages.” You can get the hard copy of Love Your Curls on Dove’s site, Amazon, or iTunes. Or, download the free e-book at http://promo.dove.us/loveyourcurls/. Online there is the option to personalize the story with your daughter’s name, photo, and other small details.
Dove Hair also offers a line specifically for curly hair. We only received the Dove Quench Absolute shampoo, conditioner, hair mask, and serum a couple of days ago but already my daughter’s hair looks better. She even feels comfortable enough to wear her hair down and curly versus just pulling it back in a braid like she usually does. Maybe with a little encouragement, we can help all little girls and women love their curls.
Do you and/or your daughter(s) love your/their curls?
Disclosure: Partnered post brought you by Dove Hair and The Motherhood. All opinions are my own.
6 comments
I hope this happens to my daughter because both myself and my husband have curl hair and she came out with the straightest hair ever!
As for getting her to love her curls, the best advice I have is to give it TIME. For me it took a lot of trial and error to get my curls just right. A few things I do: only use a wide tooth comb, stop using shampoo (only condition and LOTS of it), apply oil right after gently drying hair and then dont touch your hair any more!
Now see, I NEVER would have thought of that. I only have regular brushes and never understood what the fat combs were for 😛 Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, puberty is a VERY weird time when changes happen a mile a minute. It’s interesting but scary because you don’t know what’s happening from one minute to the next…and neither does the teen!
I feel her pain! I had stick straight hair growing up that wouldn’t really hold a curl to save it’s life. Then when I hit puberty, it started to get a giant S-wave and by the time I graduated from high school, it was this crazy frizzy semi-curly, semi-wavey hot mess that I didn’t know what to do with it, since I had straight hair growing up. I’m now 29 and it has thinned significantly, is still frizzy and not voluminous at all 🙁
Thank you for sharing that. I’ve been feeling horrible not knowing how to help her with her hair. I’ve asked friends from different background for advice but we’re still trying to find something that works. Surprisingly, these Dove products did at least improve things (and I’m so not saying that just because I did this campaign with them). Sorry to hear that you still don’t love your hair. As far as I can tell, you have some pretty locks 🙂
You just have to find what works best for her hair, as not all curly is the same! I don’t brush my hair anymore (and honestly don’t comb it either, though I need to start doing that in the shower every once in awhile to get the loose hair out!) if she has fine, thin or limp hair, don’t use oil or any heavy gels, as it will weight it down (unfortunately cremes can sometimes, too). For me, a lightweight curl defining mousse and some time with the diffuser, then a few spritzes of scrunch spray and I call it a day! My hair is really long now (getting ready to donate), so it’s harder to manage, but when it’s shorter, it’s so much easier!
I had no idea about the difference in product. Since only half of her hair is curly, it’s still tough to figure out which part is curling or not 😛 She had actually has tons of hair and it’s long so it takes forever for me to flat iron it. She has no interest in doing her own hair much yet.
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