Julissa Hernandez

Rosie DaSilva

For most curly cuties, we didn’t grow up embracing our curly hair. As kids we probably always wished we had straight hair, which lead to years of torturing our locks to make it straight. Until NaturallyCurly.com, most people did not have the information to embrace their curls, but how much of a difference would it have made in your own life if someone would have showed you how to embrace your girls and build your confidence in you hair when you were a child?

Devachan stylist Rosie DaSilva has been doing just that—changing the lives of children by giving them confidence in their curls. “I have a garden with flowers that I [help] grow every day—I help them bloom,” she says.

The confidence that Rosie gives children with their hair helps them blossom into individuals who understand the beauty of their unique hair and creating confidence that exudes beyond outer beauty, impacting—more importantly—inner beauty.

DaSilva was born in Brazil and she attended school in England, and once she finished, she jumped across the pond and landed in New York. Rosie has resided in New York for 17 years and has been with Devachan for 15 years. She has been styling hair for the past 20 years, and over the years Rosie saw that women were coming into the salon frustrated with their curly hair. DaSilva educated these women about what gorgeous, unique hair they have and gave them the tools to build their confidence and learn to love their curly locks.

You may think that Rosie started her work with children having been inspired by own children, but in fact, though she does have a son curly hair, he’s a typical boy who’s not so worried about his hair. So how did she get into helping children embrace their curls?

DaSilva started working with children when a client asked her to work with her daughter’s hair. DaSilva consulted with the child and gave her the opportunity to tell Rosie what she wanted for her hair. DaSilva says, “I take a lot of time [with the children in consultation] and you have to see the whole picture—I don’t want any miscommunication.“ DaSilva is very interactive with children, showing them how to wash their hair and care for their curly hair to keep it looking beautiful. DaSilva was not aware of the impact she had made with this little girl until the child came back to the salon, “The feedback was amazing and I wasn’t aware until she came back into the salon I saw that her charisma changed—she grew into a flower and her hair looks amazing.” DaSilva gave this child the security in her hair to open up the horizons of opportunity through her newfound confidence. The child was speaking up and giving her own friends advice on how to wash their own hair and take care of their own curls and the change did not go unnoticed by her mother.

DaSilva realized that the women who would come into her salon frustrated with their hair had grown frustrated from insecurities about their own hair stemming from when they were children.

“A lot of little girls don’t feel pretty because their hair doesn’t look like everyone else’s, and I help them transform their hair. It makes a difference in their daily life and it makes me feel so good,” says DaSilva.

DaSilva recently had a mother-daughter experience with an editor of a popular magazine and her 6-year-old daughter. The mother came to DaSilva wanting to change her straight hair back to its naturally curly state. DaSilva recognized that mothers lead by example, so not only did she restore the mom’s hair back to its beautiful curl, but she also took the 6-year-old daughter under her wing and worked with her hair to create and build the self-esteem about her hair. Of this mother-daughter experience, DaSilva says, “The relationship between mothers and daughters is amazing—they talk in the same language about hair.“ DaSilva is not only building confidence in children but also bringing mothers and daughters together and helping build a bond based on curly hair.

DaSilva describes the feeling she gets when she sees how clients change and says, “Once you feel good, you can make someone else feel good.” DaSilva brings the “pay it forward” perspective into working with children and helping people embrace their curls. Not only is she making people look beautiful on the outside, but the confidence that she creates with kids and their hair makes them beautiful on the inside as well. DaSilva is helping create a new generation of confident curly cuties that will pass on their knowledge of curls to their daughters.

Mega-Tek Rebuilder

“Mega-Tek” sounds like the newest sci-fi movie, doesn’t it? But it’s actually the name of a much-buzzed-about, protein-based, cell-regenerating product that girls with textured hair are raving about.

Like the popular Mane ‘n’ Tail product of years gone by, Mega-Tek cell rebuilder is marketed for the equine market, to improve hoof strength and tail length. “Accelerates hair regrowth on bare spots caused by equipment and blanket rubs, skin conditions or injuries. Makes hair stronger reducing breakage,” the EQyss (Mega-Tek’s maker) website says.

But curly girls have discovered that the product works great for humans, too. Apparently the product was originally designed for humans, as a hair cell regenerator for hair damaged by perm, chemicals or heat. But for whatever reason, EQyss chose to market it for pets and horses, (We tried to get an interview with the company, but they declined.)

This product is popular among men and women who are losing hair rapidly. Mega-Tek cell rebuilder strengthens the hair up to 30%, the company claims, prevents breakage and slows down hair loss. Mega-Tek is also a favorite among chemotherapy patients trying to re-grow hair lost during chemotherapy. Not only is Mega-Tek Rebuilder great for hair, but you can also apply a little of Mega-Tek to the cuticle of nails daily to strengthen your nails. According to EQyss’s Crossover Information sheet, “Mega-Tek will make your fingernails up to 30% stronger.”

