Search Results: NaturallyCurly

Curls and kinks were scarce, but there were plenty of luscious waves at the 60th Emmy Awards Sept. 21, from Kyra Sedgewick’s retro Hollywood ‘do to Brooke Shields’ long, flowing tendrils to Sandra Oh’s wavy updo. Unfortunately, some of our favorite curly stars opted for sleek straight looks, such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lisa Edelstein. Many straight-haired actresses opted for more textured looks, including reality star Lauren Conrad.

In an American Express print ad, fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg says her epiphany moment was “The day I decided to let my hair go naturally curly.”

10 Ways to Celebrate International Curly Day

When NaturallyCurly.com was founded 10 years ago, we declared the first day of fall, September 22 this year, as International Curly Day. We wanted to set aside a day for us curlyheads across the globe to glorify our curls and kinks, revel in our ringlets Can’t think of a way to celebrate? Check out these 10 playful things to do on this special day.

Throughout our 10th anniversary year, look for special Top 10 lists every month.

1″> SHARE the International Curly Day celebration video with straight and curly-haired friends!

2″> LOOK for 10 curlyhead strangers who have a great style. Take 30 seconds out of your day to compliment their curls. Bring on the brag!

3″> THROW a curly swap soiree. You don’t have to spend a bundle to try new curl-boosting products. Sort through your own cache of items in your vanity and pull out the ones that don’t really work for your curls. They just might be perfect for another curlyhead. Ask your curly friends to do the same, and invite them over for cocktails or coffee. Start swapping!

4″> CREATE a curly inspiration collage with a child to build a sense of curl empowerment. Start with a stack of magazines, cut out pictures of curly role models (celebrities, musicians, or anyone who represents anything related to curls”> and paste them onto a poster board in a creative way. Voila! Instant inspiration!

5″> PAY IT FORWARD and donate curl-nurturing products to a womens’ shelter. Your generous gesture is sure to put a smile on the faces of women who are struggling to find their way and regain their confidence. It feels oh-so-good to give!

6″> EXPERIMENT with a new, sassy style. If you have precious little time to fuss with your curls, try time-saving tricks that will simplify a sensational style in a snap!

7″> ENJOY your favorite curly pasta at an Italian restaurant that you’ve always wanted to try. Well, there’s no time like the present. Consider savoring a dish of eliche (spirals”>, gemelli (twin twists”> or fusili (long twists”>. Bon appetit!

8) START a gratitude journal . . . for your curls. Come up with 10 reasons why you love your curls for your first entry. Then, every time you receive a curl compliment (or want to give yourself one!”>, jot it down. When you need a shot of confidence, open up your journal and smile.

9″> PAMPER your curls with a deep-conditioning treatment to bring back the longed-for luster. What better way to show your curls you love them? Not sure what ingredients are best for your textured tresses? Learn more about moisture-rich ingredients here.

10″> SHOWCASE your curly pride with an item emblazoned with artist Will Heron’s NaturallyCurly.com design, created especially for International Curly Day! Sure to be the curly “It” item for 2008!

BY SARA VILKOMERSON

From the New York Observer, Sept. 2

In the upcoming film “The Women,” a remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic that’s been re-imagined by writer-director Diane English, Meg Ryan’s hair could be billed as a supporting character to its gaggle of stars: Annette Bening, Cloris Leachman, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Candice Bergen, Eva Mendes and, of course, Ryan. When we meet her character, Mary, she’s a kind of superhero suburban mom — stretched violin-string-thin between charitable committees, parenting and grouting her bathroom floor — and The Hair is long and exceedingly ringlety. In classic Meg Ryan fashion, Mary flits charmingly if exhaustedly between her myriad responsibilities, The Hair showing the kinetic energy she’s expended in contrast to her best friend, Sylvia (Bening”>, a high-powered magazine editor, who sports a perfectly smooth and polished coif. By the end of the film, after Ryan’s character has had to go through the obligatory soul-searching with a montage of pulling-her-life-back-together moments, she emerges with The Hair sleek and straight. And we know: Hey, she’s O.K.!

