Don't Give Up!

Sometimes you have to alter someone else's hair care and styling tips to make them work for you. It can be frustrating when a style doesn't work out after you carefully follow someone's instructions to the letter. As much as we wish it weren't so, no two heads of hair are alike. This means no two routines are going to have the same results every time. Here is the story of how I (finally) learned that lesson.

I have had quite a few people ask me how I got Syd's curls to look like they do in this picture, which is also found on the right at the top of the blog.

This was actually done by using Teri Laflesh's tightly curly method. We did the style for my niece's birthday party last summer, and it looked great, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, I almost gave up on this method completely when our first try produced some pretty disappointing results.

My first attempt at this method resulted in this in the front:

But this in the back:

Her hair looked so good from the front! But there was definitely a problem with the way the back turned out, and here's why.

If you can't tell from these pictures, Syd has several different hair types on her head. The hair on the sides is thinner, the strands are finer, and the curl is looser. As you move toward the back of her head, the hair gradually gets thicker, the strands get more coarse, and the curls are much tighter. The very back of her hair is very tightly coiled and very, very dense. It is nothing at all like the sides and front. This means I will never get the same results on the front and back of her head if I treat all of her hair the same.

A few months after the first attempt failed, Syd and I decided we were going to try again for my niece's birthday party. We could always throw her hair in a ponytail if it doesn't work, right? But this time, I put some thought into how I could keep from getting the same results again.

I used less product (normally Herbal Essences Hello Hydration for this method) on the sides of her hair, because that hair isn't as dry, course, or tightly curled as the hair in back. I gradually used more and more conditioner as I got closer to the back. I used a LOT more in the very back to help give the curls some more weight and keep them from shrinking so much more than the rest of her hair.

To my surprise, that actually worked! Here is another picture of Syd's hair from that day.

The curls look much more uniform and the whole style just looks better when I took the time to pay attention to the diversity of her curls. The sides aren't weighed down and the patch in the back hasn't experienced twice as much shrinkage as the rest.

I guess what I'm saying is this: Don't get discouraged when you don't get the same results as someone else, even though you're doing the very same steps. Pay close attention to the needs of the hair you are working with, and don't give up if something doesn't work the first time. A second or third try can lead to some pretty great results!