When you’re a Graphic Designer at NaturallyCurly your responsibilities involve designing color popping emails, creating helpful tutorials and… letting us follow you around with a camera when you do anything to your hair. Luckily our designer Fran is a good sport and allowed us to film her latest trip to the salon and entertained our inquiries – like who was her inspiration and how does she maintain her high porosity hair?
What made you want to cut & color your hair?
I was a year overdue on my trim, so for the sake of healthy hair I had to go get a trim. But I wanted to keep my length, I wasn’t looking for a drastic difference. I was a year overdue on my color too, my roots had completely grown out – my entire crown of my head was black. It’s been about a year since I started working at NaturallyCurly and that was the last time I cut and colored my hair. I know I’m supposed to go twice a year but it’s expensive so I only go once year.
How’d you choose your color?
Chilli from TLC was my inspiration – she has the same skin complexion as me and similar hair to me so I figured if it worked on her then it would work on me. And a lot of Instagram stalking of girls that look like me with similar hair – I had to be sure!
What color was used on your hair?
I know the brand she used was Redken, but we didn’t deposit any color onto my hair. We just lifted the color so that it matched the ends of my hair without adding any dye to it afterwards.
How does your hair feel now?
It feels the same, it doesn’t feel any different than before. My clean ends make it feel healthier in general, I suffer from split ends so I was just happy to have the dead ends removed. I could tell the difference most when I straightened it.
Your hair is porous since you’ve lightened it – do you have to do anything special to maintain it?
Protein treatments. Thankfully when I initially colored my hair I also happened to start working at NaturallyCurly, so I had access to all of these products and I could afford to maintain the color. That was the one thing I was nervous about before coloring my hair – the amount of money I would have to spend to maintain my color-treated hair. I do a lot of masks and protein treatments whenever I can. I like the Curl Junkie Repair Me Reconstructive Hair Treatment. I basically use any mask, I do like SheaMoisture’s high porosity line and I always use the Hot Head in conjunction with my treatments.
Do you have any curly hair crushes – anyone that you look to for style inspiration?
Bwatuwant, obviously, that’s everyone’s goals. Charmsie, frogirlginny, bellejesuis – all on Instagram!
How did you find your stylist?
I found my stylist, Rahel Girma, through one of my friends who has natural hair. I noticed on Facebook that she tagged her stylist on Facebook and I saw that she’s in Austin and she has curly hair, so I thought she must know what she’s doing. She also did color on my friend’s hair so I decided to go to her.
What will you do to your hair next?
Oh my gosh! I don’t know, this is the most I’ve done. I’ve had black hair for a really long time, people don’t believe that my hair is naturally black. I think one day maybe when I’m older I’ll try short but for now it’s gonna be long and light. I’m too scared to do anything new with my hair!
For more videos like this and to see what we’re up to, subscribe to us on YouTube by following The Twist.
