Nappy Kitchen

Curls, Schmurls

I think the coolest thing I've experienced since I did the big chop is the total lack of itchies I've had with my scalp. I used to have major problems with dry, itchy scalp back when I was permed; at times I would scratch certain parts of my head until I had actual abrasions. Gross I know. Needless to say I went through hell when it was touch up time. I also haven't had to actually "grease" my scalp either. I think this due to the absence of chemicals as well as no-pooing.

The other day I overheard my friend asking my mom if she liked my hair. She said no and asked her if she did. She replied, "Yeah, I think it's real cute." (That's my dog!) Then my mom says, "Yeah it is when she wets it and puts stuff on it." *insert wtf smilie here*

I knew my mom had problems with me chopping my hair. She's made lil comments since I've done it like, "Aren't you afraid of people thinking you're gay?" or "It looks much better when it's curly." My mother has a textbook case of fear of the fro disease. I guess when I have my hair picked out, I look too ethnic or boyish to her, despite this lovely rack I have that denotes otherwise. I know the length bothers her too, as she's always asking how long I think it will take to "grow back." Hell...who says I'm going to let it grow?

I would never have thought that it would bother me that she doesn't like my hair. I guess I had fooled myself into thinking she was a bit more of free thinker and didn't really subscribe to that good hair/bad hair bs. Obviously I was wrong. Oh well...gotta blow that chit off and keep trucking. I shall still be doing me.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Curl definition is GREAT. It looks lovely. Thanks to experimentation and suggestions, I know exactly what to put on my hair to get a curly look. But I'm cool with my picked out fro and have no problem rocking that in public as well. I can't be concerned with what others think and I'll be damned if I slap on globs of gel in order to make people feel comfortable with my hair in its natural state.

It amazes me that OTHERS are more concerned with my curl definition and growth than I am. Don't get me wrong...I think it will be mighty interesting to see how much and how fast my hair grows. But it's not the be all and end all. It's not the driving force in my life. I'm not expecting curl "hang time" anytime soon. It's very important to me that I learn to love and accept my hair at every length and condition. I basically don't give a fux what everyone else thinks.

My friend suggested a new product to me, and of course I couldn't resist plunking down a few dollars for it. It's Wave Nouveau Finishing Lotion. Supposedly it helps the hair retain sheen and moisture. I checked the ingredients, and as I guessed it would, it contains water and glycerine; two things that work wonders for activating my curls. I rinsed my hair with warm water, applied the lotion, and followed with some Proclaim activator gel. Of course it looked smashing while fully wet. But what I was pleasantly surprised by is the fact that it looked pretty durn decent dry. Check it out (click for bigger version):

That's the back, which tends to be a bit more unruly than the top front of my hair (which is a little 3c-ish). This was pretty much 85% dry and it still looked rather sheeny. (Don't worry about the very bottom portion...the hair there is extremely fine, coily, and rather sparse in the middle...always has been). It didn't dry into this big crunchball, which is always a plus. Usually by this time the frizz has taken over. So all in all I think the lotion/gel combo worked very well. I certainly won't do this all the time, since I like the feel of my hair sans heavy products, but it's nice when I want that shrunken curly look.

Welp, that's all for now, folks. I shall return shortly with another update.

Posted by Lisa at March 8, 2004 05:11 PM