Dominican Curly Hair Blogger Farah Pink’s Tips to Repairing Heat-Damaged Curls
Take it from someone who knows, learning to lay off the heat and embrace the frizz, while your curls recover from heat-damage can be frustrating AF
Photo: Courtesy of Farah Pink
Take it from someone who knows, learning to lay off the heat and embrace the frizz, while your curls recover from heat-damage can be frustrating AF. Healthy curls don’t just bounce back overnight. Fortunately, there are Insta-famous ladies like Dominican curly hair and lifestyle blogger, @farahpink to keep us motivated throughout this journey. Farah suffered from heat-damage herself after years of getting weekly blowouts at the Dominican salon but finally got her gorgeous rizos once she learned how to nurture them back to life. Check out her journey for tips and #curlsgoals inspiration.
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Farah grew up in a Dominican home where curls were not embraced.“Growing up in a Dominican household , curly hair was not something that was encouraged unless you had the “good” curly hair. To old school Dominicans my hair is considered a “pajon” or “messy.” In their defense, I just don’t think they were taught by their parents that natural hair is beautiful,” Farah wrote on her blog.
She has been straightening her hair since she was little. “I believe my first “desrizado” or hair relaxer” happened around the age of six or seven. My mom would send me to the hair salon religiously every Saturday morning for a dreadful four hours of washing, roller setting, torture under a HOT hair dryer followed by a 30 minute blow dryer session that involved a lot of hair pulling and tears,” she wrote. “My hairdresser would always say “el que quiere pelo bonito aguanta jalones.” The struggles was real.
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Her natural hair journey was inspired by damage. “I got relaxers every 3 months from that age until I reached my teenage years. I stopped at the age of 17 though because I couldn’t stand the smell and kind of wanted to see what my natural texture was like,” she wrote. “I didn’t get to see natural texture for many years though,I was still addicted to blow outs, bleaching, dying, and straightening my hair. The last straw came after I went to a new hair salon for highlights and most of my hair began to break/fall off. That’s where my curly hair journey began.”
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The transition period wasn’t easy. “My journey was ROUGH at first. I was going through a lot of life changes, heartbreaks and growth,” she wrote. “My hair and I were in it together. I had to learn how to love and take care of myself. It was an amazing learning experience and I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.”
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This is how she got her curls back. Farah started off by heat-styling less. “Instead of getting a blow out once a week, I started getting them bi-weekly. Bi-weekly then turned into once a month and eventually that turned into only for special events,” she told HipLatina. She got frequent trims and cuts to get rid of the dead, straight ends, switched to hair products that don’t contain harsh ingredients, and did deep conditioning mask often.
She lived on leave-in conditioners. “During my transition I became addicted to Cantu’s Leave-in Conditioner Repair Cream. It kept my hair moisturized and helped with definition,” she told HipLatina.
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She advises people to stick through the “ugly period.” “It really did feel like the ‘ugly’ phase for me. I’ve always been dependent on blowouts and always felt so beautiful with my hair straight. Not being able to wear it fully curly or straighten it, was torture,” she told HipLatina. “All I could do was keep my eyes on the prize. My advice to other girls, is don’t get discouraged. The ugly hair phase won’t last forever.”
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On what transitioning taught her about self-love. “Transitioning taught me that I don’t need to endure painful three hour sessions at a hair salon to have perfectly straight hair because curly hair is fabulous too. It taught me that I am enough as I am,” she told HipLatina.
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On the products she uses to get those gorgeous curls. “I’m always switching up my products simply because I don’t want my hair to get too used to one thing and also because I’m a product junkie,” she told HipLatina. “I love trying new things! Right now I’m obsessed with the Eden Bodyworks Fusion Citrus Hair Butter and the Citrus Fusion Refresher Spray.
