There was a Little Girl

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
When she was good
She was very good indeed
And when she was bad she was horrid
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Michelle Breyer, Curl expert and co-founder of NaturallyCurly.com, talks about her own biases when dealing with her daughter's curly locks.

My 7-year-old daughter, Emma, woke up the other morning and asks me if she looks any different. I don't know quite how to react to that, so I say no. She then asks if her hair looks messy. Since she was blessed with curls -- although not quite as curly as my own tight ringlets -- her hair does indeed look a little crazy. Then I notice that the front of her hair is a good six inches shorter than the rest of it. Yes, she says, she cut her own hair. A huge chunk.
I grew up with a straight-haired mother who had no idea what to do with her curly daughter's hair. She thought it looked cute an inch long, so I had a pixie until I was in 8th grade and old enough to say no. Even then, it took years to grow it long. So the thought that my daughter had voluntarily cut her beautiful, long, Giselle curls short was hard to fathom. Then she told me she wanted a short haircut. At first, I was horrified. Then, it hit me that it's her hair to do with just as she pleases. Just as I was angry that my mother subjected me to involuntary pixies, my daughter longed to have a short bob like her friends. She wanted to make a decision for herself.
So off we went to the hair salon, and she told the stylist how much we wanted cut off. It was painful to watch the long, golden ringlets fall to the ground. I would have died for long hair like that when I was her age, with my short helmet of curls. But Emma was thrilled with her new look. She bragged to her friends, "My hair is shorter than yours!"

The Bachelor, His Girl, Her Hair

Michelle Breyer, curl expert and co-founder of NaturallyCurly.com muses on The Bachelor...

I was watching "The Bachelor" the other night, and it became crystal clear that I could never be on the show. It doesn't matter that I'm a 40-something married woman who isn't a blonde size 4 bombshell with a boob job. It's the fact that my curly hair would be such a mess!!!!
I was watching Jenni and Brad cavort with the dolphins in Cabo, and her hair looked perfect as she emerged from the water. It looked perfect as they gazed at each other over dinner. And I'm sure it looked perfect when they woke up the next morning in their fantasy suite.
Unfortunately for us curlies, our hair isn't so wash and wear. It can morph over the course of a date, especially if you throw in a iittle humidity or a pool - or a little romance. It's something our mates know about us, and hopefully appreciate.
As I watch Bettina's blonde hair whip romantically around her on a sailboat - knowing that mine would like like a huge bush - I console myself with the thought that none of the Bachelors ever ends up with the girl from the Final Rose ceremony anyway.

You can see more of Michelle's work at NaturallyCurly.com

Do I look fat in these jeans?

Suzanne Schroeder, Curl Expert for NaturallyCurly.com, talks about honesty, when you don't want it, and when you absolutely do.

I have been wearing a hat and pigtails for 10 days now. The result of a hair color disaster. The young guy at work asked today " What is with the hats?" " You look like an aging hipster." A bad thing to say to a 42 year old woman, who really just wants to be just a hipster. The rest of the day was a debate about how honest should honest be? How do we want our questions answered like "honey do I look fat?" and "do my curls look too frizzy today?" Most of us want the perfect combination of honesty and a bit of fibbing. Something like "you look great but those jeans aren't my favorite" or "your hair looks super today except that one little curl that is misbehaving." Is there really anyone out there who can answer the questions this way all the time? The only instance when this honesty combo doesn't work is when you get it from a hair stylists. It is always in the more extreme form if you are a curly. Our hair always looks worse rather than better when we leave the salon. Even though the stylists says it looks great. We go home or to our car where our emergency hair products are and re-style the curls ourselves. I have only recently found one person who really knows how to cut, color and style curls. The problem is he is only here every 3 months. So when I on a whim decided to put blonde streaks in my red hair and they turned bright yellow I had to call someone. The whim was a huge mistake. I had done it many times as a teenager and in my twenties but this time something went really wrong. I arrived at my appointment knowing that I had a problem and was hoping anything would better than yellow. I was so wrong. The correction turned into brown curls with white strips. The honesty was there at the beginning of the appointment. We both knew the yellow was a mistake. By the end of 3 hours though that honesty had turned into the typical curly experience. Looking in the mirror horrified as the stylist tries to convince us that our hair looks great. Honesty is complicated. How much do we really want? Sitting in the chair at a salon, complete honesty would be just right.

Dating in a Curly World

Michelle Breyer Curly Expert and co-Founder of naturallycurly.com rings in on Teri Evan's story.

Teri's story on whether men prefer curly or straight reminded me of an experience that happened to me in college. I was so sure that men preferred straight hair, that I decided to get mine chemically straightened. I could tell mid-way through that something was wrong. The stylist had a scared look on his face, and then said he wasn't going to charge me for it - obviously not a good sign. As I was working out at the gym, I noticed big hunks of hair dropping to the floor. After washing my hair in the shower, it was clear that I had received a chemical haircut. I looked like I had mange. My hair was broken off in huge sections. My boyfriend told me my forehead looked like it had grown. The bottom line. Men don't necessarily prefer hair curly or straight. They just prefer that you have hair.

To read the original story click here or visit naturallycurly.com