As promised, I am entering my weekly blog. This week’s topic…. Curly Hair! Last summer at the 2009 Orlando Premiere Hair Show, I sat in on a class that demonstrated the increasingly popular hair care line, Deva Curl. Prior to attending these classes I wanted to find a product line for my curly haired clients that I truly believed worked. I found products in the past that I felt were so so but I was choosing many different things from many different hair care lines. I wanted to find one line that I loved and could truly stand behind.

In this class, the owners of Deva Curl demonstrated how they approached cutting curly hair. Their theory is that curly hair should be cut dry and in its natural state. Their reasoning is that curly hair falls to a certain length and sits in a particular way when the hair is dry and in its natural state. Some curls on the head may be tighter and curlier than other curls. That same curly hair becomes a completely different canvas when it is wet, combed straight, and then cut. Also, cutting wet also increases the chance of cutting off too much. You won’t know until the hair is dry and in its natural state how much those pretty curls will fall and at what lengths. The light bulb went off! It seems simple enough but prior to sitting in this class, extremely curly hair always intimidated me. Cut curly hair dry! I explained it to my curly haired clients like this… “It is like hedging a bush” or more politically correct, “It is like sculpting a beautiful art piece from a block of clay”. All joking aside, the hair is cut it to get the shape that you want when the hair is dry and in its natural state. Genius!

After the haircut demo they started to explain the concepts behind their product line. Their biggest theme….MOISTURE. Curly hair needs moisture to be healthy. How to achieve this you ask? They strongly encourage against and coined phrases such as “blow-fry-ing” and being a “flat-iron addict”. They do encourage however for curly haired clients to not frequently wash their hair. One to two times a week is what they suggest. Their Shampoos in their line are cleverly named No-Poo and Low-Poo. These shampoos are sulfate free and are designed to not strip out the oils and moisture that curly hair needs. The No-Poo is really mild and doesn’t produce cleansing bubbles when used. The Low-Poo is mild but has a slight lather. Some clients may think that bubbles=clean. Deva Curls says that this isn’t the case. No-Poo and Low-Poo has everything you need to get the hair clean. Just because it isn’t lathering up like the froth on your latte doesn’t mean it isn’t working.
Obviously, curly hair needs to be conditioned to increase moisture. The Deva Curl Conditioner is a nice finish after the No-Poo or Low-Poo. Deva Curl also has several different leave-in and spray-in conditioners as well as a styling pomade that is great for a style finishing product which I love. What is my favorite styling product from Deva Curl??? The AnGEL. The AnGEL is a styling gel that is used to set the curl when the hair is wet. Usually when I mention “gel” to a curly haired client, I am met with a sort of grimace on my client’s face. What I found out from my clients and in my own experience, gel can be drying to the hair and can leave the curl feeling “too crunchy”. The AnGEL does not do this to the hair. It is my favorite product in this line. Before drying the hair, AnGEL is applied when the hair is wet and evenly distributed through the hair. The hair is then dried either naturally or with a diffuser. The result is a soft, beautiful curl with no frizz.

Now that I have adopted the Deva Cut and carry all of the Deva Curl Products in my salon I have discovered a few things. What I am about to write is not part of the Deva Curl Concept. Instead it is what I have adopted for my own use. I believe taking the knowledge you receive and interpreting it to a way that makes sense to you is important. Not all of the curly hair clients that I encounter I cut dry. It just depends on the type of curl and whether or not the client often wears the hair straight. If there is a lot of curl (examples are Nicole Kidman and Keri Russell) and they always wear their hair curly, I will cut it dry. If they have a moderate amount of curl (Mariah Carey or Deborah Messing) and they sometimes wear it straight, I will either cut their hair wet and concentrate on not taking too much off the ends or I will wash it, dry it, then flat-iron it and then cut it dry. I use this method when they just need a trim on all the ends. When it is completely straight I can then just graze the ends with my shears not taking off too much length.
If you have any questions about the techniques I have described or the products from Deva Curl that I mentioned, feel free to contact me at salonlavish@verizon.net or you can visit our website at www.mylavishsalon.com for more information about our salon.