The hydrolyzed keratin protein in Mega-Tek Rebuilder penetrates the layers of hair to allow the product to strengthen, lengthen and thicken from the inside of the hair follicle to the outside. Some NaturallyCurly CurlTalk community members have expressed concerns about the dimethicone copolyol that is used in the product, which is derived from silicone. These shampoo free devotees have gotten around the issues by simply diluting the solution to reduce the ‘cone’ as our users like to call the product. CurlTalker Curlyhairmichuk says, “Yes, it does have dimethicone copolyl but it is water soluble. It smells nice.”

Some users claim the product helps their hair grow faster, but NaturallyCurly’s CurlChemist, Tonya McKay Becker, says, “The proteins and amino acids would increase strength, but there is nothing there that I feel could legitimately claim to increase hair growth.”

EQyss is aware of Mega-Tek’s secondary usage, and even offers directions for use on human hair: “Apply to wet clean hair. Used 3 times a week after shampooing, your hair will be thicker and fuller. Just rub a small amount in your hair and let it stay on from 2 to 5 minutes, then rinse out.”

Because the product contains a lot of protein, protein-sensitive curlies should use Mega-Tek with care. “Mega-Tek has a lot of protein so it is important to ensure that you use a conditioner after your Mega-Tek treatment if your hair is prone to feeling brittle when using a lot of protein,” cautions the site.

Mega-Tek is sold primarily online through various vendors. A small 2 oz jar of Mega-Tek rebuilder is sold for $12.95 on the EQyss website along with shampoo and other products that enhance results from the Mega-Tek Rebuilder. Amazon.com sells the larger size (16 oz) of Mega-Tek Rebuilder for $29 while other online sites also sell the product for a similar price.

Some curlies might be familiar with competitive product Ovation Cell Therapy, another product that claims to regenerates cells within the hair follicle. Most people, however, have found Ovation Cell Therapy to be more expensive than Mega-Tek.

Our users on NaturallyCurly.com’s forums have been discussing this product and results with it since 2006. CurlTalker writes, “I have used it for about 3 weeks straight each day, applying to my scalp. It really aided with the growth of my edges. Keep in mind best results generally come about 3 months in, with consistent use.”

Mariag002 also wrote on the CurlTalk boards: “I’ve been using it since the beginning of July and its definitely made a difference in how fast my hair grows. When I first started the hair in the front was down to the tip of my nose and now its chin length.”

Legally Natural talks about using Mega-Tek with her braids, “I use it mostly when I have extension braids in. It’s easier for me to apply it when it is braided up. I did get amazing growth the last time I used Mega-Tek while in braids so I am looking forward to starting it again.”

So the pundits say the recession is officially over. Sadly, however, your cash flow is a little low. But just because your budget is limited, it doesn’t mean your hair has to suffer. There are simple ways that you can easily fit haircuts, colors, and styling products that won’t break the bank. With these tips your hair you will be able to keep your curls fabulous while still staying within your budget!

Trim

If you need a haircut, or just a trim to hold you off until you have the cash flow for the next cut, don’t shy away from beauty schools. Yes I know, I know, you hear the words “beauty school” and the voice in your head lets out a shriek. Fear not, though—I thought the same thing when I first went to a beauty school to get my curls cut. In all actuality, though, these people are training to become your stylists in the future. I absolutely LOVE going to the Regency Beauty Institute here in Austin to get my hair cut.

I was a little skeptical at first, thinking, “Well, I don’t think they know how to cut curly hair” but I was DESPERATELY in need of a haircut. So I took my curly-haired friend Bianca with me to get her hair cut, also. We absolutely LOVED our cuts! When I first made our appointments, I asked for students who were learning to cut curly hair.

The school looked like a salon. Our stylists greeted us at the reception area, where we were led to the back to have our hair shampooed. Once you are in the chair, there is a consultation between you, your stylist and the head instructor. You explain what you want and what you’d like for your hair to do. The instructor asks your stylist what she thinks she should do with the cut, then the instructor either approves or provides guidance about what your stylist needs to do.

From there your stylist starts the cut; the instructor comes by from time to time to check how everything is going. Now, if there is something that you don’t like, the instructor will fix it for you. The process is lengthy, but that is to ensure that your cut will be exactly what you want. The great news about this is that because you are willing to let these students learn and practice with your hair, you don’t have to pay a high price for a cut or a trim.

As an extra bonus, they do salon pedicures and manicures for the school price— now that’s something I could get used to.

