It’s hard to think of Taylor Swift without thinking about those beautiful blond ringlets. But those signature curls once were the bane of her existence, she said in a 2008 Twist magazine article titled “My Frizzy Hair Nightmare.”

In the article, Taylor explained she used to cringe every time she looked at her hair in the mirror. She reported that once she hit her teen years, she felt like her frizz got worse every single day. She also told Twist that everyone around her seemed to have salon-perfect tresses.

“All the cool girls in school had straight hair,” she said. “All the cool girls would get out of the shower and their hair dried perfectly straight, naturally! And I’d get out of the shower and my hair would curl up and look really frizzy! Because of that, I straightened my hair in junior high and high school — felt like I had to do that to fit in.”

Going straight with her hair wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Taylor discovered it took her hours to transform her curls into bone straight, frizz-free strands. She soon decided it just wasn’t the effort.

“I realized if you’re lucky enough to have something about you that makes you different, embrace it,” she said in the Twist article. “I started letting my hair go curly, and it turned out to be something that set me apart.”

When Swift does her own hair, she adds a little product and lets her curls bounce. To control frizz, Taylor applies a defrisant, smoothing spray and/or anti-frizz serum to her hair right after she gets out of the shower.

Taylor said that sometimes her hair frizzes up while she’s performing because of the hot lights and because she gets hot and sweats. No worries for the blond performer. She has learn “to love her unruly locks” and doesn’t let it get in the way of her performing. Taylor just lets her curls be what they are.