Learning to Tame My Natural Waves: Meredith’s Curly Hair Journey

As far back as I can remember, I’ve struggled with having natural curls and waves in my hair. When I was very young, I remember my mother styling my hair simply so that my natural curls and waves were accentuated – I even remember when my brother had a head full of curls when he was very little and she couldn’t bring herself to cut them. My parents loved my curls and waves, as this was inherited from both of them, and always encouraged me to embrace my natural beauty and be myself in a world that told me straight hair was beautiful and curls were something to be “fixed.” So it was that my struggle with my curls and waves was born.

As your typical tomboy from the age of 6 forward, I never really tried to do anything with my hair, preferring to pull it back into a ponytail or hide it all under a hat because it always looked like a rat’s nest to me. Rather than try to style my waves and curls, I was much more content to leave them to their own devices – after all, brushing my hair never did anything other than make it frizzy. 

During the later years of elementary school and middle school, despite how often I could be found on the soccer field, I distinctly remember trying to tame the curls and waves using my mother’s blow dryer and curling iron, constantly telling myself that I would get the frizz out the more I pressed my hair with the blow dryer. I even went so far as to think that ironing it would work (my mother told me this was how many of the hippies she grew up with achieved their perfectly stick-straight locks), though my fear of burning myself kept me away from the hot iron and ironing board. The few times I was able to tame my waves and curls into straight locks, after a few hours, it would always start to curl back up into very loose, large waves. I hated the appearance, and my hair wound up back in a ponytail or a bun.

Many of my friends would curl their hair into waves and couldn’t understand why I – often desperately – tried to straighten my hair, and I would just look at my hair, look at them, and ask, “Why would you want your hair to look like mine? I can’t do anything with this!” I tried gels, waxes, sprays and serums to keep the frizz in check and embrace my waves and curls as my friends urged me to do, though it was usually to no avail. I continued to simply pull it back into my signature ponytail or bun unless I was a special occasion. On those occasions, I would struggle with heated tools to try and get it straight and hope it would stay that way – which it usually didn’t.

When I went off to college, I continued my trend of letting my hair do what it would and pulling it back into my signature bun or ponytail (usually the bun because I wanted to keep the curls and waves firmly in tact). During college, I started to embrace my curls and I regularly tried out different gels, mousses and waxes to maintain the texture while controlling the frizz. I still straightened it on the rare occasion I would have time, but I was usually seen with my natural curls and waves flowing or pulled back into a clip.

At the ripe age of 30, I’ve finally found myself loving my natural hair – though I still struggle (quite often) to tame the frizz, which I mostly attribute to the ridiculous humidity of a typical Atlanta summer. I still pull it back rather frequently because the feeling of it sticking to my neck is often too much to bear when it gets incredibly hot and humid.

I’ve always joked that I have about 4 hairstyles: curly, straight, in a bun, or in a clip. Being able to make those jokes shows me just how much I’ve come to love and accept my natural waves and curls. In the past year, I've had the joy of working with PuffCuff  Marketing Director Sonja Crystal Williams and Founder Ceata Lash, offering me the opportunity to try out the different PuffCuff sizes and let Ceata show me how to easily use the PuffCuff to achieve different styles. Now - rather than using a standard hair clip that barely holds my curls - I always go for my PuffCuff Micros to style my natural curls and waves! I love playing with my multiple Micro PuffCuffs to create different looks - I've even worn my PuffCuff Micro to one of my favorite punk shows in Atlanta!

Though my mother still prefers my hair straight, she’s even said on multiple occasions, “You know, I’m finally getting used to your curls and waves.” I think she speaks for both of us when she says that – after years of struggling to tame them into a style that’s considered “normal,” I’ve finally come to the conclusion that my natural curls and waves are beautiful in their own right, and they’re part of what makes me “me”!