I'm Italian and Yes, I Have Curly Hair. Part 3

 

So, you're probably asking right about now, why am I writing about curly hair? Just this week alone my blogs have been about politics and serious topics...well today I want to talk about curly hair. I get tons of emails all the time about yes, my hair.

I have to say, I am very lucky to have super curly hair that's somewhat manageable. There was a time when I didn't know how to style it and always felt like odd girl out..while all my friends had their gorgeous straight hair.

Growing up with curly, frizzy hair always made me feel like a bit of an outcast. During middle school, teasing and spraying hair was pretty big. I could never do that, because if I teased I ended up looking like a poodle who got electrocuted. It was hard.

Then, in my later years in high school, I started to get the hang of it. It isn't till now, that I really love my hair and can style it with super products available for curly, ethnic hair. Yes, whether we like it or not, its "ethnic." If you research the curly hair characteristics and cultures of where people have curly hair, well..you guessed it..I'm in that percentile.

I guess I am the owner of the fitting characteristics of a Southern Italian woman. To add to the curly hair, not only is it hard just to figure out what to do with it, but in a business world such I am in daily..its another job trying to figure out how to fit in with the business types without my hair going wild.

Let me know below if you have a favorite product to use to manage our hair. 

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Italian Girls, Curly Hair! Part 3!

This topic is my most searched topic on my site, I believe our curly hair mystifies our cultural foundations.  Here's my story continued: my father had very tight curly hair and even as a man his hair even at 91 maintained its curly texture.  I definitely took after my father, and interestingly enough both my parents are direct from Reggio Calabria, Italy.  In my family, there a few of us with my type of hair and now with the newer generation, my niece has my hair, so its fascinating to understanding DNA and how it evolves over generations and lineage.   

Here's a link to the hair products I use and for me personally, its a full on task to take care of curly hair. Most days, I actually wear my hair up in a bun or braid.  I do get away with not washing hair for a few days because curly hair allows for it, just my preference.  You do have to comb out your hair though on wash days because any type of bun or braid seriously knots my hair.   The other element that I believe is the secret sauce for maintaining and getting my hair to look good is actually coloring my hair.  I get my hair highlighted and honestly when I do, it controls my hair even more.  

Let me know if you have more questions.  

 

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Favorite Hair Products for Naturally Curly Hair - Italian American Girl Edition

 

Its' May! Time is flying and I feel like we've been locked up in the house forever, oh wait... we actually have.. how did all of this happen? ..So crazy.  

Well with the newer positive changes happening, we're starting to get out and back to some sort of normalcy. 

 For me, this means going back to the salon and taking care of my hair and actually doing my hair to go somewhere. Who else has gotten to used to buns and scrunchy looks just because you weren't or had to do or go anywhere? ugh.. Well enough with that. 

Today I'm going to share with you my top three styling products for naturally curly hair.  I started using an organic hair care line, which I absolutely love. If you have naturally curly hair you know that it can be coarse, unruly and sometimes can dry out faster due to 'cheaper' products.   I always get asked what I use on my hair because I manage to make my curls very separated, and not dry looking.  So, I'll tell you though one of the major secrets is actually having great hair color on your hair, that is ..if you color your hair. My hair behaves so much better when its colored and high-lighted.. that is also an organic hair color line.  

So with out further delay here are my top picks: 

O&M MAINTAIN THE MANE SHAMPOO (12OZ)

O&M MAINTAIN THE MANE CONDITIONER (12OZ)

OWAY CURLY POTION (240ML)

Do you have a favorite brand that you use?  Drop a comment below and let me know. 

~Margaret 

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Italian Curly Hair - The Process

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Many of you sent comments and emails about being of a diverse background and having curly hair, and how to deal with it, so I said I would start sharing more of my insight on this topic.  Managing and styling curly hair is very unique and does require some patience.  I grew up feeling very sad a times because I didn't identify with other girls when I was the only one with curly hair and couldn't really relate to how they blew out their hair straight or wore it a certain cute ways.  Girls can make you feel bad at times.  Looking back as kids we were (are) so fragile and now I think back and say wow, my hair is actually powerful now, so this also something that may be beneficial to children who maybe don't always look like someone or may have different characteristics.  Education and empowerment are key.

 Funny how the world works. So, in order to find myself and get to a point of being happy about my hair I had to learn how to do my hair.  Now, I was lucky because my sister grew up and ended up owning her own salon and becoming one of the best stylists out there.  So, as she got great, she used my hair as her experimental space.  By the time I got to college, I had grown out my hair, I was definitely coloring it and learned that cutting it shorter only made it swell.  The way you see my hair above is basically how I've worn it the last 25 years.  I will share more on how to style and maintain curly hair, I've been talking about doing a video.  Stay tuned.  Tweet

I'm Italian and Yes, I Have Curly Hair -- Part 2

The struggle is real when we delve into the world of ethnic naturally curly hair and all that it embodies.  A long time ago I wrote a blog post for my Italian American Girl site talking about my feelings around being ethnic, first generation Italian American and having extremely curly hair.  My feelings and hair have not changed much but society and our ways of digesting and accepting others may or may not have changed too. 

 In that post found HERE I talk about my feelings around how people perceive and treat people with curly hair in and around work environments or just anywhere.  This is a real topic and real instances of discrimination do occur from what seems to be very a light topic or comment usually of "wow, I love your hair, how do you get it that way, or wow, that's a lot of hair.. how do you manage it...?" as if my hair is an issue or it makes someone else feel uncomfortable or even opens up the door for some people to cross my boundaries and assume because my hair is big and curly its associated to some sort of stereotype.  No women with naturally ethnic curly hair are not more wild, or put forth a vibe of more sexual energy.  

As humans we obviously perceive and absorb what ever feelings we have naturally, but when we are programmed by the media and cultural stereotypes we are in fact discriminating and maybe against other people for even more different qualities than curly hair.   If you look at more ethnic men and women who are in the public eye they tend to keep their rather ethnic naturally curly hair straight because that's more widely accepted and I believe makes people feel more comfortable because its more common.  Different scares people. 

More recently over the summer, I read this amazingly interesting story out of NYC, "This year, the New York City Commission on Human Rights received seven complaints detailing similar incidents, in which employees were told that their tresses had to be straightened in order to comply with business standards. In February, the agency stepped in and officially banned “hair discrimination” in the city, granting victims of this kind of racial bias grounds to take legal action. (The cases that prompted the move are still under investigation.)"  READ THE FULL STORY HERE

I love my curly hair, I do straighten it once in a while, but guess what? That's not me: the picture above is me, I don't think everyone is OK and or ready for the ethnicity of real curly hair and there continues to be stereotyping and discrimination, we must do a better job at educating our children and communities about acceptance and equality.     Also, the reason why I'm writing this blog post is because I've been asked a million times by my readers to talk more about this topic, and believe it or not the article was read over 20,000 times and counting.   I may do more on this topic, talk to someone for podcast and even do a video on how to do my curly hair.   If you have thoughts on this topic or want to add something for me to talk about, send me an email: margaret@italianamericangirl.com  Tweet