On the Couch With Whitney C.

CN: Have you always embraced your natural curls? If not, who or what inspired you?
I never embraced my natural curls until about a year ago. I constantly fought them with flat-ironing, relaxers, and thermal reconditioning. I was always awkward looking when I was growing up, kids would tell me I should brush my hair in the morning, which I did. Huge mistake, haha! My inspiration to see my natural hair texture was watching Nip/Tuck and seeing actress Annalynne McCord walk on the set with her beautiful curly hair and being confident about it. I pretty much fell in love with her hair and upon searching curly hair on Google I ran into NaturallyCurly.com.

CN: How have family, friends, and strangers responded to your curls? How do you respond to them?
My family loves my hair, I haven’t had a single negative comment from any of them so far. My friends always love my hair as well, a few of the girls actually wouldn’t mind if I helped them with their hair. Strangely enough, I get so many compliments on my hair all the time from strangers, which NEVER happened when I kept my hair pin straight. I usually see a lot of people with a baffled look on their face seeing as I look very unmixed but my hair seems to throw everything off. Some people think I perm my hair, some people think I’m mixed, but I have to tell them no, no, and no, I’m full Chinese and yes, my hair is naturally curly. So far I have yet to receive anything negative, even when I go to the bars and wait in the bathroom line with the mean girls they can’t help but send a compliment my way.

CN: What are your must have products?
Flaxseed gel! Whoever decided to put that in their hair is a genius. I also love Yes to Cucumbers conditioner, great slip and super moisturizing. I use it to condition my hair as well as a leave-in.

CN: Routine for the the perfect curl?
For my perfect curls, I have to make sure my hair is dripping wet when I get out of the shower. First I scrunch in some leave-in, then a lot of flaxseed gel, then a strong gel if I want a little more hold. After all the stuff is in my hair I scrunch my curls with a t-shirt then let it air-dry until my hair is about 70% dry. After that I’ll diffuse to about 90% then put in some roller jaw clamps for areas that need lift and finally air-dry. I use a pomade or jojoba oil to scrunch out the crunch and I’m good to go.

CN: How do you deal with the high dew points and humidity of summer?
I use MOP high shine glisten pomade on hot days, it helps a lot!