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My Struggles with Thick Hair

My Life Growing Up with Thick Hair

By Annie CurranPublished 6 years ago 5 min read
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For many people that I know, they were lucky to be born with the greatness of thin hair. Thin hair is way more common compared to thick hair, although many of my friends have wanted to create volume due to thin hair being boring and flat at times.

For me, being half Asian, I didn't get the luxury of having sleek, smooth thin hair which many of my Asian friends have. Having thick hair is more of an issue than looking great. The reason is that I need to maintain and put more work into my hair compared to most people. I can’t just wake up in the morning and have my hair looking great! It takes a lot of brushing and straightening to make it look nice, which, as a result, damaged my hair in past events.

From the age of 14, I've been trying new products and ways to make my hair more manageable. In that time, I realised that coconut oil was apparently really good for your hair and many Asian people use it to create silky, shiny, and smooth hair. But then as I tried different types of coconut shampoos, either with this ingredient alone and with other ingredients. It didn't change anything about my hair, my hair was still hard to straighten after I showered. I thought it was because I didn't leave the shampoo on long enough or I didn't spread the shampoo and conditioner around my hair enough. However, even after doing this, there was still no change.

One day when I got my hair cut, I realised that the hairdresser put a serum on my hair which would tame my hair after I straightened it. When I eventually bought the product, I used it and it really helped to tame my frizzy hair after straightening, as my hair becomes really frizzy after I dry it. I really need to learn how to blow dry my hair. But anyway, the serum tamed the hair, but it was still being damaged from straightening and by having a lot of showers meant that I straightened my hair quite frequently. The obvious answer would be to stop straightening, but leaving my hair frizzy is not an option for me. It just doesn't look nice and in the summer it can make my neck really sweaty. With the shampoo and conditioner itself, it made it harder and longer for me to straightener my hair, which meant that it would increase my chances of creating split ends. This is due to the amount of heat contact on my hair.

However, one day I realised that I used to use this Filipino shampoo when I was around 15-years-old, but just forgot about it after I used it up. But I remembered when I did use it, it made my hair really soft and easy to tame. My mum went to the Philippines last summer and I asked her before she went to buy lots of this 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner. When I used it for the first time after six years, I realised how many years I had been missing this great product. The reason it was different from any other product for my hair was not just that it had coconut oil, as I said before, coconut oil does nothing to change the texture of my hair. What I realised from my shampoo and conditioner, while I was in the shower was that the shampoo and conditioner has virgin coconut oil, which is coconut oil kept in its natural form rather than being processed. The 2 in 1 also contains soya beans, which I have never seen in any other shampoos and conditioners. This product was made by Palmolive, but they don't have the same types of shampoo and conditioner in the UK.

After using the 2-in-1 in my hair, I washed it and dried it, but the texture of my hair felt the same. However, as I began straightening my hair, I realised it was so easy to straighten. When I used it for a month, the time it took to straighten my hair went from an hour to straighten my hair to make it perfectly straight to just needing 20 minutes. My hair was soft in texture, even though it was frizzy after drying, which meant straightening over my hair wasn't as big of a struggle. It also meant less damage to my hair, as I didn't have to put as much pressure while straightening.

When I finished straightening all the hair, I felt it and was so surprised at how soft it was. It was the first time in six years, I felt my hair being so soft and so shiny. It also made my hair feel very light after straightening, so I lot of people thought it looked quite thinner than it really was. Although my hair will always act like thick hair, meaning that if it gets wet then it will go back to its normal form. That’s why it still sucks, but you get what you are born with, I just try to do the best I can to maintain it. From what my friends have said when seeing my hair, they really noticed how shiny it was and thought my hair looked healthier than usual. That’s when I knew that this product really worked.

By having thick hair, I have been successful to maintain it, but I like to get it wet if I have straightened it. So that’s why I sadly don’t swim as much, but hopefully this year I can learn to just not care and swim more often with friends.

Overall, just learn to love your hair. I assume there are many people that love and are able to maintain their hair and I know people that really don’t like thin hair. There are pros and cons to having thin hair. But I've learnt that thick hair increases my chances to have more hair, as I get older, and I will eventually have thin hair. Learn to love what you have!

If anyone is looking for alternatives to virgin coconut oil in a shampoo and a conditioner, I'll eave some links below.

Dr Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Shampoo 265ml - Can be found on Amazon

Dr Organic Virgin Coconut Oil Conditioner 265ml - Can be found on Amazon

NatureWell Extra Virgin Coconut Oil Nourishing Shampoo and Conditioner Set

100% VIRGIN COCONUT OIL DAILY HYDRATION SHAMPOO

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About the Creator

Annie Curran

Just an amateur writer giving personal experiences and advice about different topics. Writing everything that comes to my mind.

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