Here’s a this tip is for those of us who have bangs and trim them in between visits to the salon. You can learn to cut your own bangs. Yes, kind of scary—but with a good pair of shears or a razor to feather out your bangs (you can get a good pair from a beauty supply store for around $7) and a couple of instructional videos, and you will become a expert of trimming your bangs in between cuts. First place I look when I want to get tips on how to cut my bangs, is ehow.com. This site offers instructional videos and directions on everything you may need to know how to do. I use this site quite often for tips on trimming my bangs. You can also look to YouTube for inspiration also. The trick when trimming your bangs in to do things slowly. When trimming your bangs, remember, you can always cut your hair shorter.

Color at Home

Color your hair in the comfort of your home. A salon coloring will seriously put a strain on your wallet, and if you’re not looking for anything dramatic, you can color your hair at home.

You may think you may not get salon quality color—wrong! A new hair color line called “Perfect 10” — you can buy it at almost any drugstore—has been reviewed to be one of the best at home colors on the market. This formula gives you salon quality at less than the salon price.

Adding some highlights? Well, since we have curly hair, we don’t have to worry about messing up highlights. As always, take your time. With our curly hair, highlights are not as risky as it is with straight hair. Grab thin pieces of random hair to where you would like to see your highlights. Work by sections, starting with the bottom sections and work your way up. If you don’t feel absolutely confident on highlighting your hair by yourself, check ehow.com to pick up some tips to boost your confidence.

Shop Smart

Products, you know you need them and there’s some quality products featured on CurlMart that are affordable and make your hair work for you. I like to use Elucence Moisture Benefits shampoo and Moisture Balancing Conditioner. They are affordable products made for curly hair. I like to then add some Curl Keeper. You can use a leave-in conditioner or a silk serum to tame frizziness. Then I use some Shine and Define from Oyin. This is a great coconut-scented definition cream that is a great deal for $11. For drying my hair, I splurged just a little and bought the Hand Dry Gloves, but these gloves are well worth the $22. The gloves are the best things I’ve ever used to dry my hair. The gloves tame my frizzies and leave my product intact and my curls defined.

So I’ve shared the 3 tips that have kept me on my financial course throughout my college years of surviving on ramen. These are three most important tips that anyone can use whether you’re on a budget or just trying to save up for that cute pair of shoes you just have to have! Hopefully these tips will save you some money and maybe even some grief—just enough to get you to the next holiday.

We know you’ve been wondering…… The answer is yes! Yes, you curly haired girls can get scene-looking hair!

I, like you, have always wanted to find a scene-looking hairstyle that would fit my curly hair. After about a month of research and help from my stylist friend Andie, I found what I believe are good-looking scene looks for curly hair.

If you’re older than, say, 22, and are wondering, “What is scene hair?,” here’s some quick info: Scene hair is a style that involves hair with lots of volume, choppy layers to create a messy look with accessories and possibly some bright colors and extreme color contrasts. So, curly-haired girls, we have this in the bag, naturally. Volume—check. Messy hair—check. To get the effect we want, I suggest short-medium length layers in your hair.

Tools
Let’s start by checking out some tools you are going to need to achieve the look.

• For sure you’re going to need a good detangler. I like Curly Hair Solutions Slip because after I tease my hair, it loosens up the knots that I created.
• You may or may not want a straightener — the choice is yours (I’ll show you how to use it with this style).
• You are going to need a fine-toothed comb with a point at the end to create lines for separating hair; we’ll use the comb is to tease the hair.
• Volumizing mousse is one of the key elements to creating this hair. As I mentioned earlier volume is key and this hair speaks in volumes. Any volumizing mousse will do.
• Hairspray to hold the look.
• Blowdryer and a diffuser to create the volume.
• Accessories: tiny bows, bright-colored bobby pins, headbands. All of these accessories are recommended, but not needed.

Ok, so now that we have our tools, lets get started!

Bangs

Bangs are a good addition for this look, but are not needed to achieve this style.

For you girls who are not ready to commit to bangs, there are a couple of options for you. Use a side part to bring over half a layer for more volume to one side. The second option is where your comb comes in handy, section off your hair from the end of the arches of your eyebrows to create a chunk to tease. Use your comb and at the root of this section, slowly tease (push down the hair with the comb or “comb down” towards the root) to create a “poof”. Hairspray your teased root and pull back the section to create the poof and place a couple of bobby pins to hold this section in place and keep it edgy. Finally, you can create the illusion of bangs (a trick I did before I committed). Taking a section of hair from your forehead to mid arch of your eyebrow (depending on what side you want them to fall), pull the section to the side you are parting and pull towards the back of your head and pin in place. This creates the illusion of bangs.

Those of you want the bangs, for you girls with a square to oval shaped face, blunt bangs are your best bet and still give you the “scene” look. Girls with round-heart shaped faces, side swept bangs bring out your cheek bone structure and slim the face. Add a pretty bow, colorful bobby pins or a headband near your and you have the style.

