I write this review as I sit here with my conditioner-laden, oh-so-defined teeny weeny afro in air dry mode. I've just finished reading "Curly Like Me" and I want to scream from the rooftops: "I've uncovered the Holy Grail of natural afro-textured hair care!!!"
If you're 1/10th as skeptical as I am when it comes to claims of a great hair technique, you'll want to know my credentials to see whether or not I'm qualified to make such a bold claim.
I'm biracial. My father is black and my mother is white. However, growing up, when asked the infamous "What are you?" question - all you mixed chicks know what I'm talking about - I would always apologetically suffix my reply with "...but I just don't have biracial hair". My brother has jet black big loose curls, but from infancy I was dubbed the one with the "bad hair" (not by my loving parents however, just the rest of the world). I believed it mind, body and soul. Why else would my evil hairdresser aunt force a relaxer on me when I was but a preschooler? Something must be very very wrong with my hair, I thought, since even with a relaxer it was an unruly Simba-mane. (I really did look like I belonged on The Lion King).
So, up until 10 months ago, I thought I couldn't live without the relaxer. Then one day several months ago, I decided to stretch my standard every 3 or 4 month relaxer fix by doing straw sets since it was so damaged. Time kept going and soon I was 6 then 7 months post, but with no thoughts of going natural. Then on month 8, a funny thing happened. For the first time, I really felt my new growth as I was washing my hair, what's this? Then I looked at it...CURLS?!?! Tight small spirally things growing from my head? YES! MY HEAD!
I began lurking on afo-textured hair care forums and other sites and began soaking up the knowledge from the ladies in the natural hair community. But, I feared that my hair wouldn't dry curly, that it would just turn into a hard matted Simba-poof; plus there was NO WAY I wanted to cut my hair.
About six weeks ago I heard about Teri LaFlesh and her method for the first time as I was lurking on a hair forum. I went to her Tightly Curly website, and I saw this biracial chick with hair to her butt. My instinctual reaction: jealousy and shame. All the feelings of my childhood rushed back. As a child, I would see biracial children with beautiful curls, soft and flowing or tight and spirally and I would be overcome with jealousy. I would see their hair flow down their backs whereas my relaxed ends seemed to be allergic to touching my shoulders and broke off at the sight of them.
What could this little hair queen teach me, I wondered. Surely our hairs have nothing in common! Then I saw her photo history; then I was floored. Her hair used to be a matted, relaxed Simba-explosion, like mine! Not a pretty cottony afro, not kinky spirals, but an evil, crunchy broken poof! I came to see that with her many hair disasters she could relate to me, and I began to become a Tightly Curly convert.
Fast forward a few weeks later as I waited with bated breath on THIS book to be released. At the end of April I snapped it up and bit into it like a...like a...like a person who really wanted to bite into something!
One day when I was reading it, I tried my Herbal Essences Hello Hydration on a bit of my hair where the relaxer had broken off to see if it would make curls and dry like that. I didn't think it would work. But it did!!! I began to see that other natural chicks with even tighter curls had done the method and experienced success. The scales began to drop from my eyes and I began to appreciate that there really is no such thing as "bad hair" after all. I came to appreciate that any hair that is healthy, happy and loved by its owner is "good hair", and I wanted good hair too.
Though the Tightly Curly Method is explained on the website, it is explained in greater detail in the book. I especially love the "Choosing Shampoos & Conditioners: What to Avoid" sections in the book as, since I don't live in the States, only a few of the recommended shampoos and conditioners are available. The book empowers me to find my own POOs and COs with in the recommended guidelines.
Teri has also gone to a lot of trouble uncovering hair and ingredient myths. Also, she describes on a molecular level what you're really doing when chemically altering your hair. I'm no scientist so I can't attest to the accuracy of her statements. However, I can say that what she had to say was scary enough to make me never want to hurt my hair with relaxers again. Ever.
I had originally planned to transition for another 6 months or so. But less than a week ago, when I was nearly done with the book, I was convinced that there was no reason for me to hold back. So, on that fateful Saturday afternoon of, May 1, 2010, I cut, I conditioned, I defined and I left in. FINALLY SOMETHING THAT WORKS!!!
I wish she had included in the book exactly how she came to discover this method, but that doesn't take away from the fact that this method works.
And so, dear reader, if you have tightly curly hair, do yourself a favour and purchase this book. Your hair will thank you, and it will thank Teri.
To Teri LaFlesh, thank you so much. My hair wants to be just like yours when it grows up.
To my hair, I promise from now on to love you unconditionally but always with plenty conditioner!
