My Curly Hair Journey
- Amber Caceres
- Feb 7, 2020
- 4 min read
Having curly hair is a journey to say the least. My curly hair has always defined who I was. When I was a little girl, I always wore my curly hair out with pride and never thought twice about it. However, growing up in a Dominican household, it was inevitable for me to not straighten my hair. In Dominican culture, curly hair is seen as “pelo pa la playa” which translates to beach hair. The literal translation of curly hair in Spanish is frizzy. I don’t know about you but having ‘frizzy hair’ is not the best compliment. When I was growing up curly hair was not represented in the media. All of the Latinas I saw growing up had luscious blow outs. Almost as if having natural hair was a sin! Without being exposed to other Latinas that had the same hair texture as me, I felt like an outcast. It took me a while to realize that everyone with my hair type was hiding under their years of relaxer and blowouts.
It wasn’t until my kindergarten graduation when my mom took me to a salon to straighten my hair for the first time. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to see how I'd look. After two and half hours of hair tugging, scalp burning machines, and one lollipop later, I was presented with long shiny dark brown hair. I fell in love instantly! I couldn’t believe my eyes: it made me feel like a Disney princess. I somehow developed a subconscious thought of ‘straight hair=beauty.’ Almost as if my curly hair didn’t exist anymore. Ever since that day, I would go to the salon every Saturday morning. The salon became my mom and I’s Saturday routine. Sadly, due to all of the heat and relaxer that was applied to my hair (yes relaxer I know!), my curls slowly started to fade away. Once I started to lose my curls, I felt even more insecure wearing my hair out.
Fast forward to high school, I had no sense of hair identity. I started to experiment with hair dye and decided I wanted to go blonde. With years of heat damage and hair tugging, dying my hair should have been the last thing on my list but I was an anxious 15-year-old ready for a change. As expected, my hair was dry and brittle after putting that chemical mess in my hair. At that point, I just knew I needed to give my hair the TLC it deserved! I started to do my research and discovered that all of the products I was using contained many harmful ingredients such as sulfate and parables that were destroying my curls. Growing up, there were very few products for curly hair and a lot of hair products had chemicals that would dry out my hair all together. So before my senior year of high school, I did the big chop. I was so scared and couldn’t envision myself with short hair even if I tried. I then bought Shea Moisture Curl Enhancement Smoothie and Cantu Styling Cream to see what that would do. After two months I started to see the difference in my hair, it was so much softer and my curls were filled with moisture. I completely stopped going to the salon and would only get my hair straightened for the holidays or once every 3 months. Cutting back on heat and doing weekly hair masks is what really helped my hair flourish.
Once my hair was restored I was focused on length and color. After a year of being all natural, I still kept up with my research and branched out to different products such as Miss Jessies, Aunt Jackies, DevaCurl, and Ouidad to find the perfect combo. It felt like a never ending experiment with my curls and still is! Since I wanted my hair to grow from the big chop I would put oils in my scalp to enhance my hair growth and was able to see some results. I enjoyed seeing my roots start to grow out so fast due to the lack of heat and new products. After revamping my hair routine, I was still set on going blonder but I knew I had to be smart about it. I started to dye my hair every four to six months to play it safe until I reached my desired color. I am still trying to achieve the perfect blonde but I am very close to it!
Ever since I was a little girl I was defined by the locks that grew out of me. Even though I was born with it by chance, embracing every inch was a choice. In the past few years I have seen the curly hair community grow and inspire so many to embrace their curly hair identity. It doesn’t matter if you are starting your curly hair journey now, later, or have many moons ago: there are so many products and tools that can work for you!
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