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5
If any pieces of hair disperse or frizz during any of these applications, apply a little conditioner and a tiny bit of water, and your hair will return to form.

WHERE THERE’S A CURL, THERE’S A WAVE

The following method is for curly girls who’d like to be wavy for a day (or more). The process loosens curls without doing any harm to your precious locks. It works best on Botticelli curls with a low frizz factor, but any curly girl can try it. The result is a moist, springy, jazz singer or flapper look.

1
Use the cleansing and conditioning routine described for your curl type. If you have a high frizz factor, leave in some extra conditioner.

2
Step out of the shower and tilt your head to one side. In a downward motion, use a paper towel, microfiber towel, or old cotton T-shirt to pat out excess water. Gently repeat this motion all around your head.

3
While leaning forward with your head tilted in an upside-down position, use your fingers to evenly distribute gel throughout the hair in a downward motion to naturally loosen the curls going from the roots to the ends.

4
Stand upright, and place long clips on the indented concave parts of the wave formations in the hair around the face. If your curls are shrinking violets—they tend to contract when dry—place clips on the ends, which weighs them down to keep length and create a more wavy look.

5
Cover your hair with a hairnet or silk scarf, and allow the hair to air-dry. You can also use a blow-dryer with a diffuser on a low setting, or sit under a hooded dryer.

6
Once the hair is dry, remove the clips, gently shake your hair with your fingers, or allow the hair to stay in its gel cast.

Clips are a curly girl’s arsenal. With them, you can lift hair on the crown, make wavy hair curlier, or curly hair wavier, as suggested above.

Keeps your hair off of your face by day, and then unravel at night.

1
Grasp the thick section of hair that’s hidden near the nape of the neck, under the top layer of hair, and separate it so half is in your right hand and half is in your left.

2
Tie the two sections in a knot that wraps around the rest. Loop it three times at the center back of the hair.

3
Use a couple of bobby pins to secure the knot. You can dress up this look with decorative bobby pins or a flower.

I became a hairdresser because I wanted to make people feel great, sexy, and happy about their looks. One of the toughest times is when one of my beloved clients tells me that she has been diagnosed with cancer and is about to undergo chemotherapy. There is not much I can say except that I will be there whenever she needs to see me any time, any place, and anywhere. I remember cutting the hair of a longtime client whose curls were falling out because of chemo. I excused myself for a minute, went to the bathroom, and cried, because I knew how much she had gone through to love and grow the gorgeous curls. Of course, losing her hair was just one hurdle she had to get beyond. I’m so thankful that today she is now cancer free and back with her curls, which look better than ever.

Elizabeth Cantor and family.

Chemo truly cuts through hair and emotions in the most devastating ways. Elizabeth Cantor, a client of mine for more than fifteen years, went through this when she was diagnosed with cancer at the age of thirty-two. “When I was first diagnosed,” says Elizabeth, “I thought maybe my hair was strong enough not to fall out from the chemo. It wasn’t. Then I had it cut shoulder length, which I thought would make losing it easier. It didn’t. It was still traumatic to have it fall out in clumps in the shower. Looking back, I realize that it would have been easier just to have it all shaved off once I was diagnosed so I wouldn’t have to go through that. I was bald for six months of my year and a half of treatment. When my hair first started to grow back, it was straight, but then it became curly again. Now, five years later, I’m cancer free and have curls that reach the middle of my back!”

To understand why hair falls out during chemo, I talked with an expert at the American Cancer Society. “Chemotherapy drugs travel throughout the body and attack and damage cells that are reproducing or dividing quickly. Cancer cells do this, but the cells of the hair follicle do this, too, so they’re susceptible to the damage of chemo,” explains Kimberly Stump-Sutliff, RN, associate medical editor for the American Cancer Society. “Hair loss can be hard to predict. Some patients lose all of their hair, and others do not, even when they take the same drugs.” (What’s not clear is why formerly straight hair can grow back curly and vice-versa, or why texture and color can change, too.)

After losing their hair, some of my clients wore wigs, but many of them did not. If you do want to wear a wig, you don’t have to go straight. Many curly girls donate their hair for wigs for this good cause. And there are many stylish looks besides wigs, like bandannas, hats, berets, and scarves. When the hair starts to grow out, there’s nothing more adorable than the pixie haircut. Short, gamine styles like this can make you look younger, springy, and vibrant. Robin Roberts, a co-anchor on
Good Morning America
, wore her hair in a curly pixie style after her cancer treatment, and it looked fabulous.