A stranger recently found my blog by searching for “world’s rattiest hair.” Low blow, stranger.
I HAVE been feeling awfully ratty, though. After more than a year of hemming and hawing, I bought the Live Curly, Live Free e-book. NOTE: the phrase “based on her popular website” means most of the book was taken directly from the site. The book has no photos, no illustrations, and no product recommendations. Hopefully, the author will consider either 1) fleshing out the book or 2) not giving away so much of her knowledge for free. We all love freebies, but she has to make a living.
Nevertheless, today marks DAY ONE of the Live Curly, Live Free routine. My hair looks… different. Not very curly, but not as fluffy as usual.
In honor of Peter’s post on Western garb, I broke out my longhorn belt. Again. I don’t own turquoise, but I DO have [painted] teal glass beads:
Shirt - Arden B., second-hand. The sleeves are a full six inches longer than necessary, very nifty
Jeans – Gap Low Rise Curvy, second-hand
Necklace – No idea, Ross
Belt – Brilliantly fashioned by Yours Truly from two second-hand belts
The necklace USED to be teal, anyway; most of the paint has flaked off. Every time I wear this necklace, I get a bra full of paint chips.
You’ll notice I lack legs today; the full-body photos made me weep, wail, and gnash my teeth. SURELY my pants crotch doesn’t always look so bunched. SURELY I’ve worn these pants too many times between washings, and healing is only a spin cycle away. For now, I’m going to crop off my legs and pretend I don’t know myself. La la la!
You’ll have to let me know how you find the book. I’ve read “Curly Girl” by Lorraine Massey and found it informative, but not always appropriate to me. It’s been a lot of trial and error to get to where I am now, and I suspect it shall forever be an ongoing process.
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Rebekah Reply:
October 6th, 2010 at 10:40 PM
The book is disappointing because so, so much of the information is a rerun if you’ve read the site— but I highly recommend reading through the site.
I used to own Curly Girl. I liked the basic premise: curly hair requires different cutting and care than straight hair, importance of keeping hair well-conditioned, interesting photos.
I did NOT like the silly assumption that having “wild” hair is a sign of a “wild” personality, and some of the models’ hair looked truly awful to me. Not inspiring. Furthermore, I have no intention of “spot cleaning” my head with baking soda. I ignored the “home remedies” in Curly Girl, and I’m ignoring them in Live Curly, Live Free
The Live Curly, Live Free site explains that hair care should be determined by your hair’s texture, porosity, elasticity, and density— NOT by what your curls look like. That’s important. And the site links to an article on dew points that I found CLEARER than the explanation I PAID for in the e-book.
While CG was prettier and more fun to read, LCLF seemed more factual, less emotional. They should get married and give birth to the perfect curly hair handbook.
If it weren’t so cluttered with ads and uninformed opinions, naturallycurly.com might be the best handbook. I searched there for “CG before and after” and saw some glorious hair transformations. That finally tipped me toward buying the e-book and getting serious about the routine.
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Good luck! I have that e-book and I actually found it to be very informative – even now that I’m not doing the “Curly Girl” routine anymore, I understand much more what my hair “needs” because of the Live Curly, Live Free book. I found the actual Curly Girl book to be totally lacking in the information department.
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Rebekah Reply:
October 12th, 2010 at 1:42 PM
Hello! I agree that I know much more about hair now. It’s been almost a week since I started LCLF, and my hair looks SO different already. I gave my copy of “Curly Girl” away years ago, but will probably buy the revised edition when it comes out.
What made you stop the Curly Girl routine?
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