My natural curly hair journey - By Helena

Helping natural curlies care for their curls

Hi I’m Helena! The curly girl behind @glowiththefro_ on Instagram. I started my Instagram page to help other natural curlies learn how to care for and love their curls like me.

Growing up with curly hair was a huge challenge for me. I didn’t have the right information and knowledge to look after my curls and neither did my family. Western beauty standards made me believe that curly hair and frizz wasn’t beautiful and was unprofessional. I would also get teased about my hair and hear so many comments about how “bushy” my hair was. From a young age I never really liked my curls at all.

To keep my hair “tamed” my hair remained tied back in tight hairstyles all throughout my school days. I never wore my hair down and was always so envious of my straight haired friends who didn’t have to tie their hair up everyday and could pull off all sorts of hairstyles that I couldn’t at the time.

When I was a teenager I started to care more about my appearance. Whenever I’d go to a hairdresser for a haircut they would straighten my hair first before cutting it. So I began to believe that this was the norm. I begged my mum for a hair straightener and would spend hours each week straightening my hair to fit in. Straight hair was more manageable for me and it made me feel prettier. I even went to a hairdresser in the Philippines while on a family holiday who chemically straightened my hair. At the time I was so happy and loved my straight hair but little did I know, I was causing huge amounts of damage to my hair, which would take years to repair.

The constant straightening of my hair lead my hair to lose most of its curl pattern. It became so dry and brittle with multiple spilt ends that I started to lose a lot of my hair density and it became fairly thin. I even went through a phase where I would use my hair straightener to curl my naturally curly hair!! 

I had eventually fried my hair so much with heat that I just started wearing it tied up again and hated the look of it when it was down.

In 2020 I decided I couldn’t carry on hating something that I was born with. So I did a huge amount of research and found multiple online blogs and Instagram accounts of others who shared a similar natural hair journey as me. I was amazed at everyone’s curly hair transformations and couldn’t wait to see how my hair would turn out with the right products and hair routine. 

I ended up getting a big chop. I went cold turkey and put my hair straightener away, started using more curly hair friendly products and learning techniques to enhance my curl pattern. I slowly watched my curls come back to life after years of mistreatment and I’ve been so amazed at how much my curls have transformed! 

I’m so grateful to have found a wonderful curl community which has lead me to finding curl friendly products like Lusid Hair products which have helped really make my curls shine and thrive! 

My curly hair journey has taught me a lot about myself. I’ve learnt to love a part of me that I absolutely hated. I feel much more empowered and authentically me these days. I hope that my page @glowiththefro_ can help others educate themselves on how to care for curly hair and embrace their natural hair texture no matter what stage in their natural hair journey they are.

Helena 

@glowwiththefro_

Helping curlies to embrace their natural curls!