Hair Story – CurlyEllie brings natural curls to life!

If you’re a mum of kids with curly, kinky or coily hair you know the struggles involved.

Wash day can literally be a nightmare…lots of complaining and whining!

‘Natural hair’ is something I’m very passionate about. Most of us have grown up to think naturally kinky hair is not beautiful and must be altered in order to fit in and live up to society’s ideals.

For me it is extremely important that we instill a sense of value to our kids.

Children develop their self-esteem through what they are taught and constantly told.

I’ve been stopped numerous times in the street and told “oh I wish my daughter’s hair was like yours, my daughter’s hair is terrible”. Seriously!!! in front of your daughter. And we wonder why our girls come home crying because someone made fun of their hair!

As mums we ought to teach our little girls to be confident in their own skin and embrace their hair (whatever texture or type it is) as it naturally grows out of their scalp.

My passion is to encourage mums and help teach them how to take care of their little girl’s hair.

All you need is the right products, a good hair regimen and PATIENCE!

My best friend introduced me to her friend Kat who was struggling with her little girl’s hair.

Kat’s story:

A mixture of Indian and Carribean; my daughter Annaliese has absolutely beautiful hair.

When she was a baby her hair was straight and easy to manage and then she started to have curls.

But beautiful curly hair soon started to become my worst nightmare. As Annaliese got older and very reluctant to getting her hair done; curly long hair was fast becoming too much for me to handle and I dreaded having to do her hair everyday.

I have always been told that “hair is a girls beauty”. But why did I not feel like that for my Annaliese? Every girl should feel beautiful and confident with their hair, right? Right.

I had no idea what products to use, so I bought some hair products from the black hair shop. They didn’t work well with her hair and they also stripped my nail polish off, yikes!

I was seriously contemplating using a chemical relaxer to straighten her hair and make it more manageable.

So…during my turmoil, I had a conversation with my friend who advised me not to go down that road.

She later introduced me to Lola and we took a trip to her house for a hair tutorial using CurlyEllie products.

I had a chat with Kat and explained why I wouldn’t advocate using a chemical relaxer. The solution is to find the right products and learn the techniques to help take care of Annaliese’s hair.

Kat was a little worried Annaliese would cry while I did her hair as that is the norm. Now this is where the right products, techniques and patience comes in.

Annaliese’s hair had been in a bun all week and was really dry and tangled.

annaliese-curly-ellie-11

annaliese-curly-ellie

It’s time to transform Annaliese’s hair with the help of my favourite CurlyEllie Hair Products.

STEP 1 – PRE-POO

(mixture of conditioner and water in a spray bottle)

Curlyellie nourishing conditioner

One of the main benefits of doing a pre-poo prior to shampooing is it helps to detangle the hair.

Detangling can be torture if done incorrectly. It is a vital step in any curly haired girl’s regimen as it is what causes the most discomfort to your child. Making sure to gently remove tangles and single-strand knots also helps to retain length.

This is a really important step and should not be rushed. The hair is also more elastic which helps reduce breakage.

HOW-TO

Section the hair into four and saturate each section with your pre-poo.
Use your fingers to detangle hair section by section, follow with a wide-tooth comb until the whole hair is fully detangled. Twist or braid each section.
Cover hair with a plastic for 5-10 minutes (you can leave it for up to 30 minutes if you have more time).
Rinse each section thoroughly and retwist or braid.

STEP 2 – SHAMPOO

I also like to shampoo hair in sections as opposed to washing the entire hair in one go.

You are likely to end up with a tangled mess and we don’t want all the hard work we’ve done from the pre-poo to go to waste!

So working with the same 4 sections from the pre-poo.

HOW-TO

Working one section at a time, wet hair, apply a small amount of shampoo to your hands.
Apply the shampoo to the scalp massaging in small circles and slowly move down the shaft of the hair
Once all the sections are completed, thoroughly rinse each section and retwist.

STEP 3 – CONDITION

HOW-TO

Apply conditioner to each section of hair until all the hair is coated
Use a wide-tooth comb or brush to detangle
Leave conditioner on hair for 5 -10 minutes (up to 30 minutes if you have more time)
Rinse hair thoroughly
Use a towel or cotton t-shirt to gently blot hair.

STEP 4 – STYLE

HOW-TO

Apply the detangling spray liberally through damp hair. Do not rinse out.
Follow with the curl defining leave-in conditioner.
Still working with my sections, I apply a generous amount of the curl defining leave-in conditioner and work it into the hair, paying special attention to the ends of the hair.
I rake my fingers through the hair to separate the curls until the entire head is done.
Leave to air dry.