Writer Tells African-American Hair Tales In “Curly Like Me”

June 21st, 2010 - By admin

"Curly Like Me"

By Demetria Irwin

Stretch, pull, burn, slather in grease. These are just a few of the ways some of us naturally curly Madames have tortured our hair and scalp over the years. Teri LaFlesh, author of Curly Like Me: How to Grow Your Hair Healthy, Long and Strong, understands that struggle and she’s here to help.

After years of trying to figure out ways to make her naturally curly hair unnaturally straight, LaFlesh finally embraced her curls and began to view her hair as an asset rather than an enemy. “This book will tell you not only how to manage your curls, but how to make them happy,” says LaFlesh in the Curly Like Me introduction. Happy curls? Oh, do tell!

LaFlesh begins the book by sharing her own “hairstory”, complete with cringe-worthy pictures. The product of a marriage between a black woman and a white man, LaFlesh’s hair was a fuzzy, unpredictable, notoriously dry mystery to her and her family. Jheri curls, weaves and extensions are just some of the styles that LaFlesh rocked for the first 20 years or so of her life.

One day, LaFlesh decided to go natural and eventually found that she actually liked the natural texture of her hair. Like a lot of women with processed hair, she hadn’t seen her God-given texture since she was a kid.

The rest of Curly Like Me is part science, part how-to and all the way helpful. LaFlesh explains the anatomy of a hair follicle (she even has diagrams) in understandable terms and then provides chapters of step-by-step instructions on how to properly and inexpensively care for natural curls. Essentially, LaFlesh advocates for gentle combing and leaving in hair conditioner, even when the label instructs to rinse it out. This is not exactly revolutionary hair care advice, but it is laid out in a very simple and helpful way.

By far the most useful part of the book is the section on hair product ingredients. Though she does name-check some products, she also lists common ingredients and explains what they do to your hair and scalp. That is priceless information because it takes the guesswork out of shopping at the beauty supply store and helps make you immune to those pretty, sparkly marketing tricks.

LaFlesh also includes information on curly hair tools, do-it-yourself styling options and other hair care resources. She has her own website: Tightly Curly, but she spreads the love by shouting out other popular curly hair sites as well.

Curly Like Me is a quick, easy read. The way LaFlesh cares for her own waist-length hair might not be perfectly suited to your needs and she acknowledges this, but she offers resources and information that pretty much any curly Madame would find useful.

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  • Penelope Toussaint

    GREAT review. I love your writing style: the prose is lyrical; the cadence speeds and slows appropriately; sentences are varied. Keep up the good work!

  • dana

    Very helpful review . . . I will definitely read this book because I need hair help!

  • https://twitter.com/Love_Is_Dope Demetria Irwin

    Lil Kunta, her hair is a regular afro when short. That cover pic is an "after" picture. But of course our hair (African American hair) comes in a wide range of textures. My hair is SUPER thick and tightly coiled (check my Twitter profile pic) and I found some useful info in here in regards to ingredients and tools. Thanks for taking the time to comment!

    Sean, the book is definitely geared toward women, but she does have short hair suggestions that you might find useful. Plus, the ingredients list would apply to you men as well. Thanks for stopping by!

    GG, me too! Curly ladies always have interesting hair stories. :) I love that she includes tons of pictures of her hair journey. Thanks for commenting!

  • http://www.peaceloveprettythings.blogspot.com GG

    I will definitely be checking out this book. It seems that I can't get enough of hearing different "hair stories" and about women's journeys to natural and/or healthy hair.

  • http://www.facebook.com/seanchristopher Sean Christopher

    Refreshingly well-written review in a day and age of piss poor synopsis writing instead of reviewing.

    Are there any tips for black men's hair in the book? There's gotta be something healthier than this du-rag and can of Sport'n Waves.

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  • lilkunta

    Cool but most AfrAm DONT have hair like hers. We arent bi ethnic of afr/anglo. We dont have long curly silky hair. Our hair tpes are more 4 & 4b.

    • TruD

      Her hair type IS 4a/4b (some would even say z). You have to see her before pics. I most definitely have what would be considered 4b hair and this technique has my hair looking and doing the same as hers on the cover of this book. The only difference is that my hair hasn't grown waist length yet.

      We with the considered 'nappy' (tightly coiled) hair are quick to dismiss that our hair can naturally look 'a particular way' that is healthy and not beaten into submission. I argue with my people on a regular basis that I have the same exact hair texture and type as they do (but just care for it differently) and they all swear up and down that I have type 3whatever hair or some other assertion.

      Look into it before rushing to the assumption that your hair just can't do that NATURALLY. Please check out her site Tightlycurly.com and check out her story with pics. See-Teri's hair Photo history. Her childhood pics are what we have, that bushy, fluffy, NAPPY, crunchy and rough stuff.

      No lie, give your hair a chance with her very simple low to NO cost technique. Both of my parents are Black(African) and so are both of theirs and so forth as far as I know, and it worked just as well for me.

  • TruD

    Hey there:
    Not all biracial offspring have hair that is a cross between their two races. Wildly and oddly, many mixed (hell even White people) have hair EXACTLY like ours-believe it or not. Okay so you choose not to believe it, which is human, but for points' emphasis PLEASE check out her before pics on her web site. She is a Black girl (at least by hairs definition). LOL. YOUR hair is probably not as tangly/kinky/coily as hers. :) But all jokes aside, this technique really is excellent for our AFRICAN hair, and you don't have to be mixed, or have mixed hair, or have type 3 blah blah blah hair etc.

    Extra point: When we follow techniques like those found in this book, it keeps our hair from breaking, is more beautiful, natural and makes it possible to get to her length and beyond healthily. That length in itself helps to keep the hair weighted and more manageable (yes our hair can naturally grow to that length and look that silky).

    Check out also: Janet's site http://www.io.com/~cortese/hair/index.html and http://www.longhairdontcare.net
    JM2cents