Curls! You know the story – whoever doesn’t have them wants them, and whoever has them hates them. Yep – that was 100% me for the first 33 years of my life.
We all have our reasons for failing to embrace our god given mane, but for me, it boiled down to two things…
- When I was 19, I was in a bar, getting my flirt on, feeling fab, thinking I was in with a red-hot chance, when hot bar guy dropped this bomb, “You’d probably be attractive if you didn’t have clown hair. Have you ever thought about straightening it?” Gutted, my 19yo self, swore an oath that I would never let a potential suitor see my curls again.
- TBH, I probably did look like a clown. I had zero idea how to control my curls, or make them look nice, so I would just get annoyed and tie my hair back. Boring!
So what was my lightbulb moment? I had been married for four years and my husband had NEVER seen my curly hair (and I have VERY curly hair), I would wash my hair twice a week and sit on the couch straightening it – three hours it took! Three hours, twice a week. And if it rained, I would turn into a grumpy wife who refused to go out, constantly in fear that my hair would betray me and curl up at the slightest sign of condensation. That’s not living. That’s ridiculous!
In 2014 we went on a two week Christmas Cruise to the Pacific Islands, with our then 2yo son. I couldn’t straighten my hair every day, I was on a cruise FFS, ain’t nobody got time for that.
My husband finally saw my curls and fell in love with them, “Why did you ever hide them?? I’ve never seen you look more… you!”
Suddenly I was no longer worried about my hair getting wet. Suddenly I was not checking every five seconds whether there was a strand out of place. Suddenly I was happy with my natural hair. It had taken me this long to accept, but my husband was right (yep, miracles do happen!), my curls are me, or a part of me at least, and I was ready to show the world.
Since that fateful cruise, I have dedicated myself to learning everything I could about having curly hair. How to look after curls, how to style them and above all, how to love them! I won’t say I became an expert overnight, I won’t even say I haven’t been tempted on occasion to reach for the straightener, it has been a transition, but a transition that I am so happy I decided to embrace.
In the last five years I have not touched a hair straightener, I have not used shampoo and I have made a number of simple changes that have turned my curls from clown wig, to beautiful, defined and loved.
Aussie Curls was born out of the realisation that there are so many amazing curly haired men and women in Australia who are suffering from curl shame, just like I was! Now is the time to change all of that forever. It’s time to love our curls, time to care for our curls and time to EMBRACE OUR CURLS.
Stick around – the Australian curl revolution is coming.
