Five Must-Haves for Curly-Haired Girls

Curly-Haired Girls, I Introduce You to Your New Best Friends

   I read a blog post not too long ago about having curly hair, and I couldn't help but think a few times You just haven't met your best friend yet. So, in response to that, curly-haired girls, I now introduce you to your new best friends (if you haven't already met). 

My gearshift - I'm always prepared.

 A sleek but strong hair tie

   This may seem like a no-brainer, because if you have long curly hair, you've probably already figured out the need for an extra hair tie to be on your wrist at all times. What I'm insisting on here, since we always need that extra hair tie, is that we make it a part of ourselves. It needs to be a part of our style. It's going to be there, so it might as well say something about us. Mine is a simple black, ouch-less one that fits perfectly around my wrist. When I was growing up, it was a scrunchie, but that was the 1990s. 

A pick

Pic borrowed from Etsy.com.

   This is the one you may not have met yet, but is a super-important piece to any curly-haired girl's hair kit. That's right, we need a kit. This kit must be full of hair ties and products ranging from curl cream to flex-hold hairspray. What makes a kit is the pick. It's important to pick your comb pick wisely. Mine was passed on to me from my mom or aunt, I can't remember who. It has three or four wide-set long teeth at one end and the handle comes to a point. The pic at the right is the closest thing I could find to it on the internet (but mine's plastic and blue). This will be how you find your part! (I move my part nearly every time I wash my hair - it keeps things interesting.)

 

A wet-to-straight hair straightener

   Hair stylists/specialists will tell you not to use certain straighteners because they damage your hair. With all that our curly hair puts us through, don't we deserve some revenge? Besides, and in combat against those who will tell you not to use one of these, our hair is only dead cells, and damaging it isn't a sin, since it's already dead. (Check out this article.) One of the main keys to managing curly hair is: do it from wet, and it will stay. The best way to straighten curly hair, I have found, is with my Remington Wet-2-Straight, and it takes less time too, if you do it straight from wet. (And you can get one for less than $30, which is really decent for a straightener, if you didn't already know. I've had mine for more than three years - probably for more than five, but I'm not sure - so it's definitely worth it.)

Mousse

   Bed-head will be a worry of the past once you realize showers are best taken at night. Overnight, your hair will turn gloriously curly without the frizz (smooth your hair away from your face while you sleep, constantly, whenever you wake - it takes a little dedication), because it takes so long to dry. You may say, the first few times you try it, that this is stupid and pointless and will never work - but like I said, it takes a little dedication. Yes, your pillow will be damp/wet, but just move your head so you still have some dry pillow for your face. It will be worth it. Then, as we all know that it won't stay that way without frizzing like a soda can fizzes when first opened, mousse it. Use so much mousse that no lock is left dry, then spray with flexible-hold hairspray. After a few weeks, you will have your hair somewhat trained - if you do this regularly - and will only need the mousse, but keep the hairspray for future use, when the curly turns ugly again.

The bestest-smelling shampoo

   Now, we all know that curly-haired girls have natural volume, natural bounce, and this is why other people, who aren't curly-haired, envy us. We know that this is mostly ridiculous, because our hair requires so much more care for this very reason. But there is an upside to this: we don't need to wear stale-smelling perfume, because our hair holds the scent of our shampoo (or mousse, hairspray, etc). So make sure you have the bestest-smelling shampoo. I particularly like Aussie, not only because everyone including me thinks I smell awesome, but because it doesn't leave your hair dried out or too oily. It cleans, and that's it, at least, as far as I'm concerned. Don't take my word for it, though. I change my brand of shampoo after every bottle - I usually switch between Aussie and Dove - and there are many I haven't tried, because I'm allergic to many scents and I've been burned more than once on trying to get a better perfume-y air about me. The key to everything concerning hair, I've learned, is to try everything at your disposal for a little while, and come back to what works best for you, because everybody's different and none of us are the same, no matter how many genes we may have in common.

