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My Curly Hair journey is starting. I have red thick curly hair which has been the bane of my life. I am the only one out of four girls, who has hair like this. This I believe has come from my Irish ancestors. And no one in my wider family has hair like mine. It is hard to manage, hard to live with and I just do not want it. I have struggled to find good hairdressers in Essex. Those that know how to cut and work with hair like mine. During the lockdown, now that I have a skincare routine sorted out, I decided to try and get this hair properly managed. I gave away a lot of shampoos and conditioners that I had stored. And looked into many brands, that said they would work for curly hair like mine. In May, I tried the OGX Coconut Curls Shampoo and Conditioner. I had full sizes of 385 ml, I looked around for a long time for trial sizes but could not find any.

They did not work for me. After two weeks, my hair was just greasy and my scalp itchy as hell. I did not finish them, I gave them to my mum to give to the local food bank. Then the lockdown for the shielding came to a pause, I could book a hair cut. I do not think I had one since 2018.

I watched my hairdresser like a hawk. I had a dry cut. Having had previous cuts which have been a disaster. When you cut curl hair, you sometimes take too much off. And she did such a good job. I wanted it trimmed as I need to keep long enough for a bun. Especially on those days that I flare or have problems with my rheumatoid arthritis. It was too heavy for me.

I was so happy with this. It felt so much lighter. I then booked myself in for the Curly Girl Treatment that would take two hours. That will interesting. At home, I ordered trial me size of Only Curls. This will be the brand that will be used at the salon in December. But another lockdown meant this could not happen. So will be back there in the new year.

At first I thought I am not getting on with this. But the second week, I liked what all these four products did to my hair. Even day two after washing I am normally putting it in a bun. And I found using all the products with my hair over the bath. But this is going to be problematic, I sometimes have flares in my neck and I have to be so careful. But so far, my hair is soft, the curls look better and not a lot of frizz. All good so far. And when I finished, to get all four in full sizes of 300ml and 250ml is £60. A bit pricey for me, but maybe on a sale deal. Time will tell, I have a few other brands to try before I repurchase anything else for my hair.

I also brought a new curly hair hairdryer and this is amazing. The Bellissima works so well for me. I am so happy I have finally found something that works for my hair. It has been a long time coming !

The next brand I tried was Aveda Be Curly. I had some of this range in my stash, but not the shampoo and conditioner. Which I brought late last year. That was what I tried first followed by either the curl enhancer cream or the style prep gel. Due to the second lockdown. My hair appointment was cancelled. So I decided to try an Aveda salon. I had a botanical hair repair treatment. The botanical repair takes around 15 minutes and you will have your hair washed at the basin and the treatment done at the basin including a 10 Minute massage. This treatment will repair the hair from inside the cortex working its way out. I liked the feel of the treatment, but the salon does not know how to work with curly hair. I was so disappointed with what happened to my hair. I will never go back, when I got home, I re washed my hair and styled as I asked the salon to do. Which they did not do for me.

I also brought this from About The Girl to test whether this would work on my hair. I get so frizzy especially when I have to wear a hat. And it works well. I will be keeping my eye on this brand as they have just started it. One to watch.

My hair despite falling out in clumps has grown so much since my cut in September. It is still very dry and brittle and that is thanks to my medication. This photo was taken in mid December, I had a good wash day and was surprised with how it was looking. I am booked in for another cut at the end of December.