My love-hate relationship with my curls began in 2003, when a really, really, really bad experience with a home highlighting kit damaged my hair beyond repair. I decided to grow out the relaxer that I had been relying on for all of my hair-straightening needs for the previous 10 years and go au natural. Skipping over the hellish year that it took for my natural hair to grow long enough that I felt comfortable cutting off the straight parts (I didn’t take my hair out of a bun for 14 months, give or take), by late 2004 I had a short, curly bob that I loved in theory, but not practice. Meaning, I loved having my natural hair but had no earthly idea what to do with it.

So what did I do? I straightened it. All the time. And really, what’s the point of not chemically straightening your hair if you are just going to straighten it with heat all the time? It wasn’t until I came across a tub of over-priced, oddly named curl creme and got a haircut at an over-priced, oddly named salon that I saw the light.

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