The story of how Jessicurl came to be actually dates back to LONG before I ever made my first batch of Rockin’ Ringlets.
Until the time I was 14 I had thick yet fairly straight hair. Somewhere around the time that puberty stuck, my hair grew more and more coarse and eventually started to curl. I was mortified and at a total loss for how to deal with it. The only advice my straight haired mother could offer was “Go brush your hair!” As we all know, that’s the WORST thing to do to curly hair! My dad was more sympathetic, as he’s the one who gave me the curls, but his motto when it came to “our” hair was “bigger is better”. As a self-conscious 14 year old who didn’t want to stand out, that wasn’t very helpful either.
As my hair grew bigger and bigger, my peers grew
meaner and meaner, calling me such names as
Mushroom Head, Egg Head, Crusty and Helmet Head.
(the latter two were due to the fact that I’d
wet my hair down in between classes to keep it from
puffing out.)
As I grew up, my hatred of my hair didn’t
dissipate. Finally in 2002 I figured there had to
be a better way, and typed “curly hair”
into Google to see what the internet had to offer.
The first thing that came up was
www.naturallycurly.com.
I was
thrilled to find that there was an entire
community (or CURLmunity as they call it) of
curly haired people who shared the same
struggles as I did. Who knew??
I immersed myself in their Curl Talk message board
and quickly made many “cyber friends”
with whom I traded hair tips and horror stories.
Much of what they talk about, however, are
products. I would go out and buy any product that
someone raved about, most of which didn’t do
anything to make me like my hair better. Many of
them actually made the condition of my hair worse,
drying it out with alcohols and stripping
it’s natural oils with harsh detergents.
Then one day I came across a very basic recipe for
a hair gel made out of flax seeds. I remember
thinking, “Wow, how cool would it be if I
could just make my OWN hair gel? I sure would save
a lot of money!”
I tried that very basic recipe, and the results
were less than stellar. By this time I was
inspired, however, so I tweaked the recipe, adding
other natural ingredients that I had learned are
good for curly hair. The results were nothing short
of miraculous. I was shocked that FINALLY my hair
looked like I wanted, and I had made the product on
my stove!!
With much exuberance, I went back to the
NaturallyCurly.com message boards and excitedly
shared the recipe with my newfound friends. (The
thought of going into business hadn’t crossed
my mind.)
After posting my recipe I was flooded with emails
from curly headed members asking if they could just
buy some of the magic potion from me, as they
really didn’t feel like making it. The rest,
as they say, is history! Rockin’ Ringlets
Styling Potion was born.
That was September of 2002. Since that time I’ve added two more styling products, three conditioners, 2 cleansers and 2 oils. The business has also since bee n moved out of my home and into our current factory in Arcata, CA where I have a WONDERFUL staff.
One of the most EXCITING things that has happened since starting Jessicurl was when I was invited to be a guest on The Rachael Ray show in October of 2006. They had me on to do hair tips, and the whole experience was SO much fun. You can read about it in my blog, here:
Did the Rachel Ray show today
Being thrust into the role of small business owner has been a crazy roller coaster, but it’s been the most wonderfully exciting thing I’ve ever done. It’s an amazing feeling to know we’re providing products that are actually GOOD for curls, made from mostly natural ingredients. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
~
I get e-mail fairly often asking me to describe my hair routine from start to finish. I finally realized I should just post it here on the website to make it easier for everybody. I promise to update it if I make any changes.
As of September 14, 2006.
I color my hair with Robert Craig color every 6-8 weeks. It’s the most gentle home hair color I’ve ever used, and I’ve used them all. I use Coppery Golden Blonde, but sometimes “dilute” that with their Clear product if I don’t want it to start out quite SO red.
For the last year or so I’ve been growing it out, but I plan to cut it at some point and donate the hair to Locks of Love who will make it into a wig for kids suffering from medical hair loss. I’m not ready to cut it just yet, because I do want to have some left when they take off the 10 inches. :-)
I do a deep treatment once a week with my Weekly Deep Conditioning Treatment and the Microhair Cap. After rinsing the DT I apply either my Oil Blend For Softer Hair, Scalp Massage Oil or just regular coconut oil, then put it in a braid. I’ll also use the oils 2 or 3 times throughout the week, in the evening. I leave them in overnight and wash out in the morning. Occasionally I’ll do a rinse with Apple Cider Vinegar, but doing that does tend to really fade my hair color, so I’ll only do it about once a month, or if there is a special occasion where I NEED to have a good hair day. :-) It helps to clarify and seal the cuticle of the hair, making it bouncier and shinier for a few days. It can be drying if done too often, so I don’t recommend doing it more than every 2 weeks, and only about 3 tablespoons of vinegar in a big cup of water. When I do it I wash after with Hair Cleansing Cream then condition with either Weekly Deep Conditioing Treatment or Too Shea.
