Ok so maybe it is strange that I am writing about my “hair journey” but about a year ago I shared a blog post about my curly girl hair routine. I have had some friends tell me that they couldn’t believe everything that went into my hair routine (trust me I can’t either!) but since that time there have been a few changes and I thought I would share them here because I am pretty excited about the results!

First of all in July I had my first ever Deva Girl cut. I had read about this type of haircut but there weren’t any stylists in or near Marshall that were trained to do these types of cuts. Basically, they cut the hair dry and shape it with the way that the curl naturally falls instead of cutting it wet and pulling it straight. Online testimonials talked about hair being transformed. I was hopeful but honestly skeptical that I would notice any real difference.

I have always had “difficult” hair. It takes a lot to style it, lots of product, lots of scrunching and curling and more product and re-curling. I would get a haircut and in a week it would feel icky on the ends, lifeless and frizzy. If I had that 2 inches of bad hair cut off, the next 2 inches would be icky. I was sure this would be the case with this new cut…but I was desperate for a change so I searched for a salon within 100 or more miles of our home.

I located a salon up in the Cities and made an appointment but ended up having to cancel. It wasn’t convenient being almost 3 hours away so I searched again and found a salon in my hometown just an hour and 45 minutes away.

An appointment was made with Mickie At Ambiance Salon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for a Saturday morning and I went in with anticipation. That morning I arrived, a freak thing happened with my car and it died in the gas station parking lot just down the street from the salon. There is a whole story there and my dad had to come and rescue me so I could make my appointment, needless to say I was worried it was a sign that things were going to go terribly wrong!

They ask that you arrive with dry hair and hair that is down. I never wear my hair down because I hate when it gets in my face…but this is how I looked on the way out of the house.

Mickie did her magic, the cut was weird initially. I haven’t ever had my hair cut dry. It seemed wrong. Haha! And I had a lot of split ends and damage in the ends of my hair that needed to go. I had wanted to keep my length but the truth was every morning I was combing out snarls of hair, the bad had to go. I was all in.

Here is how it looked after. She only added minimal product and I sat under the Deva Curl dryer for a time to dry my hair. No other curling etc. It was a little less work than I was used to, but it looked nice.

The real test would come the next day when I would have the opportunity to wash and style it my way.

I can tell you that I haven’t ever been happier with my hair. In the first 8 1/2 weeks before the next cut, I had 1 “bad” hair day. This is huge for me! One day that I actually pulled my hair back into a ponytail because it was driving me nuts and that was 3 days or so before my next haircut.

And even better I have cut out 3 different products that I don’t need to use anymore! Mickie recommended that after I wash and condition my hair that right before I get out of the shower I put a 1/2 pump of conditioner on my hair as a leave-in treatment. It adds moisture to my hair and helps detangle it when I pick through it later! Bye bye argan oil…we don’t need you anymore! I also stopped using the sea salt spray. Not needed anymore!

Another change is that I used to immediately wrap my hair in a t-shirt after my shower, once it was semi-dry, I would add in my products. Now I get out of the shower and immediately pick through my hair and add in my Deva Curl gel and mousse. (Something they do at the salon) I received a Deva Curl towel for free the last time I ordered shampoo and conditioner and then I use that to scrunch my hair and remove a majority of the wetness.

I then use some small hair clips to pull up a few sections of my hair away from my face. This helps it dry and build body in those portions of my hair. I leave those clips in for the next “steps.” Here I am this morning after I put my product in and clips in.

Next I go and sit in front of my handy space heater. I sit about an arms length away and will gently scrunch my hair on all sides so that it dries well. Here I am after about 5-7 minutes of drying time.

You can see that the drying helps add a little needed volume to my hair. And I find that it really doesn’t get frizzy with this method, it just feels softer and fuller.

Finally, I do spend a few minutes curling a few pieces to soften the look even more. The change though is that I used to have to curl so much more. And curl and re-curl to get the curl to hold. The curling part would take 20 minutes or more, now it is 5, maybe 10 minutes at most. And the curl holds. Before I used two types of hairspray. A strong hold and a lighter hold. I have been able to give up the strong hold hairspray!

My hair just feels so much more healthy. It has truly been a transformation! I typically have been getting a perm every 12-18 months.  My last one was in December of 2016. I am curious to see with this new cut, if that will be necessary anytime soon. Before my hair always felt so heavy and the curl fell quickly so the perm seemed necessary to keep the curl…now I just don’t know when it will become necessary! Maybe I will find out how much natural curl I have in there after all!!

So there you go friends, an update on my hair! Happy Tuesday to all of you!