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Hey guys! My name is Dominque and I live in Dublin, Ireland where the flat iron reigns supreme (cringe). Whether it's super straight hair (which is very popular) or mermaid waves, most of the women here use a flat iron to achieve these styles and haven't seen their natural texture for years. I see very few heads of healthy curls and would love to see more women embrace their natural selves.

Now I don't have a typical curly hair journey story. So, you know how it goes: born with a crazy head of curls that couldn’t be managed and I got made fun of in school…no. I grew up with sleek, flat, STRAIGHT hair, so now you’re thinking “What the? Then how do you have a natural hair journey story?!” Well, like curlies who hate their curls, I hated my straight hair. I envied my entire family's curly hair, particularly my sister's 3b curls and I dreamed of having a full, voluminous MASS of curls. But I had what I had. So, as the years went on and I got older, I would be on vacation hanging on a beach somewhere and notice the tiniest hint of wave.

I didn’t really do anything about it because in all honesty- I had no idea there was even much to do about it. I finally started to do some research and about 2 years ago I decided to only buy nontoxic hair products and amazingly, they happened to be sulphate and silicone free. Over the course of the next few months my hair's true wavy texture was slowly revealed. I was delighted but also completely clueless so I started to research online how to best nurture and style textured hair. That’s when I discovered naturallycurly.com and Lorraine Massey videos on YouTube and many invaluably helpful Curly accounts on Instagram and learned SO MUCH from them for free!

Initially my biggest challenge was trying to figure out how to style my waves. I was using popular curly hair techniques like raking & prayer hands however I found they caused my waves to look stringy and elongated. I hated how this looked, it just felt like there could be a better way. Once I started using a squishing/ scrunch & pump method I got the juicy clumps I wanted, an absolute game changer for wavy hair girls like me.

Another challenge I had, was trying to find ways to make my wash day results last overnight. There’s nothing worse than rocking your wash day and day 1 looks great, you go to bed and wake up with borderline flat, tangled hair. It took me a long time to believe that ditching my cotton pillowcase could have a massive impact on my hair. I couldn't believe the difference once I started sleeping on silk and satin, such a small change saved me day 2 and 3 hair days.

Fast-forward a year later of maintaining these tricks, it dawned on me that I had my own transformation story to share. I chose to do it on Instagram since this was the platform that had originally connected me to many fantastic, knowledgeable women who were passionate about sharing information and their love of waves, curls and coils- and let me tell you how grateful I am to you all!

Before, my main goal was to achieve CURLS. I believed curls were the prize; the end goal. Now, I accept and LOVE my 2C wavy spirals for what they are. Sure, I have some curls, but I mostly have waves and that's beautiful too. I'm on a mission to spread wavy love because waves are spoken about negatively by so many in the natural hair world. I hear "just waves", "only waves" from people who feel waves don’t qualify at all in the natural world. Just because our process is different, doesn’t mean we don’t have challenges that are unique to our hair texture as well. I hope to contribute towards turning that mindset around and I'm already so encouraged by the many wavies proclaiming their love for their hair, no longer feeling envious of our beautiful curly haired friends. #wavesarenotfailedcurls and #powertothewavies are both great hashtags to follow for wavy inspiration!

To all you fine, high porosity wavy haired girls like me: be sure to clarify regularly to avoid build up, to do natural protein treatments like rice water rinses and to style using lightweight, water-based products! Speaking of which…I have a deep appreciation for Curl Keeper Original. My BEST wash day to date involved this product, I always get such juicy, perfectly clumped waves and curls whenever I use this, I love it, it's an absolute holy grail product for me.

Thanks for reading about my hair journey here in Dublin, Ireland everyone! I appreciate so much being able to share with you all!