Riot Crrrl: A curly journey
Hands up if you remember the late 90s? Jennifer Aniston of Friends fame was peak hair inspo, with the ‘Rachel’ cut being emulated on a global scale. Even Sex and the City’s curly icon, Carrie Bradshaw joined the poker straight revolution during that era. The message was clear, curly hair was cancelled and high-heat hair appliances were in.
As a result, an impressionable teenage me jumped onboard. Subsequent years of bleaching and straightening in my desire for straight hair left me with a frizzy mess. However, in recent times my hair fought back, becoming wavy (frizzy) at every given opportunity. On a recent holiday to Thailand, I decided enough was enough and embraced my curls with gusto.
Once on home soil my quest for healthy, natural hair led me to Riot Crrrl, a curl specialist situated on Duke Street in Brighton. I booked in with owner Leah who has many years dealing with frizzy heads of hair and transforming them into perfectly coiled springs.
She assessed my hair: dry ends, the result of a former blonde balayage and too much sun and sea. It also lacked shape, my ‘curls’ were bottom heavy. We decided a decent trim was long overdue and Leah cut my hair while it was dry – she explained: when wet, curls are weighed down and stretched out, hiding their true bounce and shape. Cutting dry allows a stylist to shape the hair curl-by-curl in its natural state, preventing uneven lengths and “triangle” shapes.
Once the chop was complete we retreated to the wash basin where Leah lathered my hair in a carefully chosen range of sulphate-free products, concluding with a house-made curl cream and gel which would firstly hydrate my hair and secondly lock in the curl pattern. Back to the chair, where I was reclined backwards (to give maximum lift) while she got to work with a diffuser. Curly girls will know, this process is looonnggg, but so worth it. Once dried I resumed an upright position and was absolutely astounded by how curly my hair actually is! I didn’t recognise myself in the mirror. Flat, frizzy hair had been replaced by a bouncy head of defined curls from root to tip – I have never achieved this in the past.
My advice? Anyone looking to embrace their natural curls must visit Riot Crrrl they really know what they are doing.
www.riotcrrrl.com | 36 Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG
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