The return of the spiral curl

In 2014 I put up a post about doing the “curly girl” method, a way of taking care of anything from wavy to super curly hair. I haven’t been hard-core about wearing my hair curly and in fact, was under the impression that shorter, layered hair was better for bringing out waves and curls. Since I’ve let my hair grow long and focused on doing various hairstyles (with posts showing photos in 2016, 2017, and 2018) I didn’t think I could achieve the same “curly girl” results (as I did with shorter, layered hair). Nonetheless I started fooling around with it again this winter and was surprised that I could still get natural curls (curls, particularly wavy ones, are typically harder to achieve in dry, cold winter).  I was delighted to see the “return” of my token Scarlett O’Hara spiral curl. It doesn’t show up all the time but I’ve been seeing it more often recently.

The very spiral-y curl is underneath other, less curly hair but I tried another photo a different day with the rest of my hair in place to show context. All the colors you see are my own; the hair underneath is MUCH darker than the top layers which grow from the crown and are, as you can see, very light.

Curly hair is dry hair and the key to bringing out nice curls is conditioning the holy hell out of it. Middle-aged hair is dry hair too so you’ve got to double down on conditioner, especially when it’s long, if you want it to look nice. In fact, some “curly girls” wash their hair with conditioner (they call it co-washing; cute no?😊) I’ve tried washing my hair with conditioner a few times and it actually seemed to produce good results. I was afraid it would just make my hair wimpy.

Lorraine Massey, author of Curly Girl: The Handbook, has a product line, DevaCurl. The products are pricey so I don’t use them exclusively but I have to put in a word for One Condition,  a rich, creamy conditioner that has made a big difference in my hair. I’m not washing my hair with the expensive conditioner; I just mean it’s good stuff as a conditioner – one I often treat as a leave-in.

4/14/19 I’m editing this post to add another, recent photo of my spiral curl, in its spiral-y glory. It just dries like that. I’m a little obsessed – how unusual for it to show up in middle age.

Fiddle-dee-dee!

Not quite two years ago I discovered the Curly Girl Method. No, it’s not a religion or a diet and it doesn’t involve selling cleaning products door to door. In short, it’s a way of taking care of your hair, for anyone – no matter their ethnicity, black or white, male or female, young or old – who has anything from a slight wave to tight coils. Here’s where it started with stylist Lorraine Massey. Nikki Walton, aka Curly Nikki is another well-known advocate.

There’s scads of information online for further reading, but the basics are: stop washing hair with sulfate-based shampoos (they create suds and strip hair of moisture which wavy/curly hair in particular needs), condition the hell out of hair, use gel, and ideally air dry.

My hair always had a wave and held curl well if I used regular or hot rollers. I liked that and had no interest in flat-ironed stick-straight hair (which magazines, Hollywood, etc., have touted for years).

There are different kinds of curly hair and I believe from my own research, that I’ve got a fickle kind (oh, that’s not the official name), meaning it’s unpredictable. It can’t be counted on to do the same thing two days in a row and further, did you know one person could have different kinds of curls on their one personal head? I know it now. Still, applying the basics of the care outlined above have made considerable improvements and brought out waves and curls heretofore unseen. I’m sold.

The thing which has most captivated me is the emergence of my one and only Scarlett O’Hara spiral curl. It resides alone on the left side of my head, beneath other hair (which is doing a variety of things, just not spiraling). I’ve never seen this before. Why is it the only one?? Why didn’t I get a batch of ’em? It comes and goes like the Cheshire cat, but here it is, with the rest of the gang pinned up out of view, on a recent day.

Fiddle-dee-dee indeed!