Taming Medusa’s Hair
Beauty and Style — By browngirlmag on July 1, 2010 at 8:55 amby Shivangi Ramachandran – University of Oregon
It’s too often that our own genes ruin our lives. Ask me – I know. I’m 5 feet tall because my 5’4 father and 5’3 mother decided to have me. My giant nose sits on my face because my grandmother’s genes decided it liked my face, and then my infamous crazy, uncontrollable curly hair from my father’s side decided to make it’s way all the way down to my specific head. This is was the hair that was carefully oiled and braided when I was younger, and constrained in ponytails and buns when I was older. It was made fun of all throughout middleschool and highschool and called many different names – medusa’s hair, bird’s nest – name it and it’s been said.
We, brown girls are familiar with having this… strange hair. Especially us extra brown ones that come from South India, Sri Lanka. Too often have I bonded with cousins over our mutually gravity-defying locks. And over the years, I can say that I’ve tried everything – from straightening to rebonding, to thinning to cutting, to hair sprays and hair gels to expensive treatments I didn’t quite understand myself…and nothing has worked. It took a long time and lots of trail and error, before I figured out how to take care of my hair and how to make it work for me and my personality. And it’s my only my duty as a fellow brown girl who has got it figured out (…sort of) to help those in need, I hope to impart some of this acquired wisdom to you folks and point you in the direction of some more wisdom on how to make your curly, messy, impressive hair – more you.
1. Avoid frizz by not stripping your hair off its oil.
While oiling my hair when I was younger didn’t do wonders for my hair (or my social life), shampooing it a bazillion times a week made it worse. The hair has to keep some of its oils, and most of the time, frizzy hair make an appearance because the oil cannot slip down past the hair, due to our spiralling locks, down to the tips of hair.
Use a gentle shampoo on your hair – not everyday but a few times a week. Follow that up with a deep conditioner and if you would like, some sort of anti-frizz cream that will keep the hair saturated, frizz free, shiny, happy and healthy.
2. Away from that blow-dryer!
I spent the longest time trying to blow dry my hair, following the rest of my straight haired friends in highschool. WRONG. DO NOT try to blow dry your hair. As the name goes, all it will do is blow UP your hair into gigantic propotions.
You do need to dry your hair though, and I would recommend using a diffuser attachment to do so. Most of the time though, for me, I have seen air-drying work the best. I’m also to lazy to dry my hair every morning before school/work, so I let nature take care of it’s product and it does a good job! If it’s a non-humid day, it always ends up looking pretty good. Directly hitting your hair with hot air, in any form, is drying up the scalp all over again, and you really want to avoid doing that.
3 Don’t brush!
I’ve noticed that brushing my hair is the worst thing I can possibly do to my hair. It makes it volumous and huge(yes, I cringe when I hear those words, too!), which we REALLY don’t need. Instead of brushing, try combing your hair with large toothed combs and detangling it with your fingers.
4 Most importantly – love it!
Love your hair, embrace it! I spent way too many years trying to hide it under hoodies and caps and constraining with rubber bands and hairbands. The moment I let it go and let it become a part of who I was, my hair became my friend and stopped being evil. Curly hair is versatile – when you feel like it you can straighten it, curl it even more, make it wavy, all the while never having to worry about it looking limp. It adds oodles to your personality and when appreciated, can give you tons of confident. embrace the Inner Medusa for who she is – she has enough power to turn people into stone (with amazement and appreciation, ofcourse!)
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3 Comments
Thanks for this, it’s certainly been a problem for awhile. If I left my hair to itself, it would be frizzy, poofy, and completely tangled. I managed to tame it by blowdrying very lightly at the top of my head, so I can walk around in the cold all day without getting sick. Then I’d brush it out, spray it lightly, and then tightly wrap about 10 thick hairbands around the entire ponytail.
To do this, I’d tie one hairdye at the very tip of the ponytail, to keep it from getting tangled. Then one at the top, the next one about an inch below that one, and so forth until I reached the bottom. I ended up with something of a ninja braid, only it wasn’t braided, just had hairties in even intervals, about an inch apart. I’d leave it like this all day, then brush it out and replace the bands the next day.
And I always have one band at the very tip of the ponytail, to avoid tangles. I also keep a large-toothed comb in the shower, for use during and after shampooing. Yes, blow-drying with hot air is evil, because hot air plus wet hair equals humidity which is evil. Serums work well, but can sometimes be expensive. For special occasions, I use staightening balms with a flat-iron, which works well. But on normal days, my hair is certainly not limp, but is under control with those two hair-ties. Good luck, girls!
I loved this article. I, too, have struggled for years with my crazy, curly, thick “south-indian” hair. When I was younger my parents kept it short and combed or brushed out the tangles every day. The results were pain and poof.
As I got a little older and my hair got longer, I would still comb it but usually ended up with the same problems. The worst memory I have about my hair is when another girl made fun of it in school. I remember her saying that I needed a hair dryer and a brush or something. The truth was that I had never learned how to take good care of my frizzy locks!
My older sisters gave me a push in the right direction of hair-care. I indeed did learn the power of hair gel as well as how to blow-dry and straighten…but there was a small problem: my parents were convinced that straightening hair caused hair to turn gray prematurely and forbade me from using a hair iron more than once a month! Times have changed and my parents have loosened up, but back then the hair straightening ban was cause for many a tear.
I needed to learn to live with my hair, so by the time I was well-into my teens, I had learned to hand-comb my hair, and to use good quality hair products. I would agree to never ever take a comb or brush to curly, frizzy hair, especially when it is naturally voluminous. Use products that fit your hair type and experiment until you get the right ones. I’ve used sunsilk for years and completely love it. Also, growing hair longer can be better for the frizz- the more weighed-down your hair is, the less poof. Recently I’ve found that leaving in a hair oil before showering helps with manageability and softness.
When straightening hair, for a while I thought I could just let my hair air-dry and then attack in with a flat iron, but that actually does more damage than is necessary. Using a round brush and hair dryer concentrating heat down the shaft of hair when it is damp is THE best method for healthy, good-looking hair. A hair iron should be used after that, but as a finishing tool to fight frizz but not to iron it down until its super super flat and the ends split and look dead. Its actually one of my pet peeves to see girls -especially brown girls- do that to their hair. Sometimes I completely blow-dry and only partially straight-iron my hair so that I end up with partially voluminous hair with ends that naturally curl every which way. Most girls I know don’t do this, but I think styling hair is about finding something that works for you, and I’m really happy with my results. I agree that Hair is a part of personal style, and as we can see, there can be interesting stories behind it.
I’m glad to say that girls at school now give me compliments on my hair. =) Happy hair care to everyone and I hope your hair stories have happy ends (whether they be curly ends, straight ends, or split ends)!
Funny thing is “black” girls have similar hair issues to “brown” girls. Poofy, curly tangles. Ha! I am half jamaican and African American. I could relate to this article.