Curly Like Me - by Teri Laflesh

Book Synopsis

The simple secrets to growing your curls healthy and long.

Tightly curly hair isn't like any other type of hair, and it needs totally different care to make it happy.

Do you spend countless hours-and untold dollars--on weaves, perms, salon visits, and products that promise to change, heal, or make your hair more manageable, only to end up even more frustrated? Do you wrestle daily with hair you can't get a brush through? Do you struggle to keep from hurting your child when you comb through her tight curls? Would you like to grow your tightly curly hair long and healthy?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this book was written for you. It gives you the information and techniques you need to celebrate--not fight against--your very curly hair. You will learn how not only to care for your curls, but to cherish them, all the while saving time, effort, and money.

Curly Like Me is the off-the-grid, do-it-yourself owner's manual for tightly curly hair:

• Learn how to wear your own curls in their natural curl patterns
• Over 250 photographs and illustrations
• Includes the best products, tools, ingredients, curl-enhancing hairstyle ideas, tips for growing out your perm, and more
• Shows you pain-free techniques on how to comb and style your curls or your child's curls
• Over thirty easy, curl-enhancing hairstyle ideas, tips for growing out your perm, and more
• Helps you save money by avoiding costly treatments, products, marketing misinformation, and frequent salon visits so you can enjoy your own curls without pain, chemicals, or the use of weaves or extensions
• The story (with lots of photos) of Teri's journey from hair broken by relaxers, texturizers, improper care, trying to force it to conform, and fighting her weave addiction to finally understanding her own curls. Now her natural hair reaches to her hips.

End your struggles with misunderstood, damaged hair and begin your journey to thriving natural curls. Applying the ideas and information in this book will show you how to love your hair the way it really is. Curly Like Me empowers you to take back the care of your hair so you can let your own beautiful curls shine.

Teri LaFlesh spent nearly thirty years working to find a way to make her curls happy. Not wanting anyone else to go through with their hair what she did with hers inspired Teri to create the popular Web site TightlyCurly.com and to write Curly Like Me.

Review Quotes

* LaFlesh, who maintains the popular web site tightlycurly.com, has resplendent, long curls on the cover of this informative and inspiring book for people whose hair texture is tightly curled or coiled. But as her photographic hair journey depicts, this was not always the case. She discusses the damaging hair-styling practices that she used in her quest for manageable hair, sprinkling her book with humorous anecdotes. Through research and trial and error, LaFlesh discovered a hair-care regime that works with her natural curliness, and the result is beautiful, healthy hair. She offers readers practical advice on proper tools, products, and styling techniques, avoiding caustic chemicals and heat. LaFlesh's tips on styling biracial children's hair will be a godsend to their parents. There is also a technical section on hair structure. VERDICT The styling methods may not work for everyone, given the variance of textured hair, but this good introduction to holistic hair care will be embraced by the novice as well as the hair obsessed. Pair it with Paula Begoun's Don't Go Shopping for Hair-Care Products Without Me for a well-rounded beauty and grooming collection.-Ajoke Kokodoko, Oakland P.L. (Library Journal, May 1, 2010)