How to: train your curly hair

“Ma’am, pa-rebond po?”

If you have curly hair, this question is not something new. It’s the question asked by salons the moment you step foot inside, the question asked by relatives when they see you during reunions, or the question that keeps you wide awake at night as the pin-straight hair was established as the standard of beauty in the Philippines.

I vividly remember getting called “bruha” or “lion king” as a kid who had unruly, thick, frizzy hair which I combed through at every given chance. Admittedly, that second snub made me laugh for a while, before it made me roll my eyes so hard at my classmate who screamed it as we were playing charades and the taya pointed to me.

Having curly hair in a humid, hot, and carping country might just have you falling into the straight hair propaganda and running towards the nearest salon. But fret not, as times change and so will your routine with this step-by-step guide of how to train, maintain, and love your natural curls.

I was used to being the odd one out. My family all had beautiful, shiny straight hair, which all the more adds to my problem as nobody at the house knew how to manage curly hair. So, I used the products they did and did to my hair what they did to theirs. Here’s where the first step comes in: