Turns Out I Have Wavy Hair: An Analysis

For as long as I’ve been taking care of my hair, I’ve always struggled with making it look presentable. It was always frizzy, or straw-like, or wasn’t shiny enough, the list goes on. Every haircut I got seemed to exacerbate my problems, so much so that my hair quickly became one of my biggest physical insecurities.

I was scrolling around on Reddit one day in January when I stumbled across r/curlyhair. Out of curiosity (and boredom), I clicked and started reading. As I read, I found out that sometimes people with wavy hair who have brushed out their hair a lot get duped into thinking they just have unruly straight hair. “Does this maybe apply to me?” I wondered. I had always wanted wavy hair growing up, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I quickly forgot about this subreddit, until the first snow day of the year.

I went out with my dad and my dog to take a walk in the snow, and in the process, my hair got pretty damp. Once I stepped back inside, my hair had dried with barely-there waves that I had never noticed before. I was pretty taken aback. Were my childhood dreams coming true? Did I have wavy hair? I immediately went online to conduct some research, which quickly turned into spending hours consuming wavy/curly/coily hair content, and trying to learn as much as I could.

So finally, after months of experimentation, research, and frustration, I have the hair of my dreams. It was definitely not an easy process; I shed more tears over this than I care to admit. But after everything, I’d do it again in a heartbeat because the results have made me happier and more confident in my hair than ever before.

In case you’re wondering, here’s my current routine: I shampoo with the Shea Moisture Manuka Honey and Yogurt Shampoo and scrunch in the Not Your Mother’s Naturals Tahitian Gardenia Flower & Mango Butter Curl Defining Conditioner (which I leave on for five minutes). After combing my hair and thoroughly rinsing out the conditioner, I scrunch my hair under running water and spray some of the Not Your Mother’s Naturals Royal Honey & Kalahari Desert Melon Repair & Protect Leave-In Conditioner into the palm of my hands and run it through my hair, scrunching afterwards. Next, I scrunch the AG Re:Coil Curl Activator into my hair making sure not to use too much (my hair is really easily weighed down). Finally, I take my Aussie Instant Freeze Sculpting Gel, water it down slightly, and (you guessed it!) scrunch it into my hair. I then gently scrunch my hair with a cotton t-shirt and plop it for 20 minutes (no more, no less! Any other amount of time doesn’t give me the same results). After the 20 minutes is up, I diffuse my hair, alternately between standing up and flipping it downwards. Once my hair is completely dry, I scrunch out the crunch, and voila! My natural hair, and it only took me half a day!! In all seriousness though, this entire process takes me about an hour to get all the washing and plopping done, and another half-hour or so to diffuse and scrunch. Even though it’s time-consuming, this process is entirely worth it (in my eyes) for how good I feel about myself and my hair afterwards.

So why did it take me so long to figure out that I had wavy hair? Upon reflection, I think it was a combination of factors (as almost everything is). First, I had grown up brushing it out and had never really thought to question it. My hair had just always been frizzy and difficult to tame, so I had no reason to consider other hair types. I figured that some people, from either genetics or exceptional haircare, just had beautiful hair that I would never have, no matter how hard I tried. Secondly, I thought that anyone with textured hair would still be able to see the texture when it was brushed out, which isn’t always the case (as with 2a/2b waves, including mine). This further cemented my belief that I just had angry, straight hair. The possibility that wavy hair could be brushed out and become almost straight had never occurred to me. Third, my exposure to textured hair was few and far between, and when I was exposed to it, it was worn by people who didn’t look like me. I live in a culture where Euro-centric beauty standards are generally the norm (although we have made some progress in inclusivity), so most of the media that I have been exposed to shows straight hair as being the “ideal” standard of beauty or the norm (just look at shampoo commercials! A person with frizzy, likely textured hair gets cast as the “before”, and a person with long, stick-straight hair gets cast as the ideal “after”). Since I come from two races that stereotypically don’t have textured hair, finding representation of people with wavy hair who look like me has admittedly been a bit of a struggle. Finally, when I ultimately figured out that I had wavy hair and told some of my friends, they didn’t believe me and insisted that I had straight hair. Though I knew they were wrong, it was still really irksome to have people insinuate that they knew my hair better than I did. It felt even worse when, during my hair’s transition period, a few people suggested that my hair wouldn’t look like “that” if it were really wavy. Having to prove/justify my own hair texture to people who hadn’t done as much research as I had was infuriating, and it helped plant seeds of doubt about my hair that I had to work especially hard to destroy. But regardless of all of these factors, I’ve pushed through and made it this far!

For anyone who’s just starting to figure out their textured hair, I’m no expert, but I highly recommend checking out the Curly Girl Method. Try that for a few weeks, and modify the routine to suit your hair (for example, if you have waves like me, stick to lighter products that won’t weigh your waves down). Also check YouTube/Instagram for curly girl influencers, as their information is usually really helpful and it’ll help you navigate the transition period with minimal frustration. Lastly, remember that your hair is beautiful, natural or otherwise! We curly girls have to support each other as much as possible. Best of luck!