At the grand old age of 32, I’ve finally embraced my curls.
I’ve realised that people buy all sorts of curling tongs to get hair like mine, whilst up until recently, I’ve done everything I can to get rid of them. They always used to seem wild and unkempt and frizzy.
I used to get up, have a shower, blow dry my hair and then spend half an hour straightening it, using my trusty GHD straighteners. I’ve had them for about nine years now and they’re still going strong. They were one of the best presents my parents ever bought me – the fact they could turn my big curls into sleek straight locks was nothing short of a miracle!
Now that I’m a parent and have three kids to get ready in the morning, some part of my routine had to give. It was going to be skincare, hair or makeup. Now, skincare is a complete non-negotiable with me, and I look like something from The Walking Dead without makeup on, so that wasn’t going anywhere. The hair part of my routine was what was going to have to be tweaked.
I got into a terrible habit of chucking it into a mum-bun, but I hate feeling mumsy, and that’s how I felt constantly. It was time to embrace the curls!I tried out the Curly Girl Method for a while, but that seemed to add even more time into my routine rather than cut it down, so I decided to take a few elements from that and devise my own way of doing it, which seems to have worked.
I wash my hair three times a week as normal in the shower, with shampoo and conditioner. I don’t use anything fancy – my hair seems to love the Alberto Balsalm stuff. I then use a deep conditioning mask once a week, which I leave on for about 10 minutes. Once I’m out of the shower, I don’t use a towel to dry it because it frizzes up – I comb it through with a wide tooth comb and add a curl activation cream and some mousse. I then tip my head upside down and ‘plop ‘ it – squish my curls onto the top of my head and wrap an old cotton t-shirt around them. This helps to form the curl pattern. After twenty minutes or so, I take it out and leave my hair to dry naturally.
That’s it!
On the days in between washes, I might spray a bit of water onto my hair to refresh the curls a bit, but they generally last. Not using heat on my hair every day is helping to improve the condition of my hair, although I won’t feel guilty about the odd use of my GHD straighteners and hair dryer!
What’s your hair routine?