   There are many more things that I could share with you about having curly hair, but these are the must-haves for every curly-haired girl. And for the record, there are a lot of things in that article that I read, "43 Things Only Girls with Curly Hair Understand," that I just thought, Wow, really? You really haven't figured out how to handle that yet? Rookies. So expect another post about curly hair sometime in the future. I will cover how to handle: 

 - having bangs, if you want them, (I have some, and I love them); 

 - having short, but extremely curly, hair (I only ever have my hair short anymore, since it really cuts down on the amount I have it pulled back into a boring bun, and the time it takes to straighten it, whenever I am struck to do so); 

 - how to properly comb curly hair without pulling it out; 

 - how to wake up with incredibly sexy bedhead without trying; 

 - handling frizz (you'll possibly smack yourself in the forehead for this one); 

 - keeping your drains from clogging with hair when you wash it; 

 - how to make wet hair acceptable to others (because it does take forever to dry); 

 - how to keep from losing a hair everywhere your foot lands; 

 - bumps in your hair when you try updo's, and succeeding at updo's altogether (this one may be a blog post all its own); 

 - why you don't need a jugful of conditioner just because you have curly hair; 

 - managing curly hair with rolled-down car windows on the interstate (yes, it is possible to rock a wind-blown hair-do); 

 - and how to rock your part, which can be anywhere and however you want it with the proper tools.

A Cure for Creaks

Creaky Doors No More

   Do you have creaky doors? I did not too long ago. Want to know how I fixed it? Because that's what I'm sharing in this post: a surefire way to quiet those creaky hinges.

This is a door hinge. Image from askthebuilder.com.

   First, let's talk about doors. Doors are things you open in the walls of buildings to move through them. Doors can be made of many different materials, like grass or dead bodies. Doors generally have knobs and hinges, possibly also windows and locks. You can cover up the windows with things called curtains - some people are unaware of this. Some doors are very pretty, while others aren't so much. Doors keep things out that we don't want in, and things in that we don't necessarily want escaping, like Granny or the kidnapped body before you kill it. Doors are important to our well-being and protect us from wild animals, or the police, depending on who you are. They usually don't fail in doing their job, but again, that depends on who you are and what you're trying to keep out or in.

   Sometimes, doors get creaky, or start making some groaning sounds, like that dead body you don't know exactly what to do with. Some people have absolutely no idea what to do to make such things shut up, so I'm writing this post to help those of us who've never dealt with a dea-, I mean, door, a creaky door before, and don't have the handyman parents to help them out.

   Now what usually causes doors to make creepy, annoying noises are the hinges. Yeah, those things that attach it to the wall and possibly hold it up off the floor. No, I'm not talking about the dead body now. Most hinges are made of metal, kind of like nails, or most nails anyway, and when metal moves against other materials, like other metal, it sometimes makes a noise or two. Some people are bothered by these noises, and others can have an inhuman ability to totally block them out, as if they don't exist. I mean, it really is inhuman, like they don't even know the sounds exist, they just pretend there isn't anything lying on the floor, uh, I mean, creaking, creaking in the door.

One of those oil brushes. Image from zappos.com.

   Anyway, what I thought was, hey, if we just put something between what's rubbing to make those sounds, then the sounds will stop. I considered WD40, but I didn't want to spray black oil that close to white doors, I thought that could look pretty nasty, so that was out. Then I thought, hey, vegetable oil! It's clear, I just had to figure out how to get it on the hinges without making a terrible mess, because you know how cooking oil just goes everywhere when you try pouring it down someone's, I mean, over the hinges of a door.

   I used one of those oil brushes from my kitchen. Put it in the dishwasher afterwards, came right clean again. Mine's made of some rubber stuff, so it's pretty flexible. Made the job real easy. Anyway, I took one of my oil brushy thingies and dipped it in a really small bowl full of vegetable oil, then took the brush right down the middle of the hinges, both sides. Then I worked around the door a bit: open-shut, open-shut, a little weight on it open-shut, open-shut, lifting up on it a bit open-shut, open-shut. Then voila! No more groaning, creaky doors.

   That was at least a week ago. My house is still as silent as the dead are supposed to be, you know, when they're in the ground, six-feet under. And no smell!