It’s an easy visual trick from Hollywoodland: a few adjustments in wardrobe, makeup and, most important, hair, and, voilà! Life’s good! Or, at least, getting better. Call it the The Princess Diaries effect, a film that seven years later still causes outrage — remember the first thing done to transform Anne Hathaway into appropriate-looking royalty? But why, many naturally curly-headed gals might be forgiven for wondering, does frizzled always equal frazzled? And how come a third-act makeover always seems to involve a flatiron?

“Meg and I talked about Mary, and the kind of differences between the original film — which was very cosmopolitan — and this one. Meg felt that Mary should be very earthy,” said Jonathan Hanousek, a celebrity stylist who was in charge of Ryan’s locks throughout the filming of The Women. “She wanted the sense that her appearance was not something she lingered on, and that her focus was devoted to her life and her daughter.”

Well, O.K., but as anyone who’s had to wake up with a tangled nest of curls could tell you, those gorgeous Botticelli tresses Ryan sports for the majority of the movie would certainly not have come easy. (“There was some time involved,” Hanousek admitted.”> And besides, since when does having curly hair make one earthy? Neither have we found in our unscientific gatherings that curly hair necessarily translates to being unconcerned about one’s appearance, or more romantic, wild, creative, or crazy and lusty. (Oh, Glenn Close, your fine performance in 1987’s Fatal Attraction set back more than the 30-something single woman. Did you think about us naturally curly girls?

“It’s all about being groomed and in control, isn’t it,” said Kerry Warn, a veteran movie hair designer who has worked repeatedly with Nicole Kidman (who sadly has never returned to the glorious, counterintuitive head of spirals from her Dead Calm and Days of Thunder era”>, and recently designed the coiffures of all the actors on the upcoming Baz Luhrman film Australia. “What you see and perceive is many times unspoken,” he said, pointing out that by quickly using visual clues — like curly hair — an audience is able to make all sorts of quick inferences about who a person is and what they’re all about.

Hanousek said that he has many female friends with curly hair and that he thought it was the “ultimate in confidence and strength. I don’t perceive those women to be frazzled.” And yet, when it came time to make Meg’s character emerge triumphant from the fray, straight her hair went. “We had to show the passing of time,” he explained, pointing out that Ryan’s wardrobe also became sleeker. “It was just to signify that she had gotten her life under control.” Of course, a wrinkled shirt and curly hair shouldn’t necessarily give off the same impression (trust us, even if our shirt is perfectly ironed, our hair retains the same amount of wave.”>. So, chicken or egg: Is pop culture a mirror for our society’s straight-ist attitude toward hair, or is it helping to perpetuate it?

“I think it’s an important issue. We’re bordering the line of almost becoming a myth that if you have straight hair you are more professional or appear to be more professional, and that’s truly not the case,” said Ouidad, a pioneer in the pro-curly-hair movement since 1984, author of Curl Talk, and owner of the tony 57th street eponymous salon.

Like Ouidad, curly hair guru and author Lorraine Massey, founder and co-owner of Devachan Salon & Departure Lounge (which has the impressively punny and popular No Poo hair care line”>, preaches to the naturally curly to try to embrace their ringlets rather than quell them. “This whole pathetic straightening religion … it’s modern-day slavery,” said Massey, who is a passionate believer in her cause. “Everyone is trying to hide from their heritage—it’s anthropological. It goes very deep.”

Massey was still livid over a recent run-in with the producers for Bravo’s Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style, which provides makeovers to the fashion-challenged, and who had asked her to participate. She agreed on the condition that for the final “reveal” they wouldn’t straighten the participant’s hair, something they ended up doing anyway. “They just don’t understand my view on this,” Massey said. “My whole philosophy is to not perpetuate the same crap over and over again.” Shari Harbinger, the director of education for Devachan, agreed: “Hollywood is reacting but Hollywood is also enabling this vicious cycle. Lorraine and I often refer to the drug addict and the drug dealer scenario.”

The good news is that everyone “The Observer” spoke with seemed to feel a shift was occurring for the curly-haired landscape: more wave with less stereotype. (Look at all those spiraling tresses featured in the fall J.Crew catalog!”> “I think people have to get over that straight hair,” said Warn. “Everyone is starting to look the same with this ironed hair. It’s sort of nice when you see curls; it’s almost refreshing. It looks alive again.”

