I could easily run my fingers through my hair, just as I had seen my idol Cindy Crawford do. That’s my first memory of feeling beautiful…perhaps because at that point in my life I wasn’t exposed to forms of beauty that existed beyond my homogeneous homeland.
My daily outbursts continued into high school. Eventually, I learned how to perfect my style by reading magazines like Allure and studying stylists’ techniques. It was all about concentrated heat, tension, and the right brush with round boar bristles.
When I was in college, most of my classmates were born with straight or wavy hair. So, in order to be closer to them, I woke up at dawn every morning and continued to grow my curls. I’m not sure if even my closest friends knew that my hair texture wasn’t actually straight and smooth. Then, in 2010, I read about a new temporary correction method, keratin treatments, and booked one for the next school holiday.
With keratin-treated hair, I was able to achieve a “perfect” blowout in 20 minutes. I vowed to never quit keratin, and I kept that promise for over a decade, even though I moved to New York City and met some of the most beautiful people on the planet with gorgeous hair across the entire texture spectrum. I loved how they embraced the curls, but I didn’t think they would look as great on mine.
Back to the beginning of this year. At 33 years old, I rarely have the time or energy to blow dry my hair for even 20 minutes. To style your hair, you usually comb it back into a bun.
Then, in May, I saw Charli XCX’s “360” music video. Shortly after, she released her sixth studio album, Brat. And we all know the cultural phenomenon that followed. I was transfixed by everything about it, sonically, lyrically, and aesthetically. Charlie, who has mostly kept her hair straight for most of her life, now appears all over my feed, her dark curls tumbling around her. I loved how cool and confident she looked. What I liked even more was that her hair was very similar to mine.
“I think it took me a really long time to actually embrace my curls,” Charli told Allure last month. “Over the last few years, I’ve kind of, I don’t know, gotten used to it. I’ve gotten more confident in wearing it in this natural way…to be honest, I just get out of the shower and let it air dry. That’s it.”