I wash every day with either Hair Cleansing Cream or Gentle Lather Shampoo. I usually use GLS once or twice a week and HCC on all the other days. To wash, I take a puddle whichever cleanser I’m using, rub my hands together and smooth it over my hair like I’m putting it in a ponytail. I then massage my scalp all over to produce a lather, and finger comb that lather through the length of my hair. This gets it clean without causing tangles.
After rinsing really well I like to do a rinse with honey water. It makes the hair really soft and helps the curls bounce up and reduce frizz. It also seems to fade my hair color, so I try to limit it to once or twice a week. Or, I do it more often and just accept that it’s going to fade my color to a lighter red. But by then it’s usually time to color again anyway, so it all works out. :-)
I put about 2 tablespoons of honey in a big cup, fill it with water and slowly pour it over my hair. I apply Too Shea after that and leave that in while I do all the other shower things.
I rinse that out standing upright then flip my head over and rinse upside down. This seems to really help with volume at the roots as well as curl formation.
I’ve stopped mixing my Confident Coils with my Rockin’ Ringlets, and now apply them separately. Since my hair has gotten longer this method seems to be keeping my curls enhanced and defined.
While my hair is still DRIPPING wet I rake through a puddle of RR. I do this while my head is upside down and then comb it 5 or 6 times with a medium-to-wide-toothed comb. (If I want skinnier curls that spring up more, I use the medium-tooth comb. If I want longer, looser, chunkier curls I use the wide-tooth comb.) This separates the curls into skinnier ringlets that end up being curlier – for ME. If yoru curl pattern is weaker it may not be able to withstand as much raking/combing after you shower. If my hair isn’t soaking wet when I do the raking/combing, the ringlets won’t bounce back as lively when I scrunch them. (it’s much easier to form spirals when the hair is wet and scrunching after raking helps keep the raking from pulling out the curl.)
Next I shake my head back and forth a few times, right to left about 4 or 5 times. This REALLY seems to break up the clumps and results in a greater number of skinnier curls. This is what I prefer for my hair. My curls tend to be VERY thick and clumpy if I don’t do this.
Next I scrunch in 1 more quarter-sized puddles of RR. I then scrunch with the microfiber towel 5 times leaning over to the left, and 5 times leaning over to the right. To do the scrunch, I take the microfiber towel in an open palm, gently cup a hand full of curls, lift up to the scalp and gently squeeze. I then scrunch in more RR, some while leaning over to the left and some while leaning over to the right – about a quarter sized puddle in all. I then scrunch in 2 quarter-sized puddles of Confident Coils while hanging my head over to the left and the right.
I then scrunch upside down and plunk my curls down into a microfiber towel and leave it on for 15-20 minutes. This has allowed me to reduce the time I spend blow-drying. It’s basically like scrunching your hair for 15-20 minutes straight. (Here’s an article from NaturallyCurly.com with a handy diagram about this technique)
Next I blow dry using the Hot Sock diffuser on the end of my blow dryer. I use high heat and it takes about 20 minutes (my hair is very thick and there is a lot of it). When I begin blow-drying I also scrunch the hair to get it to form spirals. I alternate between hanging my head upside down, hanging it over to the left and hanging it over to the right. Once the spirals are formed (about 8 minutes) I don’t scrunch anymore. Instead, I switch to an open palmed motion, gently pushing up a handful of curls. This encourages them to be as tight as mine are able to be. Leaning over while blow-drying and scrunches encourages the curls to separate from one another, resulting in fabulous curl definition.
After about 15 minutes of blow-drying I stop touching it all together and just move the hair dryer around to get it to continue drying. I’m still alternating between upside down, left and right. I then flip my head up to normal and arrange any curls that look weird. If too many curls are falling in my face I’ll pin them back with some kind of cute bobby pin. (which you can’t even see once it dries since there’s so much hair.) I let it continue air-drying for the next hour, then scrunch out any crunch I may have. The result is frizz-free curls that last until I go to bed.
I know it sounds like that takes forever, but it’s about 45 minutes from shower to totally dressed and ready to go, so I don’t consider that to be too bad. :-) It’s a lotta hair! :-)
