Howdy Folks!
Ta da! I DID it! I finally got my special Curly Girl haircut
at Neel Loves Curls, and I can confirm it was worth the wait. Check the photo
below if you don’t believe me.
What can I say? This guy is seriously passionate about curly
hair and the Curly Girl (CG) method and will talk your leg off about his
conversion to the “CG Religion”. Because I’d already started ‘practising’ as a CG
and have a good regimen for my hair, I think I might have stolen his thunder.
Sorry, Neel, you’re preaching to the choir. Really, I’m a convert.
He has a copy of Lorraine Massey’s Curly Girl handbook which
he made me look at while I waited my turn. Having looked at it in depth now,
I might remove it from my Amazon wish-list and try and score a library copy instead. I think I know all this stuff
already from countless CG internet sites. Still, it’s good to say “I’ve looked
at it”.
Neel’s salon is suitably theatrically decorated - clearly to
match his own fabulous personality, but also pretty basic and a comfy in its setup. It’s essentially
a space above a shop (Quick Brown Fox on Brunswick Street). It consists of two
chairs, and one basin so there’s a wait if there’s someone at the sink. Don’t
expect super-trendy, high-tech fancy-shmancy salon trimmings. He DID say he and his business
partner Christine are considering a bigger salon space with an
extra chair for a colouring specialist. I welcome this, as the place where I
get my colour done is rough with the towelling off, acts offended that I bring
along my own sulphate/paraben/silicone-free products whilst NOT offering a
chemical-free alternative AND they think it’s weird that I don’t let them dry
it off with a hairdryer or straighten it any more. If Neel gets a CG-friendly
colourist, then the experience will be complete!
Neel looked at the photos of inverted bobs I took in and
seized on one in particular that he and his partner Christine both loved.
That’s what he gave me and I am very happy with it. Seriously, the guy can cut
hair. Dry cutting is so much gentler and quicker than a wet cut. Neel sculpted
my hair like a gardener doing exotic topiary on a garden hedge, and removed the
boxyness/pyramid shape instantly. I think it will grow out beautifully as a
result, and maintain its shape for a few months at least (I hope).
He then washed my hair at the basin. He asked if I wanted a
co-wash or a low-poo shampoo wash. I opted for a co-wash, just to see how he
did it. Basically he ‘washed’ my hair with conditioner instead of shampoo then
conditioned it as normal. There was a lot of squishing and squelching and
light-handed rinsing. He patted my hair dry with an old tea-towel then put me
back in the chair to start the styling process. This was the most useful part
of the experience and I learned a lot about styling in just 20 minutes with
Neel.
Neel mixed/'cocktailed' a 20-cent coin-sized blob of Miessence
gel with a generous squirt of Jessicurl
hair oil and really worked it into the wet hair, coating each hair strand by
strand, then finger-curled it into spirals all really tightly from the
scalp/crown. I sometimes do this at home, but it takes me ages. Neel did it in
half the time. He then got about 10 Deva Clips and lifted the finger-curled
swatches of hair and clipped them so that they sat off the scalp to dry. This
adds volume, and given I am starting to thin out from hair loss, I can do with
some volume, so I may grab some Deva clips when Muddy and I are next in the US
and try this out myself.
I then sat under one of those wall-mounted hooded electric
dryers for 10 minutes – Neel calls it the Darth Vader. Once done, Neel removed
the clips then made me turn my head upside down so he could finish off the
drying with a diffuser on a hand-held dryer. He used hot heat but minimal
movement and no hand-touching of the curls. Two scrunches later, and we were
finished. He even put a sticker badge with his logo on it on my cardie – cute.
All in all, a great experience. In the three days since I
had my haircut, I’ve managed to mimic the same post-salon effect by conditioner-washing
with stuff from the health food store and using a general dollop of hair “crack”
– the delightful ‘Knot Today’ leave-in
conditioner by Kinky Curly, after which I dry my hair with an old t-shirt and a
microfibre hood. The last step is to use massive amounts of gel and pomade and
work it through to create lovely curls. And then…
Sit. Wait. Keep warm. Don’t touch your hair at all. Curls
will follow.
Check out the pic again if you don’t believe me.
