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I spent more than twenty years of my life not really knowing how to deal with my hair. It was super thick (when I was a teen, a terrifying adult touched it and remarked it felt like straw; I died but have since recovered), frizzy, sometimes wavy, sometimes curly, and often felt like a hot, weighted mass of hair blanket. Not the hair vibes I was ever seeking.

If I brushed my hair, it would pouf out like I’d just plugged myself into a an electrical outlet. And let’s not even talk about the time I cut my hair shoulder length at thirteen, and ended up with a triangle-shaped frizz-bomb floating atop my head for the next year. Ugh.

In my late teens and twenties, I learned to stop brushing my hair. It was a good start, but the products I gooped on to minimize frizz left my hair weighted down and oily. I knew that my hair looked unfailingly amazing after a swim in the ocean (curls and definition galore), but I didn’t know how to replicate those results at home.

Not until I was twenty-seven did I finally meet someone who knew what to do with my thick, wild, Ashkenazi Jewess mane. To this day, I don’t know how Jennie Altman—whose hair is straight as a board—became such a wavy hair styling master, but I’m forever indebted to her coiffing wisdom. Nota bene: I don’t have experience styling any hair other than my own, so these tips specifically apply to my hair type. The method below may not work for other hair types.

Here’s what I learned from Jennie:

1. 1. Find a stylist who knows how to cut wavy and curly hair. This person will also know that wavy-curly hair should be cut dry. They should also know how to properly layer wavy-curly hair to create levels and face-framing as desired. (In Los Angeles, I recommend Jay Small.)

1. 1. Use better-than grocery store products, with ingredients you can trust. I used to buy my hair products at the health food store, because I liked the idea of the ingredients being safe. Jennie taught me I should be using professional-quality products, because the cleansing power of grocery store products can’t match the former.
      I had two gripes about this: 1) I didn’t want to break the bank buying shampoo and conditioner. 2) Weren’t professional-quality products usually filled with bad-for-you ingredients? Jennie recommended Label M shampoo and conditioner, which use organic ingredients and steer clear of sulfates. Best part—I could order big bottles on Amazon for a totally reasonable price.Want an easy way to check on the safety of ingredients you see on a label? Use the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep site—you can search any ingredient and find records of its toxicity, allergen-levels, and scientific research done on it. It’s a gold mine.

1. 1. Figure out what you want your hair to look like! Do the research—what do you want your hair to look like, in your wildest dreams?
      Tori Kelly is my forever hair inspiration—big, soft waves and curls with layers and face framing.My biggest challenge to getting my hair to Tori-level was that my hair usually just clumped together. Its weight rarely allowed individual curls to shine.

      
      
      

    

   1. 1. Use minimal products. I use a light leave-in conditioner made by Alaffia, called Beautiful Curls (I use the one for Wavy to Curly hair). And the Sea Salt Lavender Hair Spritz from Kale & Caramel: Recipes for Body, Heart, and Table. (Sure, you could by a ridiculously over-priced sea salt spray, or you could get my book, which contains over 80 recipes for food and body and beauty, and will enrich your life eternally.)

    

   1. Style your hair using The Jennie Method. I made you a video with the full tutorial, but here’s a brief description:
   1. 1. Wash, condition, and towel dry your hair.
      2. Apply leave-in conditioner and sea salt spritz.
      3. Part hair where you want your hair parted.
      4. Take small segments of hair—about 1/2-inch thick—and twirl each segment away from your face around your index finger from top to bottom, then release. Repeat with segments of hair all over your head, until your head is full of damp Medusa-like ringlets.
      5. Let your hair air dry, or use low heat to dry in a pinch. My hair air dries for three hours—I should probably look into getting a hair dryer, but I’ve never owned one and I’m not crazy about the idea of heat damage.
      6. Once your hair is completely dry, separate the ringlets and shake out your beautiful head of wavy curls.
      7. If desired, apply a light shine serum or oil, like rosehip seed oil.

   Welcome to the beachy waves of your dreams, easy, all-natural, and super low maintenance. Don’t forget to watch the video tutorial!

   The post HOW TO STYLE THE WAVY HAIR OF YOUR DREAMS: THE EASY, ALL-NATURAL WAY. appeared first on Kale and Caramel.