Notes On Our Hair

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Tightly Curly Method

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When I made peace with my hair, I made peace with myself.

I believe hair is highly political.

In an instant people can gather ideas about you and your personality-- even your politics-- from how you wear your hair. A big afro, locs, mohawk, straightened hair, or natural curls all say something different about who we are. Hair is often way more than just hair.

Our hair is different.

Our tightly coiled hair is like no other hair type. When we don’t know what to do with it, it can make us feel frustrated, marked, ashamed. While growing up, we may be raised by those who don’t know what to do with it. Combing sessions at the hands of other people can be ordeals as they rip a comb through our curls, tearing the hair from our scalps. The pain can make us feel we are cursed, especially after watching how easily the comb glides through the hair of others. Especially if we are raised among straight-haired people, such as those of us growing up among those of a different race, or who are transracially adopted. As we get older, we are left to deal with our tight curls on our own. We find they explode into a fuzzball when we try to comb them in the way we may have seen family members, friends and people on television do. It’s easy to want to do anything possible to just force our hair to just act like everyone else's hair.

However, our hair is it’s own unique entity. It does not want to be repressed. It does not want to be forced to look like someone else's hair. It wants to curl, and be it’s own creature – not an imitation. The moment we let it go, set it free, it blooms. It can finally be itself. If we can learn to embrace the hair we have, the hair we were born with, it will reward you many times over. The energy spent fighting it will be so much more constructively spent working with it instead. Both you and your hair will thrive.

Show off your hair's uniqueness.

Throughout adolescence I felt my hair was impossible, that there was nothing I could do with it and I hated it ferociously. When I finally learned how to take care of it, I’ve found there are so many things I can do with it. Now I am proud to wear the curls I was born with. And I can wear it in ways only very curly hair can be. So I wanted to put out a few ideas here on ways to embrace your curls, and do things with your hair that no one else can do. The book will have an entire style gallery, complete with illustrated steps for many styles, but here are a few things that you can easily do with natural curls that would be very difficult for others to do:

BIG

You can make your hair huge. So big it takes up doorways when you walk through them. Hair like that is difficult to ignore.

TWISTS

You can put your hair in thick twists, without needing rubber-bands to keep them from untwisting.

SETS

Natural hair is easy to set. Here it is set into waves. I first lightly (and very gently and carefully) finger-combed my dry hair, spritzed it with a little water, then put it in two French braids and slept in it over night. When I undid it in the morning, this is how it looked. No gel, sprays, or lotions needed. It stays like this for days to a week or more.

NATURAL

This is my favorite way to wear my curls. It's easy to care for, and I enjoy seeing all the shapes my spirals take on their way out of my scalp. You can pin it back with some height and not need to tease it or spray it all.