Curly Hair

According to my husband I have the most curly hair he's ever seen, he's even promised me that he'd one day fund a research about changing curly hair to straight forever by tweaking the DNA structure. 

During my childhood I'd be teased as Sto. Nino or during my adolescent years, classmates especially the boys would compare my hair to a pubic hair, they'd tell me "pantihan mo buhok mo oi!" (you should wear a panty on your hair). It wasn't traumatic, I didn't take it as bullying because I agree with them. If I could tease myself without risking looking like a schizo, I would. I hated my hair. While the other straight haired girls could follow every hair trend there was, like layers and Demi Moore's bob, I was stuck to one hairstyle. Rebel as I was, I tried cutting my hair from bra line to ear-length! just imagine how epic fail that was so I gave up trying to style it and just settled on growing my hair long and tie it in ponytail forever.

That's my hair story. Fast forward to 20 years, I met a filipina hair stylist from San Francisco. I introduced to her the miracle of collagen powder and in exchange she invited me to visit her salon and she'd fix my hair. 

Before starting to do anything with my hair, she asked me what I want and how I wanted to cut it. It was refreshing because normally when I sit on a salon chair the stylist won't ask me anymore because with my curly hair it seems like there's already two template for that, either to just trim it or straighten it thru rebonding. But she was different so I confessed to her that I've always wanted a bangs ever since the Duran Duran era and I want a wash and wear hair style but still looking beautiful. AND I didn't have a budget for $$ hair rebonding. She was honest and shared to me a helpful wisdom, "girl there's no such thing as wash and wear and beautiful. If you want to look good you have to give time for it!", followed with "listen if you want bangs, you have to promise me first that you'd give 5 minutes for your hair before I cut it". She's a mom of two kids too so she understood me and taught me how I can fix my hair in max 5 minutes. We agreed and she started doing highlights on my hair, she cut the rebonded parts to define my curl better and for the first time ever, I had a side bangs! OMG! for the first time ever I left a salon feeling great and new without killing may hair's keratin. As an added bonus she taught me how to groom and shade my eyebrows and assured me that when I became an expert with my 5 minute routine, I'd be able to squeeze in that eyebrow grooming in that limited amount of time.

The 5 minutes routine includes blow drying my bangs, ironing it straight, putting some curl booster cream on the rest of my hair and I just leave it wet. If I'm pressed for time I just clip my bangs with a tiny hair clamp, put some curl cream and go. Since then I've said goodbye to my ponytails, if you ever see me in a ponytail now, it's because that's the style I like and not because I have to.  I'm loving my frizz-free hair now and started paying attention to the many available hair creams for curly hair. I didn't know that there were creams for activating curls and to loosen curls for days when you want beach waves.

I never thought that having a curly hair is actually an advantage because you can change hairstyle any time you want. If I have time I can straighten my hair with iron, or I can be super curly or I can have beach waves if I want to!

with the curl booster

my version of beach waves

I'm loving it! with only 5 minutes tops needed, I still get to prepare my kids without looking losyang. If you're a curly sue like me, you don't need to go hair rebonding every single time. Get the right cut and color. But first, embrace your curls and give a little time for yourself.

before, I manage my frizzy hair with stick straight middle-part and ponytail 

after, now I just blow-dry my bangs, and with curl cream for the rest, it's all set

when there's no time for blow dry or any kaartehan, just put curl booster on wet hair, when it's dry tie your hair up on a high ponytail. The curl booster will create that messy, curly ponytail. If your hair has highlights, that will give spunk to your drab hairstyle.

Now my husband can keep his money he's planning to fund his silly research.