This is not an advertisment

Before I start, I just want to say that this is not an advertisement... just tip sharing between myself and any curly-haired readers that happen to be out there. If you are not interested in curl-care, I suggest you do yourself a favour and skip this post!

I have struggled to tame my frizzy curls into something like the Julia-Roberts-Nicole-Kidman-natural-beauty that abounds in Hollywood. Of course, it never occurred to the younger me that they had a stylist to do that for them before every shoot. I couldn't understand how their hair looked glossy and perfect, whereas mine was fly-away frizzy. And of course I recognise that my hair is not the curliest out there, but it's still pretty damn curly. Not 'fro' curly but definitely Muppet curly. While in the 80s it was ok to verge on the frizz, sometime during the 90s it became only acceptible to have curly hair, if each curl was in a nicely tamed and defined set- what I like to call The Hollywood Curl. Anything less than this and, well, it was just considered lazy that you didn't bother to straighten it.

When I was a kid, though still curly, my hair lacked the strength it has now and so it was much easier to manage. Then puberty hit. Oh boy. My nickname for many years was witch, because that's just what I looked like- long dark outta control frizzy hair. How I would have done ANYTHING for Hollywood curls.

I learned from a young age that hair products were my friend, yet none of them (even the really expensive ones that always seem to have a man's name as their brand) ever really seemed to work. On top of that they leave your hair feeling heavy, greasy, hard or sticky... sometimes all four.

BUT THEN....

A stylist friend introduced me to 'Potion 9' by Sebastian (see another man's name!). For once this product actually worked. Usually my hair freaks out when I put a new product on it- taking a few days to be beaten into submission- but this was instant. I smoothed a little through, took a few sections of hair on the top of my head either side of my part and curled them around my finger while the hair was wet, and then walked out of the house.

Miraculously, I had Hollywood hair.

It feels soft and natural, and leaves your hair glossy with each curl still defined. It's a bit expensive (around $15-20 for a big tube, but you really only need to use a little).

I apologise to any reader with beautiful, silky, straight locks, who by now is ready to poke their own eyes out from boredom. However, as my own mum doesn't have such curly hair, everything I know about curl maintenance I learned via experimentation or through friends. Therefore I feel honor-bound to share the product.


An after photo >>>
I tried to find a good frizzy before shot, but I'm so horrified of my hair like that I never kept any real shockers on my pc. The red sections help to show just how the curls stay tamed and defined.