Hi Beauties! My name is Stephanie! I was born and raised in NYC and my parents are from the Dominican Republic. I’ve always had natural curls, however, growing up in my culture it was all about rocking straight hair. I remember getting a relaxer at the age of 10 because my hair was “so hard to manage”. For a really long time, I thought this was normal and that my hair had to ALWAYS be straight.
In 2007 10 months after I had my daughter, I decided to chop off my hair but not because I wanted to do the whole natural thing, it was more of an emotional chop for me. One thing I knew for sure was that I would no longer be relaxing my hair. However, because I had no knowledge in caring for my curls the proper way, continued straightening my hair with the flat iron and using bad products. It wasn’t until May 2014, when I noticed I had absolutely no curl pattern left from all the heat damage I’d caused. So, I began my research on how to get my curls back, and thanks to social media, I was introduced to the amazing curly/natural community. I started to follow curly influencers and watching many YouTube videos on how to care for my curls, there were so many tips and great information I had no idea existed. I had one goal and it was to restore my curls, so when I had enough growth I chopped off all the heat damage (this was January 2015). Two years later and I am in love with my curls! I have learned to embrace them and care for them because they are a part of who I am.
Now don’t get me wrong, the beginning of my natural journey was a struggle. I had to LEARN my hair, the type of curls I had, what my hair likes, did I have low, normal or high porosity level. Well…I have tight curls (between 3B and 4A), its very dry so it needs plenty of moisture and I have a normal porosity level. Also in my process, I became a product junkie (covers face). I needed to test out different products because unfortunately I had to find out the hard way, that one product may work great for another curly girl but it did not work great on me. My curls love coconut, any product that has coconut in it works amazing on me. The brand I swear by is Made Beautiful & the amazing Jamaican Black Castor Oil.
My #1 rule in maintaining healthy curls is STAYING CONSISTENT. I have bad hair days but I definitely have a lot more good days. One of the things I love is when a complete stranger stops me just to compliment my hair. It just reminds me of how far my hair has come. Being a curly girl isn’t a trend, it’s a Lifestyle.
Stay Curly
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