Michele Bender - Curly Girl: The Handbook

THE HANDBOOK

EXPANDED SECOND EDITION

by Lorraine Massey

with Michele Bender

Photographs by Gabrielle Revere

Workman Publishing, New York

Copyright 2010 by Lorraine Massey and Michele Bender
Design copyright by Workman Publishing
Photographs copyright Gabrielle Revere

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproducedmechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopyingwithout written permission of the publisher. Published simultaneously in Canada by Thomas Allen & Son Limited.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

eISBN 978-0-7611-6402-9

Design by Lidija Tomas
Cover design by Janet Vicario
Workman books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for premiums and sales promotions as well as for fund-raising or educational use. Special editions or book excerpts can also be created to specification. For details, contact the Special Sales Director at the address below or send an e-mail to specialmarkets@workman.com.

Workman Publishing Company, Inc.
225 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014-4381
www.workman.com

Photography Credits:

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY by GABRIELLE REVERE (Front and Back)

Author photo Courtesy of Lorraine Massey

ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHY BY GABRIELLE REVERE: (all images).

ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY:

AGE FOTOSTOCK: Beauty Photo Studio, left.

COURTESY PHOTOS:

Michele Bender, .

ILLUSTRATION:

Robert Risko; used with permission of the Chicago Tribune.

To my mother,
Jemima Rutherford Bathgate Massey Dance

and to Kaih, Shey, Dylan, Veronica, and Venaih

INTRODUCTION
Locks to Talk About

CHAPTER 1
Girl Meets Curl

CHAPTER 2
Hair, the Inside Story

CHAPTER 3
Identifying Your Curl Type

CHAPTER 4
The Curly Girl Method: Creating a Daily Root-ine

CHAPTER 5
Catching a Wave

CHAPTER 6
Multi-curl-tural Hair

CHAPTER 7
Relax? Dont Do It!

CHAPTER 8
Products and Homemade Recipes

CHAPTER 9
A Cutting-Edge Philosophy

CHAPTER 10
Self-mane-tenance: Trimming Your Own Hair After Shear Frustration

CHAPTER 11
Color Me Curly: Its All About Hue!

CHAPTER 12
Curly Kids: Caring for Underage Curls

CHAPTER 13
Guys n Curls: The Down and Dirty Root-ine

CHAPTER 14
Curly Qs and As

CHAPTER 15
Wed-locks and Updos for Special Occasions

CHAPTER 16
Chemo Curls

CHAPTER 17
A Twelve-Step Recovery Program for Curly Girls: One Curl at a Time

ASTROLOGI-CURLS
A Curly Girl Horoscope

A LETTER FROM LORRAINE
Curl It Forward

A lot has changed in the world of curls since the first version of Curly Girl came out ten years ago. For so many years, ringlets, corkscrews, and waves were the ugly ducklings of the hair world, viewed as a symptom to be treated, an aberration to be tamed, rather than a part of nature. When youd go to the hairdresser, there was an obviously, you dont want those curls attitude and an expectation that you should be grateful to your stylist for blow-drying your hair straight after a cut. In fact, at a recent hair convention, a hairdresser came over to me and said, If you let me blow-dry your hair, youll fall in love with me. (Hardly!)

Despite the strides many curly girls have made to accept and understand their curls, the hairdressers comment is typical of the hair communitys mentality and evidence that straight hair still rules. Here are some revealing facts and stats: Flat irons are the top-selling item in the hair care industry. At one point, a transatlantic airline offered these appliances to passengers so they could straighten their strands before landing (while the rest of us in the plane had to endure the smell of burning hair). The number one service in salons worldwide is blow-drying (which I call blow-frying because of its damage to your hair), and an amazing $9 billionplus worth of hair-straightening products are sold annually. Recently a well-known hair product company boasted about creating a pill that claims to change your DNA to straighten your curls. (Cant you just imagine the future news story: Woman has symptoms of paralysis, temporary blindness, and slurred speech, but shes happy that her hair is finally straight!)

Lorraines Curl-ections

Botticelli

Waves n Swaves n Curls

Red-iscovery

Corkicelli

Corkscrew

Fractal and Zigzag

Silver Sirens

For the past ten years, Ive spent my days with hundreds of loyal clients as well as the 30,000 new clients who come to our Devachan Salons each year, many traveling long distances to experience the curly transformation firsthand. We listen to their concerns and study their curls. Im fascinated by the amazing beauty and diversity of natural curls and have started a collection of samples, some of which are shown, right. Yet there is still many a curly girl hiding beneath blown-out, straightened, flattened strands. And there are still many questions about curly hair that need answers.

Readers have asked me about things that werent in the first version of Curly Girllike how to trim their own hair, how to make their waves behave, what products to use, and how to grow out their chemically straightened strands to go back to their curly rootsso I address those issues in this book. In the last decade, Ive also watched some of my wonderful client friends bravely go through cancer treatments, so Ive added a section on chemo curls.

The other thing thats happened since I wrote the first book is the birth of the DevaCurl line of products. Early on, my partner Denis DaSilva and I tried various product lines at our salon, but we couldnt find any that helped curly hair look its best. We also experimented with whipping up our own homemade formulas (like a lavender spray, which later developed into DevaCurl Mist-er Right, and a sulfate-free cleanser, called No-Poo) because detergents are especially damaging to curly hair. But our clients were begging for these products that werent on the market. So we began interviewing dozens of chemists and finally found one who was open to formulating products that were good for the hair. Over the course of a year, he created samples that we tested in the salon and sent home with clients. After much tweaking back in the lab, we proudly launched the DevaCurl line of botanical products that is becoming vital in the curly world.