Jess's blog

As of today, Jessicurl has been an official business for 10 years!!

The Tuesday after Labor Day in 2002 is when got my business license and decided to give this whole curly hair product thing a go. Am I ever glad I did. :)

If you know the origins of the Jessicurl story, you know that initially my goal was just to create something that worked for my own hair. When I accomplished that goal, I was so excited by what I’d done that I shared the recipe with my online friends on the hair discussion forum at NaturallyCurly.com. Not too long after (I’m talking within 24 hours) I got a slew of emails from curlies asking if they could just buy the magic potion from me.

The first to ask was Jordan Pacitti, someone whom I now consider to be a good friend. Jordan is an integral part of Jessicurl history and am so glad I’ve gotten to know him over the years.

When I decided to do this series of blog posts featuring Jessicurl customers to commemorate our 10 years in business, I couldn’t think of anyone more appropriate to start with than Jordan, my very very very first customer ever. :) Here's a picture of the two of us from a few years ago when I was up in Seattle.

Your name: Jordan Pacitti

I was sent some lovely hair ties by Sarenzo Beads. Check out my review and find out how you can win one of your very own! :-)

Dear 16 year old Jess,

It’s 7:00 am and you just woke up and removed your “cap”. You know, that thing you so ingeniously crafted out of a pair of nylons? You wear it while you sleep in an attempt to flatten out your hair and make it take up less space on the planet. Sure, your hair puffs back out after an hour or two, and it creates a pretty deep red indentation in your forehead, but we both know you suffer major anxiety if you go to sleep without that stupid nylon on your head. Only your best friend Betsy knows your secret curly hair flattening measures. :)

(Oh, by the way – in 15 years you’ll find out that you can actually buy something pre-made that functions in a similar way. It’s called a do-rag. There’s no way for you to have known that now though. :) )

I know how much you hate your hair, and how much thought goes in to trying to control it. How you think that if only your hair was straight, kids at school would be nicer to you; maybe a boy would ask you out. You put WAY too much thought into it and you let it have way too much power over you. But that’s ok. You don’t know it right now, but you’re not the only one. You won’t find out for another 10 years, but there are millions of other curly haired girls out there who are going through the exact thing you are. Girls whose self worth is tied up in what is growing out of their head. Some of them go to much greater extremes to control it, using chemical relaxers that burn their scalp and cause all sorts of other physical and emotional pain. It’s not just you. But you don’t know that right now.

If you’ve been following my blog or Facebook page recently, you know I’ve been talking a bit about getting a variation of my Jessicurl logo as a tattoo. I call it the “full body logo lady” for lack of a more creative name. (We really need to name her!)

We have temporary tattoos of her that I wear at events and every time they fade off I get bummed. That’s part of how I know I really want it permanently.