Hair,

Why I wear my hair curly

This post is sponsored by Pantene. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hey cuties! I’m excited today to talk to you about one of my favorite things: MY CURLY HAIR & share some Pantene products I’ve been using to style it! Here you’ll learn: how often I wash my hair (and why) + the reason I shared wearing my hair curly. I don’t think I’ve shared it before so I’m excited to let you know!

Wash Days 

Lately I’ve been using Pantene’s Waterless Collection between washes. My hair is dry – like so dry I put straight up oil in there. SO I don’t wash it as often as others. In real life when I was going outside on the regular I would wash once a week. Earlier this year when we started staying home I switched to once every 10 days and now I’m at twice a month, every 15 days (because my summer hair has been even more dry). It’s not gross, my hair just doesn’t get oily so I don’t need a full wash. I’ve actually never experienced greasy hair… ever, so this is what works for me. BUT sometimes my curls do need a pick me up, something to bring those curls back to life, reduce frizz or just amp things up volume wise without starting over in the shower … enter the Pantene Waterless Collection.

Why I wear my hair curly

Before I share what I’m using from Pantene right now and why, you need to know my curly hair history. So growing up in Arizona without a ton of people who looked like me, I learned straight hair is better. I hated my curly hair and how it made me different from my friends, how it prevented me from having the cute haircuts they got or how my hair never looked the same when we had to style it a certain way for dance. I remember the day my mom came home with a straightener. I can tell you where I was standing, the weather & what both of us were wearing (a cute blue baseball tee from limited too with glitter “00” letters obviously). Me and that straightener were BFFS. My mom did the best she could. Driving me to 20 different hair stylists around the state, spending money on products and relaxers and weaves and treatments – letting me try them all. But the issue is, I thought curly hair was ugly bc the TV and magazines told me so.

It got bad….

It was so extreme that if it was raining I would run away, I remember looking at my friends with straight hair and thinking “wow how cool would it be to be able to see other people in the rain”. We would swim at my house all summer and immediately after I would put on a movie for my friends and go straighten my hair before coming back to hang out. Half way through my senior year, I fell away from most of my highschool friends – really because so many of them were interested in drinking and partying and kind of disowned me as a friend because I wasn’t. I also got sick of my hair situation. At the time I was really really getting into sustainability and a concern for the environment to an obsessive level. I stopped straightening my hair because I felt those 3 hours I dedicated a week to do so could be better dedicated to working to save our planet – I know, so dramatic lol. So my final photos of me as a senior I’m rocking a curly pony in a very “I dont care about my hair” way.

It didn’t last. I went curly for my first year of college, then got a weave, then back to straightening it and so on. Finding different things that worked for me along the way (including a no sleep wave method for curly hair I need to share! I used this one for 4 years including my first few years of blogging where you see straight hair).

A few years into blogging, where I had been exclusively wearing my hair straight in a cute “lob” ombre style (i’ve decided i dont like long hair on me) My fiance, Paris called me out. He shared that “hey, you’re kind of a hypocrite” to which I responded, GASP! He then continued “you stand for being unique and different, you tell people to celebrate their insecurities but you’re so insecure about your curly hair and you alter yourself every day” double gasp. He was right, so I started wearing my hair curly, mostly to prove him wrong. It wasn’t easy and there were a lot of insecurities that went along with it (that’s a whole other story) but here we are. Curly hair is an ongoing process, since wearing it curly I’ve had curly extensions, rocked a fro, worn it in different shapes, tried a curly bun moment and now I’m in a Courtney bun phase where I rock double decker buns daily. I do this because it’s cute and brandable (hello) but also because it’s easy! I was trying to grow my hair out a bit for our wedding before it got postponed so styling it this way has helped. As brands like Pantene continue to create innovative lines just for us, our experience gets better & our abilities to care for our hair improve. I’m always trying out a new products to see what works & why, and naturally I share those with you!

Pantene Cheat Day Dry Shampoo Foam – this one is great for when you don’t have time to do a full wash (my wash day is a whole process with air drying and detangling, and sometimes not in the cards). It will still give you those freshly washed curls and is great for curly hair that is still feeling even drier after typical shampoos (enter me, “she says in parentheses”). In the future when travel is a thing, this will be in every bag I pack. For now, it’s the product in the line I’m using the least merely because of circumstances, but it does get the job done

Pantene Mist Behaving Dry Conditioner Mist – AH I love this one! She is my BFF. So before this line, I would use dry shampoo in a different way. Where most with greasy hair would use it to prevent washes I would use dry spray shampoo after washing to help style and create volume! Soon after trying this I discovered a dry conditioner and started using that between washes as well – sadly none of these products were made for curls SO they never worked quite right. BUT THIS ONE IS A GAME CHANGER. She’s basically a leave in conditioner + styling spray that reduces frizz and smooths between washes. AH it’s so good and so necessary especially in summer. My hair has been SO DRY this summer, I don’t understand but I’ve started washing it less in hopes it will help… but that means i need this guy more than ever. To use you hold this guy 6-8 inches away from your hair and spray mid-length & downwards on dry hair (not at the roots).

Pantene Curl Affair Reshaping Cream – Because I have curly bangs my hair often needs a boost to restore shape & curls! And the reshaping cream has been WONDERFUL because of its free of alcohol, parabens and sulfates. I twist and scrunch this one through dry hair and/OR I wet my curls a bit and let it air dry (a diffuser works too) for softly defined curls.

The moral of my curly hair story is that making this switch changed everything. I really think I owe a lot of where I am with my confidence and brand wise to changing my hair. Learning to embrace what makes you different is only half the battle tho, a big part of my curly hair confidence comes from brands and products that WORK to help me have the best curly hair i can with the least amount of work, washes or wild hair routines. This Pantene Waterless Collection allows me to do just that! Big thanks to Pantene for sponsoring this post and allowing me to share my curly hair origins. I really hope this post makes it to a little girl who hates her curls too and helps her realize how special they are!

You can learn more about and purchase the Pantene Waterless Collection at CVS here!

(Afro artwork by Erica Williams)

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