In early August, “Good Morning America” aired a segment about people’s perceptions of curly or straight hair. Reporter Taryn Winter Brill went curly and straight for a panel of five “regular” men, and then did the same for job recruiters. With her own naturally curly hair she received higher marks from the recruiters on intelligence, confidence and ability to articulate ideas clearly, though from the random dudes she did better with the blow-out. (We think the message is clear from both tests: go natural!”>

“I’m seeing more curls and freedom,” said Ouidad. “We still have a lot to go, but it’s just incredible how much more there is available. Just by the products on the market, it’s apparent.’

“Hollywood will embrace this truth when the people that are behind it get it and then do what they can to reeducate the union stylists and designers,” said Devachan’s Harbinger. “This is something that we at Deva want to get involved with. It’s almost like the Democratic convention. We have to first undo years of lies, and then reeducate, motivate and guide them to the truth. The truth is that curlies can have ‘neat’ and refined curls if the people who tend to them know what they are doing. And this will in fact significantly change the perception from a false belief to a new understanding of the beauty of curly hair.”

We know, we know, this could take years. Still, we look forward to the day we see Gwyneth Paltrow on the big screen, hitting rock bottom both professionally and personally, getting made over (cue Sheryl Crow!”> with a lion’s mane of curls and then being promoted to CEO and winning the man of her dreams. Then, and only then, will we know Hollywood has learned that curls don’t have to signify frazzle. They can dazzle, too.

NaturallyCurly: How did you become interested in working with curly hair?

Michelle: Having curly hair myself, I was never happy with the cuts I got from people. They didn’t understand my hair, and I would always end up with a shelf. It wouldn’t fall right. And everybody was always trying to blow dry my hair straight, and I liked my curls.

NaturallyCurly: How did you learn how to work with curls?

Michelle: I grew up in new Jersey, which is very multicultural. I worked with a lot of different hair textures. I’ve taken classes specializing in curly hair., and tweaked what I’ve learned to get the best results. Every head of hair is completely different. I prefer to cut hair wet to put balance in and get the general shape, and then I finish it up when it’s dry.

NaturallyCurly: Did you always love your curls?

Michelle: When I was growing up, I chopped my hair off because there were no good products and nobody knew how to cut my hair. I ended up cutting my own hair because I hated what other people did to my hair. It wasn’t until my early 20s that I started playing with the curl and realizing what kind of curl I really had, and I began experimenting with different products to see what worked best with my hair. I really started enjoying my curly hair.

NaturallyCurly: What are your favorite products for curly hair?

Michelle: It depends on the curl. I really love AG re:coil for coarse curls. I’ve been playing with the Kevin Murphy line for finer curls, and really like a product called Motion Lotion. I also really love Sebastian’s new Whipped Creme. It has a lot of conditioning agents, and it keeps the curls really smooth and separate without frizz.

NaturallyCurly: Do you have any tips to help curlygirls work with their hair?

Michelle: Don’t be afraid to experiment. There are so many products to try. Always apply products when your hair is soaking wet to prevent frizz. To get volume on top, scrunch your crown when your hair upside down. You might also want to try texturizing to get the weight out and let the curls take the shape they want to take.

NaturallyCurly: What is your philosophy behind cutting curly and kinky hair?

Michelle: Don’t fight it. What’s natural is beautiful. Embrace what you have!

Since its development five years ago, Re:coil Curl Activator has ranked first out of the 44 hair products sold by Canada’s AG Hair Cosmetics. Since the product’s introduction, the company has gotten consistent requests to develop a shampoo and conditioner to go along with the curl cream, which has become a “Holy Grail” product for many curlies.

AG responded.

As AG has done in the past, the company went directly to the source. Last fall, AG posted a survey on NaturallyCurly.com to help it develop a curly shampoo and conditioner worthy of the styling product. Out of 6,500 respondents, 100 people were selected as testers.

“One of the reasons (Re:coil”> has become so successful is because, from the onset, we engaged the experts on NaturallyCurly.com to help us develop the styling product,” says John Davis, CEO and co-founder of AG. “We’ve done the same with the new Re:coil shampoo and conditioner, which will help build the foundation for luscious, healthy curls.”