Natural Scene
The first look is the less drastic change for your hair, a more natural look, yet still spunky.

First, in wet hair apply your leave in conditioner or your Curl Keeper styling serum. Next we will apply the volumizing moose to the whole head. Once your products are applied, grab your blow dryer and diffuser. While blow drying your hair, to create the volume you need flip your head to where you are drying the bottom of your hair first. Dry your hair this way to create the volume needed. Scrunch hair until almost dry, let the bottom layer (remember we are working with layers) air dry after. The top layer of your hair needs to be dried completely with the blow dryer on warm heat (so you don’t damage your beautiful hair) and scrunch your hair towards the scalp to create the volume you want. Once your hair is completely dry, you can tame the frizzies by adding a dime size amount of Curl Keeper, rubbing it between your palms and distributing evenly through the hair. VOILA! Your hair comes out with a natural yet edgy look.

Curly Scene Cutie
Ok, so the natural look isn’t cutting it for you. Ok, well, let’s take it a step further. First, run your straightener down pieces of your bottom layer of hair that frame your face. Running the straightener down once will loosen the curl and give a wavy, yet longer, piece of hair, or you can fully straighten the lower pieces. Extensions would also work, but in this case, we are going to use what we’ve got. The idea is to lengthen the bottom layer for the scene effect. After you’ve lengthened the bottom layer, grab your comb and tease the top layer. Now don’t go crazy and tease all the way to the tip. I suggest just teasing the root to minimize knots and keep your curl while still creating the look. Spray the roots with hairspray as you tease, to add the height you want. Finger-comb your hair into place while keeping the volume intact. Once you’ve gotten the desired height, spray all over to hold and ta-da! You have completed your look (or at least your hair)!

Curly Bob
I was looking for a style that would accommodate this look and still let me achieve the “normal” looking hair. I went to my stylist friend Andie who owns Salon Bliss and told her about what I wanted to do with my hair and what I needed from my cut with my curly hair. Andie then gave me a “curly bob” but she kept the bottom layer of my hair intact and angled my top layer towards the front of my face to create the curly bob look. Andie did this to texturize the curl on top and create the volume I want in the back of the head, the shortest point and keep the body with loose curls as she angled the hair.

Thin it out
Andie thinned out the top layer to reduce the wide “poof” that would have been created with this cut. Although thinning of curly hair has mixed reviews, I see the difference in my hair and how I have more definition in my curls on the top layer(this is also thanks to my styling products). Thinning the hair loosens the curl, so you can also achieve the scene style when you thin out some of your hair. Be warned though, if you choose to thin out your entire head of hair, this takes a lot to maintain. When your hair grows out, it may look a little funky so trips to the salon will be needed.

Color
Another way to create the scene look with this hair is to “dramatize” it and add bright colors to your hair. With this cut I suggest adding the color to the bottom layer since it is intact and less texture. You can choose to chunk color or use thin streaks, chunking looks better on longer hair since there is more to work with and thin streaks with shorter hair to define strands. You can use pretty much any color under the sun you desire when your adding color, but with darker hair, there is a need to bleach the parts where color will be added. Pinks, purples, blues and reds are popular with this trend, but also the contrast of black and blonde is really popular as well. For those of us who are not ready to commit to color just yet, there are colored hair extensions that you can clip into your hair and curl with a curling iron to blend in with your natural hair.

Jungle Hair
So just as we teased our “Curly Scene Cutie” hair, it goes for this style. Grab your fine-toothed comb and your hairspray, tease the root of the first layer (the bob layer) and create volume, especially in the back. Remember to only tease the root to keep your curl intact. Tease the face framing strands of your bottom layer to create more volume around your face. While teasing, finger style your hair and run a dime size amount of Curl Keeper along with one last mist of hairspray through the hair.

Casually Curly
A cute yet casual way to style your hair on those days you just don’t have time to mess with your hair. Take the bob layer and tease just the back where the cut is the shortest to give you the volume. Hairspray and then separate the bottom layer into two sections and braid for the casually curly look.

Last but not least
And of course, how could we forget to include the styling technique of straightening the bottom layer. You could stay true to your roots (hehe) and only run the straightening iron over once to loosen the curl and create a wavy effect for the bottom layer. We can even go ’80s and crimp the bottom layer since “the crimp” is coming back in style. Add some hairspray as usual and YAY! You’ve got scene hair!

The end?
So guys, I experimented with these different looks that can be created with curly hair. You saw the results and even though results may vary, remember the key elements of the style are volume and messy. “Scene” is not only about the look, its also about the attitude, so curly hair girls grab your attitude and create your own ‘do if you like or cop one of these!

Till next time, my curly-haired cuties, this is Julz and remember, stick to your guns and your roots.