Picture Day Hairstyles on Natural Curly Hair
I have a slight obsession with pumpkin seeds. This morning the air is crisp and cool, and it is finally feeling like fall in Wisconsin. School is in full swing and this week Monday was Picture Day for my 3rd grader Giana. Followed by Crazy hair day on Tuesday. When I asked her what she wanted to do with her hair for picture day she said she wanted it straightened. My initial reaction was Noooooooo.
Love your Curls
Seeing that we have made significant efforts to ensure that our girls have mad love for their curls, it stings a bit when they show a desire to replicate a straight hairstyle. I gave it some thought and reminded her we just launched SWURLY and you want to wear your hair straight for picture day? She looked at me with her sly smile and stated “I love my curls but I just want to do something different for picture day. Plus, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen my hair straight and I want to see what it looks like.”
A healthy approach to Straightening Hair
Ultimately, I think having versatility is one of the most beautiful things about naturally curly hair, I am not trying to prevent her from trying different hairstyles.
Honestly, I was a bit curious myself about her hair length. Thus, we proceeded to spend last Sunday achieving the hairstyle of her heart’s desire. First, I reminded her of the damage that heat can cause on curls. I explained that we would counter those effects by starting the process with a deep conditioning treatment. Remembering to reinforce self-love, and we set a limit to the times we would be styling her hair in a manner that is not ideal for the health of it.
After washing and detangling her hair we applied the palmer’s coconut oil treatment. We placed a plastic cap over the conditioned hair and put our SWURLY wash day microfiber towel on top to lock in the heat. While wearing her SWURLY wash day microfiber towel, Giana could go about her business while the product worked its way into her hair cuticle. With the microfiber towel securely fastened by a SWURLY girl adorned button, she doesn’t have to worry about her damp hair dripping.
Check out her tutorial on how to wrap your hair in a SWURLY wash day microfiber towel.
While I wanted to grant her wish for straight hair. I also didn’t want to risk causing heat damage. Therefore, I did a tension method on her blow out. we only made one pass with the flat iron and we protected her curls with heat protective products along the way.
This was our entire procedure:
How to Straighten Mixed Kid’s Hair
Natural Haircare Products
- Co-Wash Hair Hello Hydration.
- We are using Palmer’s Coconut Oil Formula Deep Conditioning Protein Pack
- Cover with plastic cap
- Cover with SWURLY Wash Day Microfiber Towel
- Leave on for 30 minutes and then rinse out
- Applied Smooth Finish Blow Dry Cream, used the tension method to blow dry hair (I hold a section of the hair by the tips. Stretch hair out and move the blow dryer up and down the section root to tips to dry and stretch the hair at the same time.
- Shea Moisture Smooth Finish Thermal Protection
- Use small sections and a high-quality flat iron to straighten hair piece by piece.
- Place hair in a loose bun and sleep on a silk pillowcase
Did the straight hairstyle hold up?
As you can see Giana was thrilled with the end results of her hairstyle. However, the curls reverted quickly, by the time she came home from school on Wednesday. It was a rainy day and she is a child that hasn’t been programmed to hide from hydration.
By Thursday we noticed her skin on her neck and face was irritated with tiny raised bumps. A sign of contact dermatitis. Coincidently, the exact same thing happened to her two years ago when we straightened her hair. Here is a picture from that day:
For that reason, I would NOT recommend the Shea Moisture Thermal Smooth products and I am wondering if that was a shared experience because I could not find links to the product and it seems it may have been replaced with a new line which they are calling Shea Moisture smooth and tame.
Updated: Picture Day 2019
History repeats itself. Giana is now in 4th grade and her style choice for picture day is once again a blow-out.
We still used the tension method to achieve this style, we still talked about heat damage and limiting the number of application of heat. Products used this round:
Deep Conditioned:
EDEN BodyWorks Coconut Shea Hair Masque Treatment
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