The result of this effort is new Re:coil Curl Activating Shampoo and Re:coil Curl Activating Conditioner, which launched Sept. 1 — exactly five years to the day after the introduction of the Curl Activator.

The shampoo is a mild sulfate-free formula designed to retain the curl. The conditioner is designed to smooth and detangle curls. Both products contain AG’s C3* curl creating complex — a combination of rice amino acids, biofermented fruit acids and fatty acids.

Some of the information gleaned from the surveys was surprising, says Tatiana Jovic, spokeswoman for AG. For example, curlies said they would be willing to spend more on a sulfate-free shampoo. Tester feedback resulted in changes to the consistency and fragrance of the products.

AG is a big believer that you’ve got to listen to your customers. Customer input was the impetus for the creation of Re:coil Curl Activator. Davis says the company was hearing from curlies that they wanted a styling product especially for them. In doing its research, the company came across NaturallyCurly and became involved in discussions online. Samples of the company’s soft-hold cream were sent out to members to test, and adjustments were made based on their feedback.

“The rest is history,” Davis says.

A behavioral study that recently aired on “Good Morning America” found that employers are more likely to hire a woman with curly hair than a woman with straight hair. When GMA reporter Taryn Winter Brill, met with job recruiters with her hair worn naturally curly, those experts described her as being more “intelligent, articulate and displaying a higher level of confidence” than when she mirrored the interview but only altered her hairstyle to straight. Why is that? The recent study suggests that people with curly hair are thought of as “low maintenance, independent, self starters, trustworthy and go getters” — all qualities that make up an ideal job candidate.

This is no news to the proclaimed “Queen of Curls”, curl expert and author, Ouidad, who says, “My clients are strong, independent women who aren’t afraid to show their individuality. Curls give my client’s the confidence they need in today’s competitive workplace!”

With today’s dismal economy and rising unemployment rates, finding a job can be a daunting task. If curls increase one’s hire-ability, then let the ringlets take center stage.

See our recent article on curls in the workplace.

8/22/08

Earlier this week, U.S. pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski vaulted to a silver medal, her brown curls flying behind her. Stuczynski holds the American women’s record, jumping 16 feet, 1.75 inches.

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8/21/08

The Australian basketball team may have lost to the powerful U.S. team Wednesday in the quarterfinals, but at least Aussie C.J. Bruton had winning hair. Bruton shows off his texture in all its glory, whether it’s in cornrows, twists or a big bushy ‘fro.

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<8/19/08

BEIJING – The hair is unbearably short now. It is curly and cropped close to his cauliflower ears, the victim of a scissor-happy barber in Beijing. The woman wouldn’t stop cutting. Before Ben Askren knew it, 5 inches were on the floor.

This is how badly Askren wants to win a gold medal — he shed his coveted locks, his trademark — because the international guys like to pull on them when they wrestle. Unfortunately, the haircut didn’t help him accomplish his goal.

Ben Askren couldn’t get past veteran Ivan Fundora in Wednesday’s 74kg freestyle match. Fundora wins the first period 3-1, and the “USA” chants can’t help Askren. He falls behind 2-0, then 4-0.

He stands with his hands on his hips when it’s over and the Cuban moves on.

“I don’t know what you want to hear from me,” Askren says. “My dreams are crushed. I just wasn’t good enough.”

Two weeks, and he’s done in two hours. Askren says he doesn’t know where he’ll go from here. There has been talk that he’ll try mixed martial arts, but his coach, Shawn Charles, is sure Askren will be back. He couldn’t end it this way.

Read more about Askren.

Source: ESPN.com

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Laura Wilkinson has made a name for herself with her flawless 3 1/2-somersault dive from the 10-meter platform. But she’s also become known for her long, blond ringlets, which have helped make her a media darling. On Thursday, Wilkinson will try to win her second gold medal in the event. She won a gold in 2000 in Sydney, but failed to defend her Olympic title in Athens in 2004, finishing fifth. The 30-year-old diver plans to retire after this summer.

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