Every once in great a while, the Gods of Fashion send word down to the mortals that curly hair is in. And the peasants rejoice.

But, when said peasants actually look at the Fashion Gods’ pictures, they are whole-heartedly disappointed. All too often, to these arbiters of taste, “curly” means “straight with a very slight artificial wave about half-way down.” Take, for instance, these “natural-looking curls:”

And the peasants cry.

That hair is beautiful, but realistic? Hell no.

But this year, this year, goddammit, it supposedly the year of the curl. Celebrities are donning curls, stylists are throwing away the irons and magazines are telling us to “embrace our natural texture.” Too bad, for many of us, that is far easier said than done.

For a lot of us curlies, our hair has always been the bane of our existence (unless we were around in the 80’s). The 90′ s and most of the 00’s have told us that if our hair is “big,” it’s dated, or out of fashion. Curls are okay…as long as they’re flat. Which, quite frankly, natural curls are not. So, we attempt to flatten and - bottles of gel later - we don’t look fashionable; we look like drowned rats. Read More »

I know I’m not the only one who gets a little (okay, a lot) lax in the beauty department around finals week. Between papers, tests, and procrastination, my makeup and hair regime are the first things to go. Usually, it’s no problem—all of my fellow students look just as unkempt and ragged as I do around this time. But when it comes to date night with the BF or an early meeting at work, the last thing I need is to look as tired as I feel.

Last week, I had been up for over 24-hours straight. I finally crawled into bed two hours before I needed to be up to take a final, promising myself that I would wash my hair in the morning instead of before going to sleep. Needless to say, when the alarm clock buzzed, I hit the snooze, forgetting all about the product-overload-induced greasy hair I was sporting. By the time I got myself out of bed, I had 15 minutes to make my bus. I panicked, picturing myself walking into work after my final donning a pencil skirt, nice blouse…and a baseball cap on top of my head.

But before I ran out the door in a panic, I stopped it. My lifesaver—Batiste Dry Shampoo. Sure, it says on the bottle that it “refreshes and revitalizes hair between washes,” but I hoped it could also work its magic instead of a wash. I flipped my hair over, sprayed generously, and massaged it in, before brushing it out. The result? Well, besides smelling like clean laundry—clean-feeling, soft, hair that was full of the body it was used to. I threw the bottle in my purse just in case I needed a touch-up in between work and a date with the boyfriend, but there was no need